Acer Plans A 16 lb. Notebook

jagger writes "Well not exactly gigantic but at 16 pounds and sporting a 17-inch screen this thing is stretching the term portable. It also features a 3EGHz Pentium 4, 1GB of RAM, a 7200rpm 160gb hard disk, DVD-burner and the kitchen sink. ZDNet has a rundown of all of this beast's features." This sounds like a joke (or a typo), but the story says otherwise.

More large portables, great!

[Sparr0]

This is very much not a joke. The world needs more large portables. A laptop has its place, but there are times when I need a desktop PC that is just portable. I am working on putting a modern PC into an old IBM luggable right now for this very reason. Check out the Max Pac [maxvision.com] for some more insight into this, they put a desktop PC into a briefcase with a 21" LCD on the side.

more storeable than portable

[pwarf]

This would be great for some college students. A large part of the appeal of a laptop is that you can put it away and reclaim your desk space easily. Also, occassionally moving it to a friend's apartment or a research lab wouldn't be nearly as big a deal as a normal desktop system.

Anyway, I think my physics book weighed about that much ...

Luggable

[kwandar]

When I bought my first computer, a heavy metal Kaypro (those of you who had an Osbourne might remember), it was referred to as a "luggable".

I think this falls into that category.

Re:Poor move..

[metlin]

I agree. The only thing thats actually big about this notebook (other than the size ofcourse) is the hard-drive - the rest are nothing *that* great.

However, one selling point maybe the fact that this notebook is just $1,499 - which is quite cheap considering the configuration (and the fact that if you are a gamer, it comes with Nvidia's GeForce FX Go 5200 graphics card).

The rest of the features are cool, but nothing *so* special. Honestly, I would rather have a desktop for way lesser price than a beast that weighs so much.

Re:Poor move... I disagree

[timmy0tool]

If they can put laptops on peoples desk, that means a less open architecture, and therefor more revenues later in the product cycle.

Everyone who has meetings will want one if it's as fast as a desktop simply for the fact it's a laptop. I've known directors who get a new laptop every year, but don't even move it, it's simply for looks.

Battery life?

[lake2112]

Who wants to a laptop that will probably have a 45 minute battery life?

I'd buy it

[microbox]

I've always wanted a portable desktop computer. Desktops costs less, but they're a pain to take too/from work. I don't think 16lb is any more than the books a high school student has in their bags (well mine weighed that much). Sure there's lots of people out there who want a laptop that's the size of a PDA, but there _is_ a middle ground =)

Bad idea

[mao che minh]

Bad idea. Our local HP reseller can get the ultra slim D530 and comparable Compaq units for about $1,000 cheaper, and after adding peripherals and a monitor we would still be saving at least $200-300.

Any pro's won in the portability of these systems over traditional desktops is easily countered: there are far lighter laptops available.

This is the most tremendously ignorant engineering move in laptop computing that I have ever borne witness to.

Re:Not a poor move

[skiflyer]

Couldn't agree more.

My situation is an apartment setup such that there is no real desk/work area. There's the counter, the kitchen table, and a little table by the couch/tv.

Now, if I needed this kind of power/screen real-estate, it would make sense to me, it's never going to leave the apartment, but it's a nice computer that I can work on where I want within my apartment, and put in the closet when company comes over.

I also have other requirments which have lead me to a different purchase, but my point is simply to provide an example for your point.

Re:Poor move..

[kfg]

There's a real use for large, heavy, transportable desktop replacements. The problem is, that once you get up to that size and weight the laptop is a very poor format. What you want is an "old fashioned" lunchpail type machine.

KFG

Re:Powerbook.......all the way

[qwertme]

I have the same model, and it's not only the best laptop, the best computer I have ever had period. It's also my first Mac :)

Re:Poor move..

[DrunkenTerror]

Everyone be dissing my 5200, but I got it on the cheap, and all the games I've ever tried to play on it has been more than adequate. So what's up with it? What's so shitty about it? I ask only for information.

Sigs are for losers

And people made fun of Apple...

[jht]

Back to the future here - I remember all the criticism of the Macintosh Portable [lowendmac.com] back in 1989 when it came out. "16 pounds!" was the cry. But what it had was the first active matrix LCD and a big honkin' lead-acid battery that would run forever (for the time).

Of course, I think Apple sold like ten of them.

It's kind of funny that it's taken 15 years to get back to the 16-pound laptop again. Go figure. You knew this was coming, though, when Apple and all the Wintel companies started going to 17" screens. Someone was bound to try it.

Re:Powerbook.......all the way

[haystor]

Just out of curiousity, how much does a 17" powerbook with 1G of ram cost?

Re:Powerbook.......all the way

[Slack3r78]

I just hope you're ready for the screen problems nearly every Vaio I've seen eventually develops. After a couple of years, the bottom half of the screen tends to go dark while the top half remains as it was. I've seen this across many models and generations of Sony laptops and I've heard other techs that have noticed the same thing. Don't know what it is, but it seems to be a common thing with the Vaios.

