Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi

Notebook specifications

Notebook: Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi
Processor: Intel Core Duo T2500 (2000 MHz)
Graphics adapter: ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 (256 MB)
Display: 15.4 inch 16:10 (1680x1050 pixels)
Weight: 3 kg
Average score: 84.18% - good
Average of 11 scores (from 18 reviews)

Reviews in English

70%Device Driver Flaws, Terrible Support
Source: Pricegrabber
Strengths: Specs look good on paper; Weaknesses: Device Driver Flaws, Hand Warmer, and Terrible Support; Summary: There is apparently a defect in the drivers for Windows XP that come with this laptop that makes the F10 and F11 keys not work. The keys work fine in BIOS mode and even in Windows if you use the Shift or Ctrl keys also. Very strange but a big problem for a .NET nerd like me because Visual Studio uses those keys extensively.
Date: 08/07/2006
Rating: Total score: 70%

90%Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi
Source: PC Mag
"Stylish," "full-featured," and "cutting-edge technology" are just a few of the phrases that come to mind when looking over the Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi. Thanks to a carbon-fiber chassis, an awesome webcam, new ATI graphics, and dual-core processing from Intel—all in a system that weighs less than 7 pounds—it well deserves our Editors' Choice award. The cover of the TravelMate 8204WLMi is made of strong and cool-looking carbon fiber, which we loved on the Acer Ferrari 4000 and love just as much on this system. Opening the lid reveals a 15.4-inch widescreen.
Date: 05/01/2006
Rating: Total score: 90%

67%Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi
Source: PC Pro
Acer has given the veteran TravelMate chassis a spruce up for its first dual-core notebook. The lid has a carbon-fibre finish to it, and the curved keyboard and gunmetal grey colouring lend it a distinctive look. Inside, the T2500 Core Duo is clocked at 2GHz and aided by a generous 2GB of DDR2 RAM, which makes the TravelMate the quickest notebook we've ever seen: it scored a remarkable 1.11 in our application benchmarks. That's more powerful than our current A-Listed power notebook, the SavRow Blade 75. Amazingly, it's also 11 per cent quicker than a top-of-the-range Intel PC based on the 3.2GHz Pentium D840. A good-looking, amazingly fast laptop. But it's also expensive, heavy and doesn't offer outstanding battery life.
Date: 03/06/2006
Rating: Total score: 67%

Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi Test
Source: Notebookreview
If I take everything into consideration, I am not happy with this notebook. It has too many faults for a $2500 price tag. I wish I could return it for a refund so I could buy my Sager back, but unfortunately it's not possible. I will keep it for a while and see if I learn to like it's good points, otherwise I will sell it on eBay with a $500 loss.... I would only recommend this notebook if you are looking for a light, business-like notebook that will support your games. If gaming is your main concern, go for the Sager 5720; if you want something with a dual core notebook in a fairly light package, avoid the 8204 and get something cheaper.
Date: 02/23/2006
Rating: price: 50%

90%Intel's neuer Dual Core kommt endlich
Source: PC Plus
The worst kept secret of 2005, at least as far as mobile computing is concerned, was the appearance of Intel’s dual-core mobile platform. Hardly a week went by without some new fact (or piece of wild conjecture) surfacing, but systems built on this technology have been closely guarded. Despite this, we have managed to get our hands on one, and it’s no surprise that Acer is one of the first out of the gate – its position as the leading notebook supplier in Europe makes it one of Intel’s favourite partners right now. You have to pay for what you get, but it’s hard to deny that it’s a price worth paying when both the performance and battery life are so good.
Date: 02/01/2006
Rating: Total score: 90%

Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi Test
Source: Notebookreview
The Acer Travelmate 8200 is a high-end business laptop from Acer, designed with durability and performance in mind with a reasonably light-weight chassis. It has done fairly well in this respect, with Acer using Intel's new Core Duo processor coupled and an ATi Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics card, all packed into a laptop weighing in at less than 6 pounds. I would recommend this laptop to anyone demanding very high performance and a high quality build at a reasonable price.
Date: 01/18/2006

