Acer TravelMate C110: Centrino infused Tablet PC
by Andrew Ku on September 19, 2003 2:15 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Features — Hardware and Software
It would prove inconvenient to use the C110 as a notebook without a drive to load CDs. Though, a built-in drive in a tablet PC isn’t that practical because it would draw additional power and adds unnecessarily weight for an on-the-go purpose. This is why the standard C110 comes with a slim external firewire optical drive. Of the two models for the C110 (C110TCi and the C110Ti), we have the C110TCi, which comes with a combo CD-RW/DVD drive. It is interesting to note that the drive housing is made by AOpen, an Acer subsidiary. The drive itself is made by Sony and is swappable. In theory, it is possible to get a swappable hard drive or another device and swap back and forth between them. The external drive still draws power, but an AC power adapter is included.
As expected for a tablet PC, the C110 comes with Microsoft Windows XP tablet PC Edition preloaded. We cannot reiterate how much better this is over a regular copy of Windows XP with a 3rd party handwriting recognition program.
Acer preloads a few general applications. The C110 is apparently supposed to ship with Office XP, CyberLink PowerDVD, NTI CD-Maker, Norton AntiVirus 2003, and hotkey and management software. PowerDVD will serve its purpose just fine, but NTI CD-Maker will take a bit of time to get used to, compared to Easy CD Creator. Our sample came with everything minus Office XP. While Office XP was lacking, we instead had a beta sample of Office 2003 pre-loaded for us. This seemed to be more aesthetically appealing and seemed to have a few quality improvements over Office XP when we were using it in tablet PC mode.
The hotkey utility controls the five hotkeys situated above the keyboard. The wireless button toggles 802.11 WiFi and/or Bluetooth connectivity. Our sample didn’t come with Bluetooth, and so naturally that option was not available for us. The default is not to have 802.11 WiFi active when booted up, but this can be changed within the hotkey utility.
As noted before, there are two unprogrammed hotkeys, which can be assigned to a specific program in the utility. While the wireless button can’t be reassigned, the email and internet hotkeys can.
There is only one significant program that lets you get a grapple on the C110’s various settings. Of the several options in the Notebook Manager, boot sequence and the BIOS password can be set without the hassle of actually entering the BIOS.
The power scheme settings for the C110 are only those basic built-in schemes for Windows XP. This was as expected, but it would be nice to see specific schemes like that of IBM mobile systems. It would be further recommended that one of the hotkeys be default to access the Notebook Manager, as this utility will likely come into frequent use and is an official configuration utility.
The Invilink icon is visible in the Notebook Manager and on the top of the system’s casing, and is mentioned several times in the product manual. Simply put, this dubbing is nothing more than Acer’s name for wireless connectivity.
As it goes for all tablet PCs, there are buttons near the screen. These buttons can be reassigned to other actions, and the addition of a function button allows for more actions to be assigned, since each button can now have two purposes. This is definitely welcomed, since it only helped us perform common actions while being away from the keyboard.
Click to enlarge.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
6 Comments
View All Comments
BlueFish - Wednesday, March 23, 2005 - link
Oh, one more thing to add. I asked the guy why should I bring it in, given that they had replaced the card. His response: "Maybe they replaced the wireless card with a faulty wireless card" - this was the reason for bringing it in so they could test it further. This is incredible! Acer support staff can do that? I'm guessing that their quality assurance processes must be horrible and that they can't even guarantee the wireless card is not faulty BEFORE you put it into a notebook!!!BlueFish - Wednesday, March 23, 2005 - link
I couldn't have made a bigger mistake. I was impressed by this unit. I totally bought the whole idea, tablet PC, small, light, tiny, hand recognition. What I got instead was wasted time, useless unit, horrible support and a real waste of money. Here goes a brief run down. If anybody from acer is reading this, you'd better get your act together, because stories like this only scare away consumers.1. Purchased the laptop in Jan (mid). Also purchased an external battery charger. Seemed like a good idea (given it came with 2).
