Acer Aspire 2012lmi

I need a little bit of help on deciding which notebook I will buy and I need a little input on the Aspire 2012.
The 2020 models are out of my price range.

Anyway I was wondering what kind of graphics performance you can get out of the 9700 64mb vid card. I know its got a 2500 3dmark03 score but in terms of games etc.

I was also wondering if you know of any negatives of this system.

Any help is appreciated.

Also if you know anywhere to get a really good price for this system in Canada. Manitoba specifically.

 

Hi...I don't know about Canada...but in the U.S. you can get this machine for about $1500.00 or a little less sometimes..the lowest price i've seen on Acer Aspire 2012WLMI has been $1403 which is a steal in my opinion

 

I have the 2012WLMi (upgraded to 1gb of ram) - the graphics performance is very good.

I've played the following games on the machine so far with no problems at all:

Unreal Tournament 2004
UEFA Euro 2004 (ea sports)
GTA 3
Pro Evolution Soccer 3
Manhunt (Rockstar games)

- Odie

 

I'm going to buy my first laptop. Can someone please advise me to select one out of AS2012WLCi and AS2012WLMi. Price difference is $400 (Canadian) for;

1)Radeon 9700 graphics instead of Intel Extreme

2)Extra 20GB space

3)XP Pro

4)DVD +/- RW in place of combo

5)4-in-1 card reader

Do these worth $400 ?

I am a grad student and spend with the computer whole day. Not a big time gamer (But love to play Need for Speed and SimCity in my spare time)

 

If you can afford it, then there is a huge difference in performance between the Intel Extreme and the Radeon 9700.

Plus with the extra 20gb of hd space and dvd-burner your investment is protected for a little bit longer.

- Odie

 

Thanks Odie. But I decided to go for WLCi model and save $400. I wasn't all that sure whether I will get the full use of those extra features in WLMi version. And +$400 is quite hard for me at this moment.

I ordered the notebook today. Cost me around $2000 CDN including taxes. It was a big decision after two months of research. I had selected 3 models at the end with similar features and price; Acer 2012WLCi, TravelMate 292LCi and Asus Z9000.

I dropped Asus due to concerns regarding their customer support in Canada. I couldn't even find a toll-free number. May be there's one hidden somewhere. And the warranty is questionable, whether to go behind different manufacturers for different parts of the notebook (It's built on barebone Z9). But ETC Computer has a good deal and offer a fair degree of customization. Acer seems better in customer support. There are authorized service providers in every major city in Canada. Their International travel warranty is handy. I think the 2-year extended warranty is cheap at $124.

TravelMate 290 series is great for students. It's very popular here in Canada. May be for the same reason, it has a high price. I can't believe Aspire 2012WLCi and TM292LCi have the same price. But there seems to be a significant price difference in US. TravelMate has a decent rich look, instead of the fancy look Aspire has. I would have bought TM292LCi if it were $300 cheaper (like in the US market). Aspire certainly has much better multi-media capabilities. Its cover is pretty nice and shinny, but the keyboard and touchpad don't look good to me. Power and quick launch buttons are very small. Keyboard is very close to the far end leaving a big empty space at the other end. The look is not eye-catching to me. I am surprised that Acer stick to this design in their latest 2025, after all these complaints about its ergonomic flaws. But anyway, I decided to go with the amazing price/features ratio of 2010 series. I agree with others that it’s the best in the market in this aspect.

I am getting my notebook tomorrow. I will post another review some time later re my experience with it and its performance.

 

Brought the Aspire home. So far no defects identified. There is an annoying noise (though not very loud) when writing to hard drive. Can someone please tell me whether this is normal? Screen is the most beautiful thing in this notebook. Crystal clear, no dead pixels. Max resolution 1280x800. Screen refresh rate fixed at 60Hz. It will take some time for me to get used to this keyboard. At the moment I am struggling a lot. It identified the wireless connection (corporate network here at campus) after changing few settings. I connect through windows VPN. It's excellent; fast, no connection failures and gives 54Mbps all the time. I would have loved to have Bluetooth option. But, wasn’t possible. Is there anyway I can add it later? Acer web store only has RAM for this Aspire.

One thