Acer Aspire 3003

The Acer Aspire 3003Wlmi is my first laptop that I received for Christmas. I had done a lot of research into the perfect value, and best spec for money and the Acer came out top. The laptop cost only £499 from Comet, and I am exceptionally happy with the product.

When I opened the box I was pleased to find that the laptop came with an easy to read, quick start up guide that got me set up in minutes. The laptop comes with Windows XP Home Edition pre-installed and, when you start of the laptop the first thing you will notice is the very quite fan, and the beautiful screen - perhaps better than my TV. The user is then prompted to enter some basic information for Windows, such as user name, they keyboard layout you want, your country etc. Once this information is entered you are ready to go and the computer will boot into Windows, at an amazing fast speed for a 1.8 ghz too.

When Windows launches your desktop you will be greeted with the "Acer E-Recovery" window, this allows you to burn additional copies of the windows recovery, if you so wish. However the laptop comes supplied with back up disks already.

After a few moments of tweaking the settings I was ready to browse the Internet over my wireless network. The built in Wireless Antenna is excellent, and has an excellent range. The network was detected automatically.

The laptop is also particularly easy to use. It features a number of "Quick Launch" buttons which allow you to access the internet, your email client etc from the touch of a button - something I could no longer live without.

In terms of software, you are set up for basic productivity straight out of the box. The kit includes Microsoft Works Version 8, Norton Anti-Virus (trial), and a comprehensive multi-media suite. Works 8 has all your basic office functions such as Word Processor, Data Base, Spreadsheet and easy to use e-mail client, which is great for my school coursework and would, do fine for small businesses.

The laptop is also designed for multi-media. Although the laptop doesn't include Microsoft's Media Centre it includes a comprehensive media suite from Acer "Acer Arcade" - which provides very similar functionality. I found this particularly useful when watching DVD's on the beautiful wide screen display, and viewing my digital images.

Most users will find the 60 GB of storage sufficient, and the hard disk is already partitioned which makes it easy to organise your files. It does come formatted however using FAT32 however this wont make a difference to the average user and can be changed using the command line prompt. The 512 mb memory is more than sufficient for my use, as I rarely do too much multi-tasking, however, I have been able to run multiple messenger windows, and email client and web browser without any problems. If you are planning on doing more intensive work, such as video editing, you may prefer to upgrade to 1gb ram, as the expansion possibilities are available.

The keyboard layout is as per usual for a laptop, although has a useful selection of function keys such as basic multimedia options - play, pause, forward etc.

Sound reproduction, as I expected is a little tinny, however, for the price is perfectly reasonable. I mostly listen to my music collection using headphones and the sound is fine.

In terms of aesthetics, it has the looks of a much more expensive power laptop; it would definitely go well next to a £900 plus laptop. it is silver and black, and has a sturdy solid case which will look the place in any home office, living area or bedroom.

The battery life lasts around 1 hour. This is slightly disappointing, but as a desktop replacement, I don't consider this to be such a big issue. If you must use it out and about try dimming the brightness of the screen and turning the wireless adaptor of to save life.

Overall, this is an amazing laptop, I cannot believe what I have for the money anyone considering a laptop should go for the Acer. It is clear to me that they have spent a lot of money on research and development rather than advertising, like the other big brands. I haven't gone into too much detail about the technical stuff but you can grab that mostly anywhere on the net. Really though, a fantastic buy, I'm sure you wont be disappointed!

**Update May 2006**

I have yet to find any problems with this laptop, you should not hesitate to buy an Acer Laptop. It is performing as fast as when I frist got it. One point I may add is that the display quite easily shows up finger prints. I got round this by purchasing a LCD Screen Cleaning Kit from PC World for under a fiver, and the screen looks as good as new.