2. Noticed that the laptop didn't shutdown well. Everytime I booted into the unit, it would hang, windows would go into grief and you needed to do it a few times before it decided to be useful.
3. Tried full system restore using Acer disks. Failed to be fixed.
4. Brought it into Acer's repair center. Wow, they guarentee 2 hour turn around. Only problem is, they're not quite in a convenient location. So it'll take you like 2 hours to get there and back anyway. Add it all up, that's 4 hours of wasted time. To top it all off, they are only open from 9 - 5. So what do they expect? customers to take time off work just to fix a stupid PC problem?
5. Got the unit back. Unit boots properly (yay).
6. Noticed the unit's Wireless IP stack keeps dumping. I'd drop a wireless connection many times and often just 5 mtrs away from a Netgear G wireless router. Rang Acer support - put on hold for 20 mins. Finally got through. Reported it and brought it back to the Acer repair center (again). Wasted another 4 hours.
7. Got a call to pick up the unit. Picked it up. The job form indicated they replaced the wireless card.
8. Got it that night and tried out the wireless. Same problem. Noticed that the problem occured depending on what software was running (seems very strange). This was MSN i was attempting to run and it caused the IP stack to dump! Discovered others are having this problem! Why didn't Acer support tell me of this?? instead of wasting my time. I'm a consultant and I hate to have to do these things because I'll have to make the hrs up later. Will Acer pay for my wasted time?
9. Called service support (again). Spoke to the support guy who wasn't very helpful, nor very sympathetic. Not even apologetic. He didn't even say sorry. What a bastard! I've had to waste almost 2 freekin working days and he didn't even have the courtesy to say sorry.
10. Worst still. I've discovered that the second battery they provided - which use to work - now doesn't even charge. I think it's the external charger. It's a bit flimsy in construction and could cause damage to the battery unit. I just tried the primary battery (the one that was working) and now it doesn't work. Probably because I used the external battery charger. Now I have two dud batteries. And to top it all off, you can't even use direct AC power (ie. run the laptop without a working battery). So if one day, the battery dies, forget using the power adaptor cos the unit's dead.
11. Service support said to bring it in again to the Acer support center to have a look again. I asked whether they were willing to replace the entire unit - no answer. The helpdesk guy IGNORED me. Asked if they were going to pickup and deliver they said no. So I have to waste another 4 hours to fix the unit, with no guarantees that after that it will be fixed. Asked for a total refund, they said no.
Am I wrong to expect so much from Acer? I don't think so. If I pay peanuts for something, I would expect peanuts. I'd say, "fair enough, it was cheep anyway. I can get another one... easy no fuss". But I paid AUD $3,700 for this product - an easy price for a plasma TV or LCD TV and now have incurred the following charges:
1. Transport charges to the service center (say 80 bucks)
2. Wasted time waiting and travelling (Say 1000 a day as a consultant) - 16 hours.
If you are looking for a good laptop - stay away from anybody who cannot deliver. Especially stay away unless they have the following:
1. Pickup and delivery of the laptop.
2. Willingness to stand behind their product
3. Renown product support.
Forget Acer's 2 hour guarantee. It's not much considering they don't pickup. You waste time doing all of that. And to sit there and wait 2 hours... forget it.
Acer - fix your products and do some real testing of them. Until then, everybody else, stay away from this pathetic, useless, counter productive vendor - you'll be a happier man/woman.
tomaal - Sunday, December 12, 2004 - link
so what are these rubber bits on the side of the monitor? I thought they might be some kind of speaker mounts, but I cant find any. Are they just bumpers to protect it?Andrew Ku - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link
Nope it isn't bud. Check again. That isn't a true convertible notebook. It is just a slate with the ability to attach a keyboard.Anonymous User - Saturday, September 20, 2003 - link
Umm, you are forgetting the Compaq Tablet PC which is also a convertible.Poopship - Tuesday, December 18, 2012 - link
Gross