Acer TravelMate 6291

The perfect mate for travel

By CHONG JINN XIUNG

TRAVELMATE 6291 (Acer) Portable notebook PC Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 (1.66GHz) Memory: 1GB DDR2 RAM Graphics: Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 950 (224MB RAM) Display: 12.1in LCD (1,280 x 800pixels) Storage: 120GB SATA hard disk, 8x DVD double layer drive Connectivity: WiFi (802.11a/b/g), 56Kbps modem, Bluetooth 2.0 I/O ports: 3x USB ports, Firewire port, VGA port, S-Video/TV-out Other features: 5-in-1 card reader, integrated Acer OrbiCam 0.3- megapixel camera Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium Dimensions (w x d x h): 306 x 227 x 27.5/34.5mm Weight: 2.1kg Price: RM3,429 Review unit courtesy of Acer Sales and Services, 1-800-88-1288

The Acer TravelMate 6291 has a very sleek black, solid exterior that is worthy of its business notebook status. Its compact design also makes it easier on business users who need a notebook for their travels.

Weighing 1.8kg, the TravelMate is no heavier than most other portable notebooks and is light enough to be carried about.

As far as mobility is concerned, the TravelMate certainly lives up to its name as a lightweight notebook.

On the inside, the TravelMate has a modestly sized 12.1in LCD but thankfully it comes in a 16:9 widescreen format. This means there is enough screen real estate for the average business user to work around with.

There are three USB ports available on the laptop, though a fourth would have been a nice addition. A nice touch to the design is the inclusion of markers on the top of the notebook to indicate the location of the ports.

Keys, buttons and touchpads

Another highlight of the TravelMate's design is the inclusion of a full size keyboard, which makes typing comfortable. While the keys are not entirely soft – they do make a bit of noise when you type continuously – they do give you solid tactile feedback.

We also like how the keys around the keyboard are arranged in an orderly, easy-to-reach fashion – like how the screen brightness and volume control are tied in with the arrow keys for easy reach. This is especially useful if you want to make a quick adjustment to the volume or brightness.

The touchpad also feels really responsive – while it doesn't feature any fancy shortcuts tied to the corners of the touchpad, it has a useful navigation button that is good for up, down and side scrolling.

At the very right end of the keyboard are some helpful shortcut buttons that give allow to turn on the Bluetooth and WiFi capabilities and access to your web browser and e-mail client.

For work and play

The TravelMate is powered by an Intel Centrino Duo T5500 (1.66GHz) processor. As far as our real-world tests show, the TravelMate is certainly a dependable notebook for multitasking.

To test the TravelMate's performance, we ran a wordprocesser, surfed the Web, played music and watched some videos simultaneously and the notebook performed without any hitches.

Speaking of performance, we tested the TravelMate's battery stamina by playing a movie and some music in the background while surfing the Internet.

We found that the TravelMate was able to last up to three hours with all the applications and WiFi running in the background, certainly more than enough to get some work done while on the go.

The TravelMate isn't all about work though, as it is no slouch when it comes to delivering entertainment.

The little 12in screen makes up in quality where it lacks in size, displaying crystal clear, brightly coloured pictures and videos.

However, while everything looks and plays good, the sole thing that holds the TravelMate back from being a good multimedia notebook is its sound quality. There's simply no distinction between mid-range, bass or treble, resulting in rather "muddy" sounding audio.

Additionally, the TravelMate comes with a built-in Acer Crystal Eye webcam and microphone. These certainly come in handy if you need to make a video-conference call while you are away from home.

And the other stuff

On top of being a feature-packed notebook, the TravelMate comes with some useful preinstalled applications.

At the very core of Acer's list of helpful notebook applications is the collection of widgets (small applications) that help users manage their notebook functions.

Most of the widgets act as shortcuts that provide you quick access to important notebook stuff like selection of wireless networks, power setting adjustments and the toggling of screen resolution for presentations or normal viewing.

Safe and secure

For the paranoid users among us, the TravelMate comes preinstalled with some handy security and backup applications.

The notebook comes with Acer's eDataSecurity Management, an application that allows users to encrypt their documents, files or entire folders with just a right-click of the mouse.

Encrypting and decrypting documents is a simple process that merely involves setting up a password to protect your files – certainly useful if you want to keep your important documents away from prying eyes or make it more difficult for unwanted users to access them even if you have lost your laptop.

Other useful widgets include the eRecovery Management tool that creates a backup image of your system that will sit on your hard disk for easy recovery in the event of a system crash.

Conclusion

The Acer TravelMate 6291 is a dependable notebook that can meet the needs of most mobile users. Its weight of 1.8kg makes it easy to carry around and to top it off, it comes with plenty of helpful preinstalled applications.

The TravelMate is also a capable entertainer, playing movies, music and games while being a serious work machine. However, its built-in speakers are disappointing so it would be wise to invest in a good pair or headphones or portable speakers.

Aside from that, the TravelMate has all the makings of a solid travelling companion for those long journeys away from home.

Pros: Lightweight; good multitasking performance; plenty of helpful preinstalled applications.

Cons: Poor sound quality.