Acer TravelMate 2413LCi

The Acer Travelmate 2413LM is a handy little laptop with some impressive specifications to boot that make it ideal for both personal and business use. Personally I chose it for my writing which I am hoping to turn into a career and I've found that this is perfect for me, but would it be perfect for you?

*** This Laptop Is For You If... ***

1. You are self employed and work from home OR travel around and still need access ...
...good.

* Acer SignalUp* High-Efficiency Antenna Technology *

Acer SignalUp technology controls wireless activity from your laptop. Unlike other laptop makers, Acer put the antenna into the top of the monitor so that it can transmit a signal better and it has been proven to minimise the signal absorbal rate by the human body (which is good news for anybody worried about things like that!).

Pretty Impressively, ... more

The Acer Travelmate 2413LM is a handy little laptop with some impressive specifications to boot that make it ideal for both personal and business use. Personally I chose it for my writing which I am hoping to turn into a career and I've found that this is perfect for me, but would it be perfect for you?

*** This Laptop Is For You If... ***

1. You are self employed and work from home OR travel around and still need access to a computer.
2. You have a teenager who needs to do homework/assignments
3. You have a small business
4. You just want something stylish yet simple and something you can carry around with you.

With a 40GB harddrive this laptop is able to hold a lot of data, therefore it is ideal for almost everyone. Still interested in reading more, then lets talk about it's Specs.

*** Specifications ***

If like me you are baffled by computer jargon you may find this section a little boring though I do promise to make it as clear as possible so here it goes...

The TravelMate 2413LM has:

* Intel Celeron M processor 370 *

This processor is designed specifically for laptops, providing a good standard of mobile-optimised processor technology, good performance and good value for money.
Giving 1.5GHz of speed, this is one of the fastest processors for laptops (which is always a good thing!) and it has a 400 MHz FSB. The FSB is short for 'Front Side Bus' and basically it links all the components together on the motherboard of a computer (you learn something new everyday!). The 400 part before the FSB is the speed of it.

The final thing the processor provides is a 1MB L2 cache. L2 cache stands for Level 2 cache and that is basically something that speeds up the processing of commonly used data. This in turn boosts the systems performance and makes you a happy camper because you aren't waiting years for something to load up!

* A 15.0" XGA TFT LCD *

What? I can hear you say as I most definitely do when I first look at it! Lets break it down!

XGA is extended graphics. TFT is a Thin film transistor which is the highest quality of colour in LC displays and finally LCD is the LC Display (Liquid Crystal Display) and that refers to the way we see what's on our monitor. It's a lot to take in I know but what it mainly means is that it has good graphics and it has a 15 inch screen lol!

* 40 GB HardDrive *

Now I'm no expert but 40GB is quite a lot for a laptop and it provides me with plenty of space for my writing!

* DVD Dual Double Layer *

This laptop doesn't have a floppy disk drive. Instead it is replaced with this built in DVD player/recorder. On it you can read and copy both CD's and DVD's making it possible to store a LOT of data!

* 256MB DDR2 (support dual-channel) *

This is how much memory the computer has and the DDR2 is the latest computer memory technology (that I know of). You can upgrade the memory if you want by another 256MB which is pretty good.

* Acer SignalUp* High-Efficiency Antenna Technology *

Acer SignalUp technology controls wireless activity from your laptop. Unlike other laptop makers, Acer put the antenna into the top of the monitor so that it can transmit a signal better and it has been proven to minimise the signal absorbal rate by the human body (which is good news for anybody worried about things like that!).

Pretty Impressively, Acer are the only computer maufacturers to have their own radio frequency in Taiwan where they carry out tests and create their wireless products. This means that you can trust Acer more than oher brands to provide you with the best wireless technology.

* CCX (Supports Cisco Compatible Extensions) *

Again to do with wireless not much to say as it speaks for itself.

* Acer ePresentation *

This software is specifically designed to help users manage their system information and to change their settings from one central location. It also allows you to plug in any projector no matter what brand or model it is without the hassle of having to adjust all the settings yourself manually. The ePresentation software does it all for you making this an ideal laptop for business users.

* Acer eRecovery - System Back-Up Technology *

Acer eRecovery enables you to manage and creat backups for your data, restore data from previous archives and reinstall original drivers and applications. It is always good to create backups especially if you have important documents on your computer!

* PCI Express *

This is four times faster than traditional PCI's.

* Battery Life *

The battery should last for 2.1 hours.

* Weight *

This laptop weighs 2.7kg and is ideal for carrying around (hence the name travelmate!).

*** My opinion on... ***

Here you will find my opinion on things such as the laptop performance, it's battery life and my overall experience using it.

1) Speed

When I first started using my laptop I was amazed by how fast it was. Programs load up almost as soon as you've clicked the button and there's no waiting half an hour anymore like I've had to in the past with other laptops. I can navigate around with ease and at a fast pace and saving data doesn't take long either. There is nothing worse than having to wait ages to load a program up so it's great to use this as it increases the enjoyability of using it.

