Product Reviews

With notebooks using Windows Media Center Edition (MCE) due out early in the New Year, Acer's multimedia notebook is well timed, pipping its rivals by a matter of weeks to coincide with the pre-Christmas rush. Centrino based and very good looking, the Aspire 2003WLMi is more than proficient at traditional notebook functions. It also adds an MCE-style interface, called Arcade, and a small LCD status panel at the front.

Sadly, the Arcade software is quite a letdown, and certainly no rival to MCE. As there are no radio or TV tuners built into the notebook, two of the most important options are missing. This left us slightly bemused as to what real benefit this Linux-based software gives.

What's more, Acer doesn't provide a remote control with the 2003WLMi, so you can't sit back and watch a film without having to get up every time you want to change the volume. And despite the fact that Arcade takes a matter of seconds to boot up, we found it took just as long to use as Windows Media Player. Still, the interface is simple to operate and at least it provides an alternative to Media Player without significantly more to pay.

When closed, the base of the notebook juts out by nearly an inch over the screen. This hints that you could use the Arcade software, in conjunction with the front-mounted LCD status panel and small playback and volume buttons, to play CDs and MP3s when the device is off. While this is possible, the tiny size of the LCD makes it rather fiddly to manage.

These criticisms aside, the 2003WLMi excels as a desktop replacement. Although it's a large notebook in terms of width, it's quite thin and light thanks to the use of a Pentium-M processor and a slimline optical drive. It weighs under 3kg, which is quite a feat for a notebook with such a large screen, and it feels sturdy too. We had no complaints about its silver-and-black styling either; it's by far Acer's best-looking notebook to date.

This being a Centrino notebook, 802.11b wireless is included, and there's a large shortcut

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activation switch at the front that flashes a garish orange when wireless is on. However, we did find it rather easy to switch it on and off by accident. A Bluetooth switch sits next to this, but integrated Bluetooth is an optional extra. Should wireless access not tickle your fancy, Acer also provides wired options, with modem and 10/100 Ethernet sockets round the back. There's an infrared port on the right-hand side and a Type II PC Card slot on the left.

There are even more ports dotted around the sides of the chassis. A card reader at the front supports SD, MMC, Memory Stick and SmartMedia cards, while three USB 2 ports, a mini-FireWire and a parallel port mean you can connect any device we can think of.

A DVD writer sits to the left of the Aspire. It's a convenient slot-loading model but only writes using the DVD-R and -RW format. The bay is hot-swappable, though, allowing you to add an extra battery or even fork out for a dual-format drive.

The insides provide little to criticise. The Pentium-M chip runs at 1.6GHz and pushed the Aspire to an impressive 1.46 in our intensive 2D tests. That score is helped by 512MB of PC2100 memory, and there's a fast 60GB hard disk that will also keep hoarders happy. But at £1,299, only the best components will do, so ATi's Mobility Radeon 9200 graphics chip was a little less than we expected. It managed 6,806 in 3DMark 2001 SE (1,024 x 768 at 32-bit colour depth), so it will cope with most current games, but hard-core gamers should look elsewhere.

Watching a DVD was a joy, though, with the stereo speakers providing plenty of volume, while the 1,280 x 800 screen gave sharp, bright playback with well-defined colours and superb viewing angles. Text and 2D graphics work was equally impressive. But if it's not up to your standards, an S-Video port and a VGA output let you connect to external screens.

The keyboard is large, making good use of the space available, and we enjoyed typing on it thanks to its feel and layout. The huge touchpad is nice and responsive too, with some equally large (if slightly stiff) buttons and a four-way navigation pad. Lastly, battery life was exemplary, lasting for over two hours in our intensive test and nearly four under light use.

Despite our reservations about its multimedia aspirations, the 2003WLMi is still an excellent notebook. The keyboard and processing speed are high points, and fitting a high-quality widescreen TFT into a sub-3kg notebook is impressive, as is the more than ample battery life. The price is a little high, but what it offers is unique in the market, earning it our recommendation.