Acer TravelMate 5513WLMi

The Acer Travelmate 5513wlmi laptop is hot of the press, featuring the Windows Vista Business operating system and Acer's brand new professional “profile” design. This is part of a new line of laptop designs from Acer, the other being their fantastic “gem-stone” design – aimed squarely at multimedia users. Acer are perhaps one of the lesser known brands to the general public, however, their computers are amongst the best specified, value for money ...
...claim which resulted in my Acer Aspire laptop being replaced. The price-tag of this machine is very reasonable given the specifications:

**AMD Turion 64 x2 Mobile Technology (1.6 Ghz, 2 x 512kb L2 cache)**

This processor is more than capable of running Windows Vista Business edition, smoothly and efficiently under the beautiful Vista Aero interface. The processor is your laptops "brain" carrying out all the ... more

The Acer Travelmate 5513wlmi laptop is hot of the press, featuring the Windows Vista Business operating system and Acer's brand new professional “profile” design. This is part of a new line of laptop designs from Acer, the other being their fantastic “gem-stone” design – aimed squarely at multimedia users. Acer are perhaps one of the lesser known brands to the general public, however, their computers are amongst the best specified, value for money machines on the market. Acer are currently the 3rd largest branded computer vendor on the planet and are the official sponsors of the Ferrari Formula 1 team until 2008; as such they also offer a line of premium laptops featuring Ferrari branding and powerful specifications to match.

The laptop is available for around £460 - £500 from most retailers and is the perfect choice for students, small businesses and those looking for a laptop to carry out basic to to day computing tasks. I was lucky enough to get mine for next to nothing thanks to an insurance claim which resulted in my Acer Aspire laptop being replaced. The price-tag of this machine is very reasonable given the specifications:

**AMD Turion 64 x2 Mobile Technology (1.6 Ghz, 2 x 512kb L2 cache)**

This processor is more than capable of running Windows Vista Business edition, smoothly and efficiently under the beautiful Vista Aero interface. The processor is your laptops "brain" carrying out all the various calculations and instructions - after all, everything in the world of computers boils down to a 1 or 0! This parictular model is dual core - think of this as having two brains in one head - twice the processing power. It has 2 times 512kb L2 cache - this is a temporary storage area for frequently accessed instructions. L2 cache is memory which is not directly on the processor ship itself, but is still closer to the chip than RAM, meaning that it has quick access speeding up your computer. It receives an excellent score of 4.6/ 5 on the Windows Vista Experience Index – more on that later.

**1 GB DDR 2 RAM**

This is a reasonable amount of memory. Certainly, its enough to run Vista smoothly. It will also be fine for listening to music, watching dvds and general application packages like word processing. However, it will not be possible to run many new games in Vista with 1GB ram. If your technically minded it can be upgraded in the future to 4GB if you wish to increase system performance. Its also worth noting that the graphics memory is shared with the RAM (256MB) effectively leaving you with only 768mb to play with. It receives a sub score of 3.9 on the Windows Vista Experience Index.

**120GB HDD**

This is the main storage area on the computer for all your images, documents and programmes. This will last you a very long time unless you plan to store camcorder footage which uses approximately 1GB/ hour. It has a fast access speed meaning it can find files quickly. It receives a score of 4.7/5 on the Windows Vista Experience Index.

**Up to 256MB ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 with HyperMemory technology**

The graphics on this computer will be excellent for general office applications, some photo editing, music and dvds. However, don't expect to play big games like Halo on this machine. Remember that the graphics memory is shared with RAM meaning that graphics are going to be slower than an independent graphics card. However, for most everyday applications, this will not be noticeable. This is perhaps the most disappointing aspect of this machine gaining a score of only 2.7.

**Other Specifications**

15.4” WXGA LCD Screen
DVD Super Multi Double Layer (support for DVD +/- R Double Layer/ DVD +/- RW)
802.11 b/g wireless LAN
5 in 1 card reader – including XD!
Integrated Web-cam

For those of you in the know, this laptop will clearly represent sound value for money. For those less technically minded, be rest assured, this laptop will complete most of your daily tasks like e-mail, web, and music. Put simply, I cannot believe what you get for your money these days.

**Design - “Profile for success”**

As I mentioned earlier, this laptop is part of a new breed of computers from Acer, branded using the slogan “Profile for success”. The entire “Travelmate” range is designed for reliability, protection and “adaptable usability with a host of innovative features”. I have to say, I love the new design. Its contemporary, yet has a serious “ready for business” look about it. The entire casing has a steal grey look, with dark grey surfaces at the top and bottom of the screen giving it a slender, yet sturdy appearance. The design makes strong use of geometric shapes, aiding to the contemporary yet serious look.

Another neat design feature is the fact that all new “Travelmate” laptops feature a magnesium alloy cover – which is 20x stronger than plastic and is also much lighter, meaning that its less likely to crack and provides superior protection against everyday use. I love this feature as our old design Travelmate's casing eventually cracked with daily use.

The laptop also includes a number of sleek quick access buttons such as e-mail and Internet. Just one press will give you instant access to these programmes, increasing your productivity and leisure.

