Great Machine with a Free 64Meg Deal
Written: Jun 22 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Light, fast, powerful, at a great price
Cons: None significant
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| rh317's Full Review: Acer TravelMate 340T PC Notebook |
A GREAT Machine, with a Free 64 Meg Memory Deal before June 30th
Windows displaced our Macintoshes at my workplace this spring, so I finally gave up my constant traveling companion – a Macintosh Duo – and went looking for a comparable Windows lightweight. The Sony Vaios and their ilk are very slick, but seem overpriced and I wanted a full-sized keyboard. The answer was the Acer 340T (or the 342 if you want a digital camera.)
It’s 4 pounds light, about 8 ˝ x 11, and 3/4 inch thick. The machine is so slim because the floppy and the CD drive are packaged together in a separate, hot-pluggable/unpluggable unit. I just toss it in my luggage when I think I might need it on the road. But with 6 gigs, I don’t worry about loading files onto the machine for travel. The case is an eye-catching silver metal with a good, solid feel. With one of two optional, plastic clip-ons, you can give the case an Imac-like color scheme.
The 12.5” screen is clean and bright (SVGA – 600 x 800) and just the right size for coach class! The keyboard is full-size or so close to it I don’t notice a difference. Good action on the keyboard. It's very speedy with a 450 Pentium III. Check the specs on Acer’s page for all the built-in ports… more than I expect I’ll ever use. And there are NO dongles or port replicators to lose! All the ports are there on the back of the machine. (I spent some time with a dongled laptop…what a hassle!) I presently sync my Palm Pilot, plug into Ethernet at work, and hook to a phone line with the built-in 56k modem. And there’s an empty PC card slot as well.
Battery life runs around 2 hours or more, depending on activity. There are handy function-key hibernate and screen switches to conserve power and stretch the battery. The machine comes with 64 megs of RAM, with an offer from Acer for another 64 FREE through June 30. The added memory was trivially simple to install. (Check the online sites... or the Acer sites to get the form for this deal.) The documentation is clear, and the manual is also installed as an Adobe file.
The touchpad has lots of programmability; there are left and right buttons and a scroll key between them – which I much prefer to the button-mouse like on the IBM’s. Comes with Microsoft Works, which I have not used, plus a range of other utilities. The built-in Time Machine utility periodically saves the state of the machine, and helped me out when I had a bad software install. I just “turned back the clock” and everything was ok again.
Checking the shopping sites, I found my Acer for $1765, including the free 64 meg deal. A great price for a super machine. It came well-packed, and was simple to set up and start using. Leather-look cases included for both the computer and the outboard drive. (Note the drive runs off the computer power supply.)
I had a question about the power saving system... I used the Acer email site and got a detailed, pleasant answer the next day.
I’ve been using this machine for a few hours every day for the last six weeks, and have not had a single problem. Lastly, it’s got the speed and memory to run Basilisk II – the Mac emulator – so I can still run my favorite Mac programs!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
rh317
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Reviews written: 1
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