2303Wlmi?

Has anyone had any experiance with this laptop? Would it be suitable for a reasonable portable office/very light games machine? Is £600 a reasonable price to pay for it?

Sorry for so many questions, but I really like the look of this laptop. The wi-fi, DVD rewriter and widescreen are all features that appeal to me.

My desktop machine will remain my gaming powerhouse, but I want something portable to take with me to college. Note taking, essays, and maybe a sneaky game of half life will be all i'll need it for.

Does anyone know what the battery life will be like? I've been told that you can replace the battery with one from the 4000 series for more juice, is this true?

Thanks for all your help, this forum is so great!

 

Hmm, 32 people have looked but no-one has replied. Is the 2303 really that unpopular?

 

Here http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/asp/product.asp?recorprod=1&product=281&cat=96&ph=&keywords=&recor=&SearchFor=&PT_ID= might have it cheaper....
Chrisc

 

This is laptop is good choice for the needs you mentioned . Dont worry about the Celeron M processor , It will give almost same processing power of Pentium -M . Even if you decided to upgrade the processor to pentium M you can do that very easily

As for the battery i have seen newer 2300 models ( some 2303, 2304) comming with 8 celled battery .

Just ask your dealer if its 2200Mah ( 4-celled), if so tell them to give a 4400Mah(8-celled) instead . The price difference might just be $50

Get the widescreen model itself it much better than the regular one

You can get almost 4 hours with the new 8-celled battery in Max battery setting

 

Thanks for the advice.

chriscatt, the website you posted has the 2304Wlmi for the same price. Whats the difference? For some reason the 2303 seems to have a faster processor (1.5 vs 1.3) but a smaller L2 cache (512kb vs. 1mb). What would be the difference in performance?

Thanks again.

EDIT: Just surfed some info, and celerons dont have 1mb caches! Looks like laptopsdirect has got some info wrong. But that would make the 2303 superior to the 2304? Am I missing something?

 

Jabberwock
The first generation Pentium M and Celeron M was based on Banias core which is 130nm
Cache for Pentium -M = 1MB & Celeron M = 512KB

But nowdays we get Pentium M based on DOTHAN core which is 90nm
Cache for Pentium M = 2MB & Celeron M= 1MB

So 2304 Model is based on Dothan core Celeron M with 1MB cache

As for speed 2303 will be better , But if you want new core with increased cache you have to get 2304 or wait for couple of months ..till 1.5 ghz Dothan core based celeron M becomes common in market


Hope this helps

 

Hi Jabberwock, possibly the 2303 is now been replaced by the 2304 and the company you've been looking at is selling off old stock?
I have ordered eight 2354LCi's for the school I work for, and my 1801. I found Laptops Direct to be excellent with meeting delivery times, they even ring to let you know when the items have been despatched, not often you get that....
ChrisC

 

Thanks for the info. Im glad it is possible to upgrade the processor. I plan on using my laptop for quite a while, I dont want it becoming obsolete.

I will probably go with the banias core. The higher clock speed would probably make up for the difference in L2 cache and amazon.co.uk are offering it with free delivery. So yay!

 

Hmm, you could be right. But I still prefer to go for a higher clock speed over larger cache. Plus I save £10 on delivery.

Amazon.co.uk is definately a reputable seller, but they give '1-2 weeks' for delivery time, which is a bit annoying. I like their return policy for defective items though.

EDIT: Just to clarify, I could replace the processor on this laptop with a pentium-m with little difficulty? Seems like laptops have better upgrade potential than I thought...

So basically, if an acer laptop becomes obsolete, it is possible to upgrade the memory, hard drive and processor? If so, thats great news, I always thought laptops were really difficult to upgrade.

 

Hi, delivery cost me £9.99 and I had my laptop two days later. Here is part of my invoice:
Category Description Unit Cost Quantity Cost
Notebook Aspire 1801WSMi Pentium 4 515 (2.93GHz), 512MB(2*256), 60Gb, DVD Super Multi, VGA 64Mb Dedicated, Gigalan&Wireless LAN, 17" Wide TFT, Windows XP Home 765.11 1 765.11
Carriage UK Mainland 3/4 Day Delivery - £9.95 9.95 1 9.95
Net Amount 782.04
VAT Amount 136.85
Total 918.8
I ordered it by internet the late afternoon of the 10/2 and recieved a phone call lunchtime the 11/2 to say it had been despatched. It arrived mon - I think that's pretty good....
As far as upgrading is concerned, the memory and the hard drive is no problem. As far as the CPU is concerned that depends on the motherboard and, possibly, the bios, I expect george_l will know more...
ChrisC

 

Its obivously being replaced by new models ...

If you dont buy one soon you there wont be any 2303 after 2 to 3 weeks

 

Hmm, if its being replaced im not sure I still want it. [ ]

The 2304Wlmi seems to be the closest laptop available, that is probably its replacement. It is based on the new dothan chips (2303 used banias).

Would the 1mb L2 cache make up for the 200mhz reduction in clock speed? If so, I may go for the 2304Wlmi instead.

EDIT: Seems like a lot of new acer ---4's are available, all with dothan processors.

 

I had to update this:

The 2303Wlmi is no longer being sold by Amazon.co.uk. That makes two online retailers that have removed this laptop from their sales in the last two weeks.

Is it possible this laptop has been descontinued or is being replaced by (for example) the new 2304? This is getting mighty strange...