Acer TravelMate 3272NWXMi: A heavyweight — literally

By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

AMONG the Taiwanese laptop makers, Acer is one of the most prolific, perhaps next only to Asus. In fact, both Taiwanese products compete toe-to-toe in almost every aspect of their products and this is most noticeable when they licensed two of the most well-known luxury car brands: Asus got Lamborghini while Acer got Ferrari.

At any rate, Acer churns out model after model of notebooks, usually the TravelMate and Aspire series, and in each series at least six new models come out every year. The company was gracious enough to lend its TravelMate 3272NWXMi model that comes from the 3270 series. It targets at least two user groups: the multimedia fanatic and the casual gamer.

First of all are the innards of the TravelMate 3272NWXMi; it is among the first models in the series to use the Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 (1.6 Ghz per core) processor running on an Intel Mobile 945GM chipset. It also has a 1 Gigabyte DDR2 memory and an NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300 video card with up to 256MB TurboCache.

For most PC enthusiasts, using a Core 2 Duo processor, a 1 Gb memory and a newly launched GeForce Go graphics accelerator could heat up the entire unit and consume much of the battery life. Unfortunately, it does both. However, hardware and software design highlights in the 3272NWXMi ensure that these do not pose too much of a problem to the user.

First of all, the exhaust fan for the processor is on the left side of the model. While most laptops do have their fans on the same side, the grills of the 3272NWXMi are large enough to draw out the heat from the unit. Second is the use of the Acer ePower Management software that controls the laptop’s power consumption from the hard disk, LCD monitor and CPU. There are profiles that can be set for specific users, depending on the applications that are needed to be run. The lithium ion batteries last from as long as two hours to as short as 40 minutes. Still, the unit does get hot under prolonged use.

The 3272NWXMi’s LCD screen is at 14.1″ and uses the Acer GridVista feature that allows a second monitor to be attached to the computer allowing the user to activate several applications and moving them to each of the screen as necessary. The bright LCD can also render widescreen movies with aspect ratio of 16:9. The good part about this is that the LCD is as good as a home entertainment system. But the surprisingly bad part about this model is the audio — the sound quality makes it seem that these are just P500 stereo speakers. The only time this model would sound good is by attaching a headset or at least a 2.1 channel speaker set. Simply put, this isn’t much of a good choice for audiophiles.

Among the main advantages of this model are the drives, particularly the huge 120Gb hard disk drive that is integrated through a series of springs into the unit’s frame. This is the proprietary Disk Anti-Shock Protection (DASP), which prevents the hard drive from being shaken around. There is also a multi-double layer DVD writer that reads and burns most DVD optical disks. It also has a single slot for different flash drives, such as SD cards, MMC, XD and Sony Memory Stick. However, it does not support the much older CF card, which is still heavily used by several digital camera brands.

A novel feature of this series of notebooks is the Acer OrbiCam, an ordinary webcam attached to the upper edge of the LCD screen that can be rotated to look towards the back when the screen is raised. Other laptop manufactures have integrated webcams before but Acer included a software called VisageOn that tracks the subject’s face and changes the color tone for a more natural look. But then again, the problem with this is that the subject has to avoid moving too often as the camera can only process no more than 20 frames per second making it particularly slow to process.

The best feature of the 3272NWXMi apart from the Core 2 Duo processor is the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300 graphics accelerator, which is as good as a desktop-level 128MB video card. This graphics accelerator can render some of the latest video games. In some cases, video games played on this unit have to be tweaked to low to medium graphics to ensure playability.

The last notable feature of this unit is its wireless connectivity, its Bluetooth and wifi function that enhances the antenna signal, which it calls SignalUp. While this works if the user is in wide spaces or if there are only thin walls, it does not mean that the Internet connection becomes faster but rather has better reception.

One of the biggest letdowns of this feature-packed TravelMate (apart from its tinny  sound) is its weight. At 2.4 kilograms it is one of the heaviest among mainstream notebooks. But saved perhaps by its purpose as a mid-level multimedia and video game model, as well as its comparably lower price than similar models from different brands, the TravelMate 3272NWXMi stands out as a good buy.

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