Acer Aspire 2003WLMi review

Feeling energetic?

You'd better be. At 3kg, you'll need some muscle power if you want to lug this notebook any further than the distance than between the car and the house. But there is a reason for it being so big and heavy: it has to accommodate a 15.5in widescreen display.

Of course, size isn't everything - but when you've got a whopper you do want to make the most of it. This being the case, it's a bit strange that such a large screen has a relatively low native resolution of 1280x800. A higher resolution would have let you fit more on the screen. Don't be put off, though - colours are bright and clean, flesh tones natural and you can see clearly what's on the screen, even from the most awkward angles.

Of course, there's no use having a big screen if your PC can't deliver top-notch graphics to it. Happily, the Aspire has a 64MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 graphics chipset. Working with the 1.6GHz processor, this delivers an impressive 3DMark score of 6,787 points, more than enough for today's games.

Despite the lack of and tell-tale blue and pink sticker, the Acer has another big attraction: it uses Intel's Centrino technology. This means the Aspire has built-in wireless networking, as well as sophisticated power management technology to prolong its battery life. It does this by tricks such as turning down processor and 3D performance while the PC is performing less demanding jobs.

There's also plenty of storage space on the Aspire's 60GB hard disk - great for storing things like MP3s and video files. If you want to make backup copies of your data, there's also a DVD-RAM DVD writer. Further storage options are offered by a four-in-one card reader located at the front of the notebook, which works with Secure Digital, Smart Media, MMC and Memory Stick cards. There's also a single Type II PC Card slot.

The Aspire lasted for an hour and 55 minutes in our intensive battery life test - respectable, but not stunning. This test is far more demanding that everyday use, though - so in practice the Aspire will offer you a reasonable amount of time away from a power point.

At the front of the notebook's chassis is something Acer calls the 'Arcade' button. This opens its multimedia playback software, allowing you to play music and videos as well as look at photos without starting up Windows. It's fairly easy to use, and lets you browse folders on the PC for media files. To see how the Acer's multimedia functions fared, we played back a number of action sequences from DVD movies - the kind of thing that stretches many notebooks. The Aspire 2003WLMi coped admirably. Being able to play the movies in their native widescreen format is a definite plus, and made viewing a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Sound quality is also above average for a notebook. We were sceptical about how much difference a built-in subwoofer could make, but we were pleasantly surprised. It adds a little extra oomph to action scenes and games. Speakers are located either side of the keyboard. The keyboard itself is comfortable to use, with full-sized letter and number keys, and with function keys such as backspace and the shift button similarly proportioned. However, there isn't as much travel in the keys as we would have liked. As we were used to hitting the keys harder, we often ended up with several full stops when we wanted only one.

Mouse pads seem to be getting smaller on notebooks, as makers look to save space. With the 2003WLMi that's not an issue. Acer has made the most of the large chassis by including a decent-sized mouse pad, with large sturdy buttons and a four-way third button. However, this pushes the keyboard right back, and as this is already a larger-than-average chassis, partly thanks to the Arcade media controls, it means that when you're typing wrists and forearms are resting on the case. This won't suit all users.