Acer TravelMate 2480
The Acer TravelMate 2480 has super-low $539 price. And luckily, said bargain hunters won't be disappointed. You don't get many bells and whistles, but this portable 14.1-inch system delivers a good mix of features and performance for the money.
the TravelMate 2480 silver-and-black case compact and aesthetically pleasing. Flipping open the lid reveals a 14.1-inch, 1280 x 800-pixel widescreen display. As with the TravelMate 2480 the TravelMate 2480 's screen looked a bit washed out and dull, even with the brightness settings cranked. Watching DVDs was less than thrilling, but the matte-finish screen is fine for Word processing and surfing the Web.
Looking further down you'll notice a built-in microphone, ostensibly for voice calling via VoIP, as well as a keyboard and touchpad. The smile-shaped keyboard involves a very small alternative curve for touch typists and delivered good tactile feedback. The TravelMate 2480 touchpad was smooth and accurate, and we found the directional rocker control a welcome addition, especially for Web surfing.
Around the edges, the TravelMate 2480 sports a nice mix of inputs and outputs. On the front, the TravelMate 2480 features three inline audio jacks (mic, headphone, and analog input), plus a Wi-Fi switch. A slot for flash media cards resides on the left edge, standard on all TravelMates, and reads MultiMediaCard, Secure Digital, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, and xD-Picture cards. Below that is an ExpressCard slot.
Further along the edge you'll notice one USB port and an S-Video output. Around back you'll find an Ethernet jack and two more USB ports. The modem jack and a CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive are on the right. We found the lack of a DVD writer disappointing but completely understandable for the price.
As far as performance goes, the TravelMate 2480 runs on a 1.6-MHz Celeron M processor, which sputtered a bit when loading up Internet Explorer, PowerDVD, and Windows Media Player. Similarly, the TravelMate 2480 turned in a below-average 1,240 on PCMark05. We filed this away as a reasonable sacrifice to the bargain gods; nonetheless, you won't be soaring through any applications with this budget notebook.
For simple tasks, the TravelMate 2480 's 512MB of DDR II SDRAM (expandable to 2GB) performed fine, even with multiple Explorer windows and Web-browsing tabs open and music playing, with little to no slowdown. Add a virus scan in the background, though, and you might as well take your lunch break. The 5,400-rpm hard drive barely made a peep, and we appreciate the 80GB of storage space. The hard drive is protected with Disk Anti-Shock Protection but doesn't include an accelerometer to protect it and your data from falls.
The base model comes bundled with Vista Basic but tepid buyers can opt for the XP Professional-powered TravelMate 2480, which sports the same specs, for $80 more.
While ePower Management does help with squeezing every bit of juice from the TravelMate 2480 's lithium-ion battery, we got only about 1 hour and 44 minutes on a DVD rundown test--below average for a thin-and-light notebook. Even so, you should be able to get about 2.5 hours of life when performing regular productivity tasks.
Better news for students in cramped dorms or businesspeople exiled to coffee shops is that the TravelMate 2480 performed admirably on our wireless strength tests, especially for a non-draft N system: The TravelMate 2480 managed about 15.6 Mbps at 15 feet and 13.2 Mbps at 50 feet, which is right on target for a system of this class.
The TravelMate 2480's bottom line will certainly satisfy cash-strapped students or home users on very tight budgets, as the price is among the lowest you'll find. If you don't mind having a slightly smaller 14-inch display, which offers a balance between mobility and screen real estate compared with 15.4-inch models, the Acer TravelMate 2480 is a very good deal
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