Untethered from the desk

[skoda]

I'm interested in this notebook. It's priced and featured closer to a desktop than most portables, but it would allow me to move around the house and work in the office, kitchen, living room, etc. I don't need lightweight for that; I'm not traveling with it. I may represent a small market, but I find this very interesting.

Re:Poor move..

[afidel]

Hmm, there's some major contradictions going on in Acer's site. Under features is says "Under 7 lb. (heaviest model)" but then under dimensions it says "14.1 lb. (6.4kg) with combo drive, 15.7 lb. (7.1kg) with combo drive and battery". Either way you know it's bad news when the manufacturers claimed battery life is only "up to 1.0 hour life depending on configuration and usage"! Btw for anyone who really wants a desktop replacement and they don't mind the weight they should look at lugables, these are integrated boxes the size of a carry-on suitcase that contain a standard desktop motherboard, an LCD, and a keyboard which is normally positioned to cover the LCD for travel. I've seen em used by RGIS to dump the data from the counters little numeric pads for inventory purposes. It looked like they needed these instead of a laptop because the interface board was PCI.

Those interested in a direct link

[donovangn]

Doesn't look terrible [acer.com]. I wouldn't mind having an inexpensive luggable desktop myself. Dragging my machine into my living room when I'm watching TV would help me pretend to get that much more work done.

Re:More large portables, great!

[Aphrika]

This is true. Turn the argument on its head and view it as a lightweight all-in-one desktop and it starts to make sense - albeit a bad implementation in this instance.

It makes sense to IT departments who have to lug these things off to install/fix/upgrade them.

It makes sense to people who need all the computing power they can get, and move between offices on a weekly basis, rather than 'road warriors' who work from the front seat of their car.

Put simply - there's a market for all-in-one mobile computing devices - not a huge one, but it exists. Laptops are fine, but there are always trade-offs in performance for you to get that mobility. Ironically though, this is where the Acer falls down; there are better performance mobile components out there that will do this job better. So while the concept is right, the component mix is a little behind the times and I for one would prefer something like a Dell Inspiron 9100 to get the job done. It's not the Calista Flockhart of mobility, but it's not the 900lb gorilla either.

Re:1-hour battery life, 2 hours to charge

[PCM2]

<moe>Whaa-a-aa-aaa?</moe>

By comparison, Apple's 6.9-pound, 17-inch PowerBook packs a "58-watt-hour lithium-ion battery (with integrated charge indicator LEDs) providing up to 4.5 hours of battery life."

So basically, this is a notebook that's too heavy to carry and has too short a battery life to use when not plugged in. I am ... baffled.

And a workplace system that comes with a DVD burner? Terrific. I know IT departments that don't even allow CD-RW drives for most of the workforce. I predict a new software market: "virus" scanning software that will alert admins whenever a copy of DVD2One is installed...

Re:Poor move..

[Gherald]

*sigh, yes, but you have to have a solid surface to set on. It is not as versatile as a large laptop, which can be used pretty much anywhere, even on your lap if you can stand the weight for awhile and are only using it briefly.

Re:Powerbook.......all the way

[Chanc_Gorkon]

That as they say....depends.....

I was looking for a small laptop equipped with:

DVD burner
Decent amount of ram
Ability to edit video
Firewire
USB 2.0
At LEAST 40 GB hard disk
WiFi

I found all of this for around $1799 in a 12in Powerbook. I know, I said I wanted to edit video.....I added a 120 GB external hard disk. I use this to archive projects and when I am working on a large project. The CLOSEST I came in a laptop not only cost more, but weighed more as well.

Also, the 17 inch PB is not much thicker then my 12 inch. Just like people did not understand why folks paid 400-500 for ye olde Palm V when it was released (when the Palm III with mor memory cost less), people don't understand why the 17 Inch Powerbook costs less. The smaller it is, the harder it is to make. Almost every PC laptop I see is thicker then most Macs are and if they are the same thickness, there's tradeoffs....like external CDRW/DVD_R drives. My only beef....include packet writing to RW media in the OS. Even windows doesn't do this yet.

I also hazard to guess that the LCD in the Acer is no where near the quality of the one in the Powerbook. I have NEVER seen better LCD's then the ones in all Apple products.

YMMV, but Apple does have decent systems and while somethings aren't cheap, there's enough variety in the line to make the price similar.

Re:Poor move..

[brucmack]

You are exactly right. I was working in local IT support and development last year... all of the new laptops they've bought since the IBM P4 laptops came out have been faster than all of the servers save one. And adding up the disk space on all the laptops and desktops in the building would dwarf the total size in our server room.

The one server that was more powerful was a terminal server that 20-30 users ran on while in the office. This is actually rather on-topic, because it was a very cost-effective way of doing things. All of the employees had laptops for working at home, and having a terminal server with lots of dumb terminals was a cost-effective way to give them a higher performance machine while in the office. And since they were all getting Centrino notebooks, they were happier using their laptops as laptops as well, without having the need to use it as a desktop.