Foundation for an Outstanding Mobile Office
Written: Nov 08 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Sturdy screen and screen hinge, hardware, functionality, size, weight, and more!
Cons: Nowai!
The Bottom Line: Read on!
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| wsmunch's Full Review: Acer TravelMate® C314XMi (LX.T870E.032) Table... |
I've had the Acer C314XMi for almost a year and a half, and I couldn't imagine how any type of business professional could ever manage without a laptop like this. This tablet PC has become my primary piece of computer equipment for both home and for work. While it's not quite powerful enough to play any newer games I might be interested in, this unit delivers in every other aspect I would demand from a computer monopolizing my non-gaming duties. This laptop cost me close to $2,400.00 after tax and shipping, and was only available through an online order from FranklinCovey.com at the time of purchase. Not only did it pay for itself rather quickly, it also gave others the increased perception that I was a very diligent, very efficient, and very cutting edge Real Estate Agent.
Tablet PCs are too Expensive!
If you are a student or a business professional, tablet PCs should not be overlooked. Any tablet PC comes equipped with an electronic pen which doubles as a mouse with accuracy equivalent to the hand using it (and of the machine itself, but I have yet to use any tablet PC that did not function well with the pen). The tablet PC version of Windows comes with additional software (Windows Journal + more) that provides traditional paper templates for you to write on, as well as character recognition software. Most people see tablet PCs as something "neat", but fail to recognize the true power they hold. Any and all notes can be entered directly into the laptop (yes, in your own handwriting) and edited with ease. It only takes a few quick strokes to insert or move text around, whereas traditional pen/paper would force tiny lines of words to be squeezed around existing notes. Do you need to turn notes into a report? The character recognition allows you to take pages of your handwriting and turns it into typed text. It's a LOT fater to proofread the recognition software than it is to retype everything you might have written on paper. This also applies to any papers/documents that you might scan into the laptop as well. Tablet PCs have a swiveling screen, so users can hold the laptop as if it were a spiral notebook and write as such (either vertically or horizontally). You can incorporate pictures, different pen styles & sizes, and even color. When time is as important as money, a tablet PC can definitely save savvy individuals a lot of both.
Why ACER?
Before Acer started to release budget-user equipment, their name was mostly known by connoisseurs of brands standing for high-quality. High-quality generally means top-dollar, but the Acer C314XMi came out on top for the best bang-for-the-buck in terms of both price and hardware (at the time of purchase, April 2005). The other brands I had considered were Gateway, Toshiba, and IBM. The Acer C314XMi had a larger screen, larger hard drive, more memory, and still cost less than Toshiba and IBM. IBM was too expensive for me, and the Toshiba models didn't have a screen swivel that made me feel comfortable about the quality. Gateway was cheaper, but their model at the time was bulkier, uglier, and was still shy of the specifications that Acer had to offer. While I might have some reservations about buying low-end Acer products, I have yet to regret zero qualms about spending over two thousand dollars on an Acer-branded laptop.
Screen Quality
Considering that a tablet PC's sensitive touch-screen is a goodly portion of the total cost, potential buyers will be glad to know that the Acer C314XMi has one of the most solid screens I have ever had the pleasure to use. The top (when closed) or back (when open) of the screen is very firm and durable. When I've done pressure tests on the screen casing/backing (when you hold the edge of the screen with your thumb and press your index finger against the back surface until the LCD starts to swirl) of laptops, most any you would see on a retail display will have a pretty weak structure compared to this Acer tablet. I can press pretty hard in the middle of the back of the screen and still not get a swirl in the LCD, whereas with other models (of any laptop type, tablet or not) I have messed with, I would have been in fear of cracking or damaging the screen. The laptop hinge is one of the best I've ever seen too. The base and hinge are wide & thick, so even after a year of opening and closing the laptop the hinge still holds the screen at whatever angle I want it to (because I've had some laptop hinges crap out on the tension). There has been absolutely zero stress indication around the hinge, and I am positive it's in as good condition as when I originally received it. The Acer C314XMi screen has a backlit display that can be adjusted to different brightness levels for comfort. Aside from the keyboard controls, the Acer ePowerManagement software can modify and save presets for the display, as well as other battery-using aspects of the laptop. The colors of the screen are solid. They're not as good as TruBrite or Xbrite, but they do the job proper considering this isn't a media-oriented laptop. Otherwise, text, pictures, and photos are sharp and detailed. I've watched some movies and played some older games (Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne), and I could not come up with any video complaints. The screen has visibility from virtually any angle; by the time you can't read/see anything, you're pretty much staring at the edge of the laptop. You can also use this computer outside with surprising results. The catch is that you must have some amount of shade (I've found that facing the sun and tilting the screen down a bit does work as a minimum amount, if you can get around the awkward positioning), otherwise it will just wash out as if it were a cheap screen. It's an absolute pleasure to sit in my backyard under a tree and use the laptop as I would indoors.
