Acer Travelmate C202TMi

Where most convertibles use a pivot that allows the screen to twist round and lie back down, the Acer Travelmate C202TMi has a sliding mechanism that looks as though it was copied from a deckchair.

This convertible tablet is simple to use and holds the screen at a good natural viewing angle, providing enough support to prevent screen shake when you type.

The 12.1in screen is the clearest and brightest in this round-up, but we feel there’s no need to include Geforce Go6200 graphics adapter; an integrated Intel 915G chip is adequate for a tablet.

We got a horrible shock when our battery tests reported a life of 32 minutes, which hardly gives you enough time to check your email, let alone give a presentation.

However, further investigation showed that Acer supplies two batteries with this model; a small three-cell 2,000mAh unit for those occasions when you won’t be far from a mains cable, and a bigger six-cell 4,800mAh battery for proper mobile working. Acer can supply a second six-cell Mediabay battery as an optional extra.

The layout of the Acer is excellent, with a dual-layer Lite-on DVD writer on the left side, as well as an SD slot, PC Card slot, Lan and modem ports.

On the back there’s a docking station connector and on the right are the audio jacks, three USB, a mini Firewire and a VGA port.

The downside is that the Acer weighs in at a fairly hefty 2.45kg, which will discourage mobile working

This article is part of a group test. All articles in the test are as follows:

Intro
Acer Travelmate C202TMi
Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook P1510
HP Compaq tc4200 PV984ET
Motion Computing LS800
Toshiba Tecra M4
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
Editor's Choice

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