Acer TravelMate 8104WLMi (Pentium M Processor 760 2.0GHz, 1GB RAM)

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The 8104WLMi comes with a generous 15.4-inch screen.

Features
The test unit came with a high-end Pentium M processor 760 (2.0GHz) with a 533MHz front-side bus speed, a whopping 1GB DDR2 533 SDRAM and fairly large 80GB hard disk. With the Acer, we were given our first glimpse of the new ATI PCI-Express graphics chips in notebooks. Our unit incorporated the ATI Mobility Radeon X700, supporting 128MB of dedicated memory, an improvement over most of the old Centrinos with the 64MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9700. A DVD�RW burner with DVD+R dual-layer support came fitted in the swappable modular bay though you can opt to insert the weight saver which comes provided.

Networking is a blast on this machine. With Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG which allows surfing on 802.11a/b/g wireless LAN, Bluetooth support, Gigabit Ethernet and modem, there's no shortage of means to connect to the Net or other devices.

As for the expansion options, they are well-spaced out. The left edge includes a VGA-out, Ethernet, modem, a USB port, FireWire, a Smart Card reader and a PCMCIA slot while the right is lined with another three USB ports and the optical drive. The front is stacked with a 5-in-1 card reader (MS, MS Pro, MMC, xD, SD), IR port, earphone-out/S/PDIF and mic-in. As for the rear, we see a 124-pin Acer ezDock connector for connection to the Acer port replicator, an S-video out and even a DVI-D port, rarely seen on Windows notebooks, providing better-quality digital videos than the S-video output.

We are glad Acer has come up with some security on the 8104WLMi where the user can force a pre-boot authentication via Smart Card. Configurable via the Platinum Secure software, Acer provides two such cards whereby one acts as a primary card and the other, a backup.

For software, Acer GridVista splits your screen into up to four grids to manage your windows more efficiently. We found it fairly easy to use due to the drag-and-drop functionality. Similar to other Folio machines, Acer provides a convenient set of eManager utilities which can be accessed through a quick launch button. Once in, you can adjust power management, back up files through eRecovery and set your presentation's resolution.

Design | Features | Performance and battery life | Service and support