Acer Inc. http://www.acer.com
The Acer TravelMate 8210-6038 ($2,999 list) is a desktop replacement that's designed to perform. Although it is considered a business laptop, it has features that cross over to the media side. The carbon-fiber lid is reminiscent of the Acer Ferrari 5000 , and a 15.4-inch widescreen screams multimedia. The biggest addition, however, is the BD-RW (Blu-ray) recordable drive, which enables burning high-definition video discs. But despite adding such a high-profile component, Acer is clearly gearing the Blu-ray drive for backup purposes. The system is missing the media accessories, such as a remote control, a built-in sensor, and even playback buttons, that are needed to enhance the HD playback experience.
I'm a big fan of carbon fiber. Sony and Acer are the only two laptop vendors that make much use of it, and they use it well. Sony's VAIO VGN-TXN15P comes to mind, and Acer is very generous in draping its lids with the material, as evidenced by the Acer Ferrari 4000 and Ferrari 5000. The TravelMate 8210-6038 succeeds the TravelMate 8204WLMi, which garnered an Editors' Choice and also uses carbon fiber on its lid.
The Acer TravelMate line of business laptops is well known overseas, especially in Europe and Asia, and it's gained a strong foothold in the U.S. market. The 8210-6038 is not something you would want to travel with, however, because with a battery, it weighs a hefty 7.7 pounds. Much of the weight is in the matte-finished 15.4-inch widescreen, which is ideal for working with several applications side by side, viewing additional cells on spreadsheets, and watching a full-length movie. The keyboard has a comfort curve, or "smile," that is unique to Acer laptops. The mouse buttons are too noisy in a quiet setting, but the touchpad is responsive.
You can burn Blu-ray media, too, using NTI's CD & DVD-Maker Titanium 7. It's equipped with NTI's EasySteps, a friendly user interface that creates Blu-ray discs, although the process is still slow. It took 2 hours 50 minutes to burn a 22.4GB file directory. Like the Dell XPS M1710 (Blu-ray), the 8210-6038 supports digital video-out using the DVI-D port, which doesn't stream audio in the same way its HDMI counterpart does. I tend to prefer HDMI because it eliminates the additional audio cable. Granted, most business displays will have DVI ports, but you can always get an HDMI-to-DVI-out converter cable.
Since most businesses won't be switching to Windows Vista quite yet, the 8210-6038 comes loaded with Microsoft Windows XP Professional. But you can get the same exact configuration with Vista Business loaded under a different model (the Acer TravelMate 8210-6632). Because the system doesn't come with Windows Media Center Edition, Acer does not ship a remote for video playback. It doesn't have physical playback buttons, either, so you're stuck with using the mouse and touchpad for navigation. Not exactly an ideal media experience.
You get a plethora of connectivity ports with the 8210-6038, including four USB ports, a FireWire port, S-Video, and VGA-out. It has an SPDIF or digital audio-out port for use with the DVI-out port. Acer combines the old with the new by including both an ExpressCard 34 slot and PC Card slot. And security is not overlooked with a built-in SmartCard reader. You have 802.11a/g and Bluetooth 2.0? as your wireless options. A 1.3-megapixel webcam is integrated into the screen for video chatting and capturing still images.
As the successor to the 8204WLMi, the 8210-6038 inherits the power to go along with all the features. It moves to the Core 2 Duo T7400 (2.16 GHz) and loads 2GB of RAM to make it a true powerhouse, and its impressive performance scores reflect those components. In our testing with Adobe Photoshop CS2 scripts, it sped past the Lenovo ThinkPad T60p—a workstation, mind you. It finished encoding an HD file faster than the Gateway NX570X. The system also loads discrete graphics via the ATI Mobility X1600, which plays its part in optimizing HD playback, as well as ensuring that Vista's 3D interface will run smoothly. The 8210-6038's graphics chipset is a better prospect for 3D gaming, given the gaming scores, than the ThinkPad T60p's card (ATI Mobility FireGL V5250). The Acer 8210-6038's card, though, is still midrange and is not as impressive as the nVidia GeForce Go 7950 GTX card that the Dell XPS M1710 (Blu-ray) uses. Then again, the Dell Blu-ray laptop is a top-end gaming machine. The 8210-6038's 3 hours 8 minutes of battery life is not bad at all, considering that my DVD rundown tests are a little more aggressive than what would be considered normal use. You'll get at least 4 hours running less intensive tasks such as spreadsheets, word processing, and Internet work.
The Acer TravelMate 8210-6038 is an excellent business or media laptop that has all the performance characteristics of a powerful desktop. The Blu-ray drive is a questionable addition, as it drives the cost of the machine to $2,999, and the system lacks some features that could have improved the overall high-definition experience. On top of that, Blu-ray media are insanely expensive, so you can't even justify the drive as a backup or content-creation solution. If you really want a high-definition laptop, take a look at the HP Pavilion dv9000t (Vista). Otherwise, opt for a configuration of the 8210-6038 that doesn't include the Blu-ray drive.
Acer TravelMate 8210-6038
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