Handling & Connectivity
The keyboard is quite comfortable to use. The buttons have a good resistance when typing, yet are very silent and smooth while doing so. You get the traditional key layout, but the subtle ergonomic curve and slightly fatter spacebar provide a more natural feeling that most laptops lack. Only one key has had it's entire letter rubbed off (the letter n) , and other than a missing leg of the letter "m", all other key prints have withstood the constant useage. The touchpad and associated left & right buttons are decent and average. I do like the smooth, 4-way directional button; it feels good to use. The right side of the laptop has easy-access PCMCIA, USB 2.0, IR Port, and SD/MMC/Memorystick/Pro slots. The rest of the ports are located on the back of the unit. Some of the lesser-used connection types (VGA, RJ71, RJ45, Docking Port, etc.) have tight, rubber covers that open easily and keep the rear end looking neat and dust-free. The two additional USB 2.0 ports, S-video, 4-pin Firewire, and audio-in/out provide the rest of the common connections that a laptop user would want to use. There is a built-in microphone in the bottom left hand corner of the laptop screen. I've tried it out, but I don't particularly care for it. Since I didn't feel like shouting at the corner of my laptop, I had to turn the microphone sensitivity up so I could talk normally.. but then the microphone would pick up sound coming through the speakers in the front and that makes it pretty annoying for two-way internet voice conversations. Otherwise, the built-in microphone works pretty well. The Acer C314XMi comes with Bluetooth and Intel-Pro Wireless 2200BG built in. There isn't anything spectacular about the wireless performance, aside from that it's been 100% reliable and trouble-free so far. The drives (both HD and DVD+-RW), while quality, are pretty vanilla. Access speed and data transfer rates perform as well as my desktop machine, so I've been content with saving information and also burning DVDs. The 2.0GHz mobile processor speed, 1GB DDR2 533 SDRAM, and 2MB L2 cache are hefty enough to run almost anything as fast as my AMD desktop. Granted that extreme video and photo sizes in Adobe Elements/Premiere are handled much more efficiently with my desktop system, the Acer C314XMi can complete moderate tasks within the same timeframe, if the both were going toe-to-toe.
I've been installing and playing some older games (4+ years old) with fantastic results. Sometimes (if the options are available) I can modify the game settings to lower the quality to improve the gaming performance, but most of the time I can actually turn the graphics up a bit and still have great-flowing gameplay. The NVidia GeForce Go 6200 video card really does the trick, since it's dedicated video memory. Much like any other NVidia card available on the market, you can modify the advanced settings and turn off all "application controlled" selections. Turning both the laptop and game graphic settings all the way up does tax it a little bit and slows gaming down during more intensive parts, but the system handles it pretty well regardless. Dual-monitor laptop? You bet! I was impressed that I could multitask gaming and web surfing on this laptop comfortably (hey, why not?). The speakers are good. I mean, they work, but you won't get the same output like with a media system. You can get a good volume level, though, and in a pinch you can still enjoy some music or a movie.
One great feature about the Acer C314XMi is the modular drive bay. The laptop comes standard with an 8-cell battery (which can be upgraded to a 12-cell), but you can also purchase a secondary battery to go into the modular drive-slot and replace the combo DVD+-RW. Removing the drive is as easy as flipping the lock switch on the underside of the laptop and sliding the drive out manually. Having two batteries (it's on my X-mas wish list) in the laptop doubles your up-time when you're mobile and without a power source to recharge. If you're not going to use the DVD+-RW drive, you might as well have another battery available, right? The 8-cell battery gets you an easy three hours of playtime at maximum output, but I've squeezed out close to 4.6 hours of mobile net-surfing by adjusting the power options through Acer ePowerManagement. The ePowerManagement allows you to modify important aspects of the laptop's output when it's not connected through the AC adapter. You can adjust the CPU speed, LCD brightness, and shutoff timers for the screen, disks and system itself. You can also determine if you want power to go to the wireless, bluetooth, cardbus, firewire, or LAN ports too (no power means no auto-detect/connect if something is plugged in). There are pre-sets to choose from, but you can save your own schemes as well. This feature is fantastic for customizing to your computing needs while letting you maximize useage. The software also shows you how much time you have remaining on the battery, based on your current chosen settings. I can say right now that it's very accurate. I've played with many laptops that say you have an hour left of battery life, only to find out that it's done 40 minutes later. Even when I switch up what I'm working on (say, from web-surfing to DVD burning), the ePowerManagement will adjust itself correctly. I'm not really sure how fast it updates, but I can say that I've made notes and timed it all down to the last minute enough times to where I have full confidence on it's accuracy. The battery takes about 3 hours to fully charge back up again; a little bit less than that if you're charging with the unit off.
