Acer Travelmate Laptops

If you need a good laptop for school, business, or pleasure then you might consider going with the Acer Travelmate laptop series.  Their line of Travelmates fills a niche in the laptop world that is left wide open from competitors like Apple, Sony, and other laptop manufacturers.  That niche is to make business class machines, but at an affordable price.  That is really what Acer is all about and so if you want a good deal you should take a look at their laptops.

The Acer Travelmate really is ideal for students as well because they are not going to have a ton of extra money to spend on super premium brands like Apple or Sony.  Acer has proven itself to make reliable and quality machines, so you should feel confident in going with this as a brand choice over the pricier options. 

Now the Acer Travelmates are a great line of laptop, and you can buy a full range of different machines, ranging from small in size for portability all the way up to full desktop replacement machines that are heavy and designed with power in mind.  But of course now there is a new game in town and that of course is the advent of the netbook.  Acer is a huge part of this netbook revolution with their Aspire One line of netbooks that has been competing directly with other netbook brands such as Asus, HP, and MSI.  The reason that the Aspire One took off in popularity so quickly was due to widespread distribution at a rock bottom price.  You can buy it at just about any electronics superstore or even at Walmart, and the price has always been significantly lower than most other netbooks that compete with it. 

You would think that with this rock bottom pricing that the Aspire One would be a shoddy machine, but it turns out that this is not the case.  The Aspire One holds its own very well, and generally clocks in with pretty impressive battery life run times, decent ergonomics, and a feature set that is comparable with other netbooks.  Really what you have to decide is if you are capable of using a netbook as your secondary machine for work on the run.  You will want to test this out thoroughly before you make a decision between the Aspire One and the Travelmate line of notebooks.  To do so, I would suggest that you go to an electronics Superstore (or Walmart) that carries the Aspire One and do some actual typing on a display model.  You will note that the Aspire One comes in at least 2 main flavors: 8 inch screen and 10 inch screen.  These machines will have different sized keyboards as well, and for the most part this is where you are going to find out if you can live with the machine or not.  Try out some real typing on each size and see what you can live with.  If you can live with the smaller size and type fast and error free on it, then go with that one because it is a number of advantages over larger machines: more portable, lighter weight, longer battery life, cheaper price.  This is going to a be a general rule for pretty much any laptop comparison.  Always go with the smallest machine that you are comfortable using to get real work done.  Test, test, test!

Now if you do your extensive typing tests at the store and find that neither Aspire One machine is really big enough for your tastes, then you should step up to the Travelmate series of laptops and do some comparison shopping there.  Try to find a store that carries a few Travelmates and you can make your comparisons there.  They are bigger than netbooks and start out with a 12 inch screen and range right on up to a huge desktop replacement, so you can get pretty much any size that you are comfortable with.  Of course they vary as far as features and specifications so you will have to determine what exactly you want and need in your laptop so that you can make the best buying decision.

There are plenty of options to choose from and this is a solid and reliable brand.  If you go with an Acer you will be pleased both on price and on quality.