**In the box**

Opening the box the first thing I noticed is a lack of recovery disks. Instead, there is a built in recovery partition and the facility to burn recovery cd's. Theirs also a power cord, a quick set up guide, warranty, international warranty and users guide – all are easy to read and understand. The battery is also included in a separate box, and can hold a reasonable 2.5 hour charge. The only other thing worth mentioning is the Vista Anytime Upgrade Disk, allowing you to upgrade to other versions of Vista at any time.

**Switching On**

The first time set up for Vista Business is presented when you press the power button, which lasts 30 minutes and you should connect the computer to mains power during this process. At this point you'll get the opportunity to set the language settings, user name and the system will install the Acer software and settings automatically. This includes Acer “Empowering Technology” the hub for all your computer settings, allowing you to set up your Wireless Internet and power settings for example. It also allows you to set up your computer for digital projector presentations with ease, a plus for business users and create recovery disks and back-ups.

The whole process is painless, and your up and running in no time. If your new to computing, you'll love the beautiful “Aero interface” which features glass effects and transparencies. Vista is also fairly simple to use, and you should find your way around in no time. If your a previous XP user, the interface will be familiar, but with a host of new design features. Some of the options and settings have moved though and it might take some time to find what your looking for.

Start up takes a minute or two after the initial installation, but once its running, its pretty fast. This is in part because of Vista's graphic intense interface combined with 1GB ram, which ideally, should be 2GB. You may get it going quicker by switching of “Windows Sidebar” - an area for gadgets, such as clocks, calendars and slide shows.

**The Operating System**

Ideally, this should be an entirely separate review, so I'll keep it short. The system comes pre-installed with Windows Vista Business. This edition is designed for small businesses in mind, and includes excellent network and security options. The interface is Windows Vista Aero, which includes outstanding graphic interface design. I particularly like Flip 3D and Flip. Flip 3D allows you to have a live preview of all your opening windows and cycle through them one at a time with beautiful transitions – this feature can be accessed by pressing the Windows button and tab simultaneously. Flip is the replacement for ALT TAB and has an updated interface.

You may also like the start search, allowing you to find a program by simply typing its names. This also works for find documents and images on your computer.

I could go on and on about this operating system, but this is not the place for it. You should know that Windows Vista Business is brand new, and does still have quite a few bugs. When your laptop arrives, be sure to install the Windows Updates immediately, accessible via the control panel. One of the main issues until you update your software is an incompatibility with Ipod, where using the “safely disconnect hardware” option could corrupt your Ipod and loose all your music. Another issue with this particular laptop (and all new Acer Vista laptops) is a problem with the “Acer Orbicam” software. This is the pre-installed software for using the built in web-cam. The problem lies with the drivers, where Vista causes its software to become confused by forcing it to use Vista's own drivers. When you try to load the web cam software, with images in your picture folder, you'll get the message “Acer orbi-cam has stopped working”. Acer are yet to release an official fix, but you may find this link useful: http://www.theacerguy.com/2007/06/12/an-apology-and-a-solution-for-the-orbicam-problem/ . The web-cam still works and will still run through messenger.

Another problem with Vista Business is with Windows Calendar. When you create an appointment in Windows Calendar the next time you restart your computer you will get the error message “Windows Calendar has stopped working”. The Windows Calendar will then restart. There is a fix from Microsoft but it is still in development and may be buggy. If you are severely affected by this problem you can visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933942 and contact Microsoft for a copy of the fix.

Windows Vista service pack 1 is still in development but current industry speculation suggests that it will be available around November 2007. This should fix most bugs in Vista. Overall, Windows Vista Business is an excellent operating system – definitely better than XP. You should note that because the laptop is aimed at business users, it excludes Windows Media Centre.

Oh and one more thing a bit about the Vista Experience index. Computers are rate from 1 to 5 based on the performance of the weakest component. The overall score for this computer is 2, meaning its good for internet, e-mail, music and other general tasks. The weakest component here was the graphics.

**Just for fun**

Computing is not just about work. Now and days you can have fun with computing too. The computer includes Windows Photo Gallery, allowing you to view and edit photographs as well as organising them. Built into the computer is a 5 in 1 memory card reader allowing you to transfer photos and other media to your computer without the need for cables. This is great when your on holiday and means you can quickly get ready for your next days photographing! The dvd drive supports both CD & DVD viewing and burning. The screen is excellent, and is a nice size for watching dvds with the included software. If your into music, the integrated speakers are of a decent quality, and give a good stereo sound. Connectivity is great allowing you to add 3 USB devices, an extra external monitor if you wish and the usual sockets for headphones etc if you want to listen alone. Don't forget the built in WIFI giving you 54 mb/s wireless networking, great for browsing the net in the garden!

**The Conclusion**

This is an excellent laptop with all the trademark features of Acer – great spec, for little cash. You'll find its good for work and play, and the new operating system is excellent – except small bugs. I'd recommend it to anyone in the market for a new computer who isn't interested in game playing or video editing.

Copyright Ross Murray 2007 

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