Someone I know recently picked up this machine. His requirement was simple - the cheapest laptop you can buy as a stop gap measure while a more expensive DELL arrived from US. A dealer friend of his recommended an Acer at a good discount. So he bought it and since Indian stores have a no-return-no-refund policy, I would say he is stuck with it.
The model features basic specs - AMD Sempron CPU (upto 1.8GHz), 256MB RAM (shared with Video Chipset), 15’’ widescreen bright LCD (1280x800 native resolution), WiFi-G, 10/100 Mbps NIC, 56.6Kbps Modem, DVD Writer, 60GB FDD, 5 USB ports, TouchPad.
NO - FDD, Serial, Parallel, Firewire, S-Video, Card Reader.
The most irritating problem is the instability of the LCD panel. Even in the slightest of breeze, the damn thing keeps shaking like an old man’s chin. Makes reading very difficult.
View the videos here to see it for yourself: (700K files)
https://rapidshare.de/files/17081491/MOV00153_001.AVI
https://rapidshare.de/files/17081530/MOV00154_001.AVI
Cheaper laptops by HP/Compaq, IBM & Dell dont have this problem. Hell, even Zenith laptops dont have this problem.
Second irritating problem is the touchpad. While better than most, the vertical scroll function is quirky. Once it starts to scroll, it does not stop till the end of page is reached.
A third irritation is the drivers or the lack of them: Not only doesn’t Acer provide no Windows OS with this (only root shell linux), it doesn’t bundle any kind of drivers either.
It took me quite a while to figure out the various Acer websites before downloading the drivers. Once downloaded, the drivers were easy to install. The wireless works well. Battery lasts approx 2.5 - 3 hours.
I could not register the laptop on the net, because the site reported that a notebook with this serial cannot exist (or something similar).
A full list of its hardware specs can be downloaded here: (Lavasys Everest Report)
https://rapidshare.de/files/17082072/acer_aspire_3003.mht
If you are a casual user, wanting a laptop for Internet/MS Office, this is quite good for its price (36K).
All other power users will find this laptop unsuitable for their requirements and should be willing to shell out more for higher versions.
Be sure to rate my review and/or drop me a line,
Hope this helps.