ACER ASPIRE 1350

VERDICT: An entry-level machine that manages to pair performance and price in one large, but sturdy chassis

Acer continue to be one of the most aggressive manufacturers of new laptops, with hardly a month going by without the company releasing a new machine. The Acer Aspire 1350 (£931 inc. VAT) is aimed at the home user on a budget. The uniform grey of the casing may not look particularly inspiring but the toughened plastic does create a high-build quality, with extra protection placed behind the 15-inch TFT panel.

The chassis of the Aspire is large, it measures 333 x 285 x 50mm and with an overall weight of 3.7kg, we expect that the Aspire will spend a great deal of its life on a desktop. As such, it's quite capable of handling day-to-day tasks.

PROCESSOR
In order to keep costs to a minimum, the Aspire is built around the AMD Athlon XP-M 2800+ processor. For comparison purposes, this chip has a speed of 2.08GHz and along with the 512MB of DDR SDRAM and 40GB hard drive, produced a MobileMark of 147. Such a score is more than satisfactory to run the latest applications with ease. In use, we found the Aspire to be a responsive laptop that had no obvious performance flaws.

This processor is the closest that AMD has come to producing a chip to rival the Intel Pentium M. The company has done this by reducing the package size of the processor down to 0.13-microns, which allows for lower power consumption. Also, the chips allow support for integrated 802.11b WLAN connections. Therefore, even in the cheaper price brackets, buyers can opt for a Wi-Fi solution.

MOTHERBOARD
VIA is one of a small number of companies to support this processor, so it comes as no surprise that the motherboard is supplied by VIA - the UniChrome KM400 motherboard and chipset - which also provides the integrated graphics. This integrated solution can use up to 64MB of system memory. The screen that the VIA chipset supports is of good quality, with the panel having no signs of patina or dead pixels. Less impressive was the 3DMark that this card scored, which was 965. Such a score offers adequate 2D performance but will not be able to handle anything but the most rudimentary of 3D applications. If you are looking for a laptop for multimedia or gaming, then this system should not be considered.

Aside from the wireless capabilities of the Aspire 1350, there are two Type II PC Card slots, which are located under the Pioneer DVD Rewriter. NTI DVD Maker software and CyberLink PowerDVD are supplied preinstalled for use with the drive. Grouped tightly together on the rear of the case, there are four USB 2.0 ports. A single mini-FireWire port is placed rather more conveniently on the left-hand side of the case.

The keyboard is small with the keys initially feeling cramped, but as it's placed in the centre of the chassis, keys are convenient to reach. The touchpad is recessed so cannot be accidentally struck when typing. The mouse buttons are small and rather fiddly to use. The keys feel rather cheap and we found that adding an external mouse made life easier when using this system.

The Acer Aspire 1350 doesn't hold any real surprises but then again, there are no obvious flaws. We liked the quality of the display and the keyboard, smaller than we would have liked, was of good quality. While battery life was less than ideal, in such a machine it is less of a priority. Users looking for processing performance from an affordable system will be impressed with the Aspire 1350.

PRICE: £793/£931 (EX/INC. VAT)
PROCESSOR: AMD ATHLON XP-M 2800+
MEMORY: 512MB DDR SDRAM
HARD DRIVE: IBM 40GB
SCREEN SIZE AND TYPE: 15-INCH TFT
DISPLAY RESOLUTION: 1024 X 768 PIXELS
GRAPHICS CARD: VIA KM400
DIMENSIONS: 333 X 285 X 50MM
WEIGHT: 3.7KG
PC CARDS (TYPE II/III): 2/1
WIRELESS LAN: 802.11B
ETHERNET: YES
MODEM: YES
USB PORTS: 4 USB 2.0
FIREWIRE: 1
STANDARD WARRANTY: 1 YR RTB
WARRANTY UPGRADE: THROUGH DSG
CONTACT: 0870 900 2237 WWW.ACER.CO.UK

RATINGS AND TEST RESULTS

BATTERY LIFE: 125 MINS
MOBILEMARK 2002: 147
3DMARK 2001: 965

VALUE FOR MONEY: 7
PERFORMANCE: 5
FEATURES: 6
MOBILITY: 4
BUILD QUALITY: 7
OVERALL: 6