The Acer C314XMi weighs only 6.5 pounds and is only 1.5 inches thick (when closed). Considering that you get 14 inch screen to boot, this machine is pretty lean, mean, and very ideal for the mobile user. Even with constant useage, the laptop itself doesn't get terribly hot. This is good, because swiveling the screen to use it like a tablet instead of a laptop generally means you're holding the unit closer to your body. One thing that I do particularly like is the rubber grip located on the bottom. It makes it easier to hold the machine in tablet mode, or to just carry it around if you don't have a case. Every once in awhile, the fan on the left-side of the laptop will expell some hot air, but it's not as hot as the AC adapter gets in comparison. I use a chillpad whenever I can, but even without it this machine can be used on a lap without too much worry of discomfort. The AC adapter, on the other hand, gets quite warm. I try my best to be mindful about what it's sitting on or next to as to not incur any potential issues due to the heat, since it is hot enough to melt light plastics. The connector that plugs into the back of the laptop clicks in snug without any tricks. Despite the good fit, I am still very ginger when plugging and unplugging the AC adapter from the laptop, since excessive or indirect force can wear out the power connection to the motherboard (and repairing that connection never lasts long until it fails again). The overall look of the laptop is pretty clean, with flat blacks, greys, and silver highlights.
One thing that I did particularly appreciate was the lack of third party software infesting the startup. After powering the machine for the first time, I remember that there were only a few things I manually disabled from autoloading at startup (mostly common to Microsoft and Windows). Acer provides an intuitive GUI to navigate common functions and settings, but I didn't need that so I disabled that and something else (can't quite remember). Well the bottom line is that it was very refreshing to not have to spend so much time dealing with all the "extras" that you would (unwillingly) get if you purchased from HP or Sony or something.
Paperless Office
I am a part-time (casual) real-estate agent, but I take my work seriously and strive for 100% success. Impressions mean a lot when you're dealing with people all the time (especially if you're a newer agent), and in many cases it can make or break deals (or even clients!). Imagine that you are ready to buy a home right now, and that you're spending a day visiting properties with your real estate agent (me). We drive by a house with a for-sale sign, and on a whim you tell me you want to take a look at that one, since you're curious and it's a bit different from what we've been seeing so far. I park the car and open up the home. While you're looking around the place, I pull out my Acer C314XMi to (luckily enough) get an internet connection to view information about this listing (since it wasn't one that we had planned to visit). Twenty minutes later, you tell me that you really like the home and think that you'd like to make an offer. I make you spend five minutes to convince me. I call up the listing agent and request access to all inspections and reports, but also find out that offers are being accepted that afternoon (the agent has two in-hand already). I make you spend another fifteen minutes to convince me that you're ready to write an offer on the property.
CRUNCH TIME. The next two hours disappear as we go over all of the disclosures. I call the listing agent back to say I can email, fax, or personally deliver an offer; I'm told that email would be the best way if possible. Piece of cake. Using Winforms and CutePDF, I craft the purchase agreement and have my client sign appropriate lines using the Acer C314XMi and it's tablet pen. Windows Journal allows you to import any document so you can write all over it, and I simply use CutePDF to turn everything into a PDF file. While my client is digitally signing the disclosures, I call up the lender to request a copy of the pre-approval letter so I can have it included with the offer. Ten minutes later, it arrives in my fax file (MyFax.com is absolutely terrific). Once all the documents were signed and saved as a PDF file, I simply emailed the lot to the listing agent, phoned a heads up about the offer and made plans to follow up with some more details (scheduling of inspections, confirmation of dates/timeframes, potential negotiations, etc.) the following day.
So what just happened? The Acer C314XMi let me conduct a real estate transaction without the need of a printer, paper, ink, hardline internet connection, or even an office. I was able to handle everything within the confines of the listed property (maintains buyer excitement better than an office!) without using any consumables and without wasting any travel time. Not only did I save time and money, but the Acer C314XMi helped to enforce my professionalism and preparedness to both my client and the listing agent (sharpest offer ever, since most agents will print, scan, and fax almost to the point of having unreadable documents). The hardware is powerful enough to let me multitask, reliable to function as I need it, portable enough to bring with me everywhere, and matches everything that I would wear to go out. I definitely could not have accomplished the same end-result had I not a tablet PC. Twenty-one days later, I confirmed the close of escrow and chalked up another smart success, while typing up a review and drinking a beer in my backyard (not every of my transactions to date had this much tablet PC involvement, but it's with me everywhere and active in every aspect of my work be it rerouting an itinerary with map software, looking up market data, checking email/faxes, uploading MLS photos, or playing some games during downtime :)
Recommended:
Yes
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