Antony Acer Exh-Aspire-ation (Acer Aspire 1601LC)

Member Name: anthmack

Product:	Acer Aspire 1601LC
Date:	12/05/04 (367 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Bright clear screen, Great Ergonomics, Fast, Sexy Looking, Clear and spacious keyboard

Disadvantages: Delicate (but arent all laptops), A little heavy weighing in at 9llbs, Same old Same old Metallic Grey colour, would have preferred lime green

Initial Note *

Sorry about the rubbish title. I should just stop trying to be funny. Anyway, Ooh this laptop is fantastic, I will however give you a note of warning, that I may be slightly biased, as the last laptop the "mackintosh?s" had, was an old Compaq Armada, from 1992 or something. So this has really been a massive leap for us, but never the less we are extremely happy with it at the moment.

So this really is the bee?s knees, skips against the rest. I will firstly summarise, what this review is going to be about. This laptop is:

Very fast, Good looking (although everybody has a dark and grey laptop - would have been nice if it was luminous lime green), Awe astounding memory, Durable (well at least I think so, have only had it a month), it is comfortable to use, both on your lap or on a table, Is relatively easy to carry round, although a little heavy (see pros and cons), instruction manual is a waste of time (but I always seem to say that don?t I, all I can say is, if you can figure it out yourself, do it yourself), Manufacture support, as I have heard rumoured is quite good, but yet again cannot really quote on that, as I haven?t had any problems, and therefore not had to use the support.

* Its Super Speedy Fast *

I am sure it is. This baby has some of the most nifty, up to date gadgets to make sure it isn?t as slow as a snail. For example, its RAM capabilities weigh in at an astonishing 512 MB of DD RAM. Now if that?s not fast, I don?t know what is. I can remember upgrading my desktop (the one I am writing on now) from a 64 MB ram, to a 128 MB ram capability. And woh! What a difference that made.

(This model, also has the slots available for it to be upgraded to a maximum of 2048 MB of ram)

So, now imagine 512 MB. The only example I can give you, to show you how well it handles itself, is that, I had Adobe Photoshop 5.5. Running, 4 or 5 Netscape windows running, MSN messenger, my emai
l in Internet explorer, and also trying to play a game with a my friend (age of empires 2) in a window. The laptop didn?t even moan, whinge, cry, pop up loads of warnings. Nothing. Just went on like a breeze.

This has also got to do partly with its Athlon XP-M 2.6Ghz in built processor, which is an absolute beast of a processor. A lot of people tend to shy away from Athlons, I even have in the past, but they really are just as good as P4, or any other processor on the market at the same speed.

* Ergonomics *

Well, it is a handsome looking thing, but at the end of the day, some people, like me, would prefer something a little more energetic than "metallic grey". But never the less it has a beautifully contemporary bodywork, with a nice modern metallic grey finish to it.

Its very comfortable to use, and keyboard especially impressed me. As you, laptop owners may know, when your typing away very fast, it is extremely easy to slip, and you end up with endless amounts of typos. This machines keyboard isn?t like that, Its got a harder press to most laptops, which enables you to have a more fixed key "punch". Hence reducing the amount of typos. Which is great.

The buttons are rounded off, and are not sharp, or uncomfortable to use. The weight is the bigger problem probably out of the whole review (not a biggy really). It weighs just under a stone, and if you?re a little delicate, I think you would struggle in carrying it for a long length of time.

However, its overall ergonomics are more than satisfactory.

* Disk Space *

For such a wee little thing, this has a whopping 40GB of hard drive. So, whatever big tools you have or applications, this laptop will not handle them well, but store them with a breeze.

I have known people, with a similar model to this one use AUTOCAD software on it. (CAD stands for Computer Aided Design), with people doing architectural drawings. So, this
really is one sophisticated model.

* Instruction Manual *

This may be a personal flaw, but when I picked up this manual, I found it extremely boring and unfriendly. It was well organised however, but I had to just put it down before I fell asleep.

I always think, unless you are going in to sophisticated settings, that its always better to just do it yourself (unless your a little techno phobic). I said to my mother, who doesn?t know anything about computers, what do you think of this manual.

And to her, she found it confusing, and well too complicated for her usability. After a closer inspection, the manual uses very complicated "Computer Language", and therefore no wonder my mam didn?t know what it meant. I think, in this case, they have got the wrong user in mind.

* Other Useful Information*

Display
-----------------------

Its incorporated with a 15 Inch TFT Active matrix display, which handles graphics and colour very well (supporting 16.7 million colours)

It can only support a 1024 x 768 resolution though, which isn?t really a problem, considering the size of the screen. I have it on the 640 x 800 setting, as it is the most comfortable on the eye.

CD Drive
-------------------------

The cd drive is a CD-RW/DVD ROM. This therefore means that it can read cd's (obviously), write cd's, and re-write cds on rewritable disks. More importantly it can however play DVDs.

Its Read speed is: 8x if playing a DVD, and 24x if CD
Its Write speed is: 24x
and its re-write speed is: 8x

Modem
-------------------------

Nothing to write home about. The modem on this laptop is a standard Fax/modem, ITU V.90. If you don?t know what v.90 is, its a more reliable connection, initially an upgrade from the previous 56k (meaning it can carry out the conversion of analogue signals in to digital signals, and vice versa, much quicker)
r>Pretty much standard I think...

Battery
-------------------------

Has a very good battery life, of about 8 hours. It is also of the lithium Ion variation, in an attempt to make the laptop lighter.

Dimensions
--------------------------
Its dimensions are:
Width - 13.15 in.
Depth - 11.3 in.
Height - 1.65 in.
Weight - 8.15 lb.

* Pricing *

From the following websites I have found that it costs the following, however, I purchased mine from an authenticated ACER peripherals and computer hardware dealer in Dubai, and paid approximately £625. Don?t be alarmed when you see these prices, its just electrical items, are much cheaper in the United Arab Emirates, or Dubai for that matter. Here we go:

At Savastore.com - £681.02
Acer Notebooks - £682.02
Techno World - £682.68
Simply Computers - £710.88
dabs.com - £715.57
Insight.com - £727.31
and ITL Computer Ltd - £739.00

I tried searching on ebay, but unfortunately do not have any available (I tried this first, when I was first thinking about buying a laptop - would still recommend having a look, even at different manufacturers, and see what?s available)

*Final Note *

If you want a really good laptop, that will enable you to do all of the things that you want to do (at present), this is the laptop to get.

With its multi-tude of up to date technological fads, it will keep all those techno-buffs satisfied, whilst providing a user friendly, and "usable" computer for the home, the office, and more importantly the family.

I am sure you will enjoy it, just as much, if not more than I am enjoying at the moment. I just hope you get it for the right price £625 (Check Ebay regularly, you will be surprised what pops up now and then)

Thank you everybody for reading my review, and hope that you have found it useful. If you are travelling to Dubai anyway, and are thinking ab
out purchasing this model, give me a buzz on my guestbook and I`ll tell you where to go to get the best deal, because to be honest, I think it is even cheaper now

Oh, one more detail, I forgot to tell you. There is a 1 year warranty on all models worldwide, and with the one I have purchased in Dubai, have 2 year extended warranty for an extra £7would you believe. Its crazy!