100%Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi - Dual Core Notebook
Source: Trusted Reviews
Over the past couple of years Acer has made quite a name for itself in the notebook market, producing high spec machines at amazing price points. The company has also built a reputation for being first out of the gate with the latest notebook technology and that’s never been more true than right now. The TravelMate 8204WLMi is the first notebook I’ve seen based on Intel’s new dual core mobile processor, Yonah. For me dual core processors mark the most important leap in notebook technology since the colour screen, but that’s just my opinion. Of course if you managed to get yourself a dual-core desktop chip during 2005 you’ll have a good idea of where I’m coming from.
Date: 01/06/2006
Rating: Total score: 100% price: 90% performance: 100% features: 100%

Reviews in German

79%Allrounder
Source: Chip 12/06
Date: 11/04/2006
Rating: Total score: 79% price: 60% performance: 81% features: 98% mobility: 66% ergonomy: 80%

82%First Notebook with a Bluetooth-Mobile
Source: Chip Online
Date: 05/09/2006
Rating: Total score: 82% performance: 100% features: 100% mobility: 51% ergonomy: 67%

87%Acer Travelmate 8204WLMi
Source: PC Welt
Date: 05/08/2006
Rating: Total score: 87% price: 84% performance: 100% features: 100% ergonomy: 81%

A Notebook For All Situations
Source: Ciao
Date: 04/11/2006

Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi
Source: PC Praxis 4/06
Date: 04/01/2006

78%Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi
Source: ZDNET
Date: 03/14/2006
Rating: Total score: 78% performance: 90% features: 80%

88%Very Good Performance: Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi
Source: PC Go
Date: 03/10/2006
Rating: Total score: 88%

Mobile Dual Core Racer with Luxurious Equipment
Source: Notebookjournal
Date: 03/09/2006
Rating: performance: 100% features: 100% mobility: 60%

Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi
Source: Connect
Date: 03/01/2006

Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi
Source: Notebook / Organizer / Handy
Date: 03/01/2006

95%Premiere For Core Duo
Source: PC Professionell 3/06
Date: 02/01/2006
Rating: Total score: 95% performance: 95% features: 95% ergonomy: 85%

Comment

ATI Mobility Radeon X1600: ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 resembles the desktop X1600 (plus Powerplay 6.0 current saving mechanisms), but is quite slower than the desktop X1600 because of the slower clock speed. It is part of the most powerful third of mobile video cards, is able to represent newest games and without any doubt apt for office applications and surfing.
>> Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.

Intel Core Duo: Intel Core Duo (successor of Pentium M), is a double core processor with a very good relation of performance to current consumption. The 2 MB L2 Cache are used common. The maximum current consumption of 31 Watts is only 4 W more then with Pentium M. Due to the low energy need is Core Duo also suited for subnotebooks. Further now it supports SSE3 orders. The performance can nearly be doubled for applications, which were designed for multiprocessors (compared with Pentium M).

T2500: The strong Core Duo type T2500 is not only suitable for office applications and surfing, but also for games.
>> Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.

15.4": 15 inch display-variants are the standard and are used for more than the half of all notebooks.  15.4 inch display with 16:10 are the standard for notebook displays.
The reason why so many people like displays with medium size is, that this size is not exhausting for the eyes, does not need too much current and the laptops can be kept quite compact.
>> To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.

3 kg: This weight is average for notebooks. Therefore the numerous mass of laptops with 15 inch display fits in this class of weight.

Acer: Acer is one of the international manufacturers with the most market shares worldwide and the most reviewed notebook models in the German and English speaking countries. Nevertheless only few of the models achieved top rankings according total ranking and price/value evaluation.
Acer Notebook Section

>> Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.