It doesn't take long loading up either (roughly about one minute if that). So all in all it is pretty good for speed! One thing I have found though, is that once I used quite a bit of space it did slow the laptop down quite a bit which became a little bit irritating. I found out that all I need to do is upgrade the memory by another 256MB and it will speed things back up again so I'm currently waiting for the money for that now!

2) Battery Life

At the risk of sounding incredibly stupid I'm going to admit that I haven't the foggiest on how to charge the battery up and I've misplaced the instructions. I always have the battery plugged in to the socket so I never run out of power but on the few occasions when I haven't had it plugged in it has told me on the little icon at the bottom of the screen, that I have little battery power and at that point I plug it in. It all depends on what you are doing that determines how long the battery will last when fully charged. Obviously if you are playing a game or listening to music on your laptop, you are going to be using more battery power than if you were just writing a simple review for example.

Obviosuly the fact that I haven't worked out how to charge the battery up would be a big problem if I wanted to take the laptop with me on a train for example, and I wanted to do some writing while travelling. I would need a full battery to ensure the power wouldn't just go and leave me with lost work that I wouldn't be able to get back. I have tried leaving the battery plugged into the mains (with the switch on!) and leaving it on all night but this hasn't done a thing lol. So any ideas on that would be appreciated!

3) Appearance

I absolutely love the look of this laptop. Designed with a sleek silver body and sexy, sophisticated black keys and touch pad, this laptop definitely screams 'sex symbol' to me. It manages to look professional yet sexy all at the same time. Some laptops look a little too dull for my liking so it's nice to have one that looks so damn good! OK I'll stop now due to the risk of me sounding slightly deranged!

4) The TouchPad

Now this laptop doesn't come with a mouse. Like most other laptops it comes with it's own built-in touchpad. This is basically an oblong shape with three two silver buttons below it. The buttons act like the left and right buttons on a mouse and the touchpad is activated with your fingers.

To be honest it took me a while to get used to using this. After using a mouse it is hard to grasp how to click the left mouse button and move things around etc. However now I'm a pro at using it but there are still some things you need a mouse for, so my advice would be to buy one anyway. An example of something needing the mouse would be a computer game. I recently installed 'The Settlers' onto my computer (which incidentally slowed it down!), and I found it extremely difficult to play it using the touchpad, so much so that I went out and got a mouse specifically for that purpose. Everything else though can be easily navigated using the touch pad.

The only other problem I can give is that while using the touchpad you don't always have to touch it very hard for it to activate. I have been typing and my fingers have skimmed the touchpad and that has made the cursor change places and insert my writing somewhere completely different. This has happened a few times and it can get annoying. There isn't a lot you can do about that though but you do get used to it within time and you start holding your hands different so that it doesn't happen very often.

5) Game Playing On The Laptop

This laptop has not been designed to play games on but that doesn't mean it isn't possible. As I mentioned earlier I have installed a computer game onto the laptop and it slowed down the gameplay considerably. This means that if you do want to play games ont he computer it would be best to upgrade the memory first and also try not to install too many games at once. I will only be installing one at a time as my main focus on the laptop is my writing.

6) The Graphics

The graphics on this laptop are great. When playing games you can notice how good the graphics are and I have absolutely no complaints in that department!

7) Using The Internet

I haven't yet connected to wireless but I am picking a part up tommorow which will enable me to go wireless so that my partner can use the internet on his computer at the same time as I can use it on my laptop. I am currently on broadband and I have no problems with it on here. Installing it was easy and the laptop recognised it straight away with no problems. The laptop does come with a firewall but it doesn't seem to work so really it is useless and I would recommend getting a different virus/firewall program to ensure your security. I'm really impressed with how easy it has been to surf the net on here and I use it quite a lot now.

8) Travelling

I have actually taken this with me to Wales when I visited my parents. I didn't use it until I got to my parents house but I did find hat it was easy to carry around and quite light too. It helps to get a carry case for it which don't cost that much (depending on which one you want). Prices range from £19.99 to over £70 I have found so shop around for the best deals!

*** My Overall Opinion ***

I have found this laptop to be one of the best things I have ever invested in. It is mine and mine alone and I can take it everywhere with me which is great for my writing. It has plenty of space and the choice of an upgrade makes it even better. I love it's appearance and wouldn't swap it for the world! It is speedy and sexy and it does it's job really well. It's specs are impressive and it's great for surfing the internet. It would make an ideal first laptop and it didn't cost the earth! This may not be the best performer out there but it's definitely the best for me!

*** Price and Availability ***

This cost me £399 from comet which is cheap for a laptop I think. You can also buy it online but prices will vary depending on where you shop.

Aimee xxx 

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