Two years back I was fascinated by this 12" ultraportable size having a faster processor, glossy screen, chick look, long battery life and almost all the required inputs for multi-media use. That prompted me to go for Acer Travelmate 6291after reading some reviews.
Got a delivery in a day for about 50K in Oct 2007.
It is thin-and-light, widescreen, a bluetooth and Wi-Fi, 64 bit Intel Core 2 Duo(not dualcore) T5500 / 1.66 GHz processor, 160 GB Hard disk, integrated 1.3PM webcam, 5 in 1 card reader/writer, 3 USB ports, S-video out and a Firewire port. What else one could expect from a laptop. The laptop is still working very nicely and is my integral part of using it on Skype and other audio/video chat and conference programs.
Basically computer is fast and efficient. BVut it has to perform as a laptop, ultra portable, carry anywhere notebook. However, with the passage of time I realised operational problems that are the negative sides of this particular laptop.
They are:
1.Keys are flimsy, clumsy and sticky.
2.Space key was not working within 15 days, had to wait over a month for replacement, we accepted the laptop back with replaced keyboard in a hurry as we were to go outstation and needed a laptop there.Till date I need to press spacebar hard to get a space.
3.The cursor jumps up to a previous sentence while busy keying in text. This has been happening right from the start and there seem to be no solution for this.
4.Glossy screen is a real problem if you are going to use it in a vehicle or for that matter it works well only in a home/office but wherever there is a reflection it becomes difficult to work.
5.The supplied OS, Windows Vista Business really sucks. Together with bundled security software makes your PC run slower at times. This can be solved using XP and also by removing or replacing some heavy security programs.
6.With experience I can say that it’s very difficult to be comfortable with a screen size less than 14". 15" screen is the ideal for a laptop.
7.S-video never worked.
Pros:
Many good things:Good webcam, fast processor, plenty of connectors.
Cons: Difficult to type on. At home I attach an external key-board., useless keyboard. Smaller screen size, crystalbrite-glossy screen and a jumping cursor.
The service was reasonably good but they were helpless as they had to depend on supplies from Korea(a changed keyboard).
The cons are overwhelming in day to day operation.which would prompt to give me to 1* rating to this laptop.
My advice will be to go for a matte screen, at least 14".15" would be very nice, try to have a trackball also, have a look at keys.spacing, whether comfortable for long typing when buying your next laptop(of course apart from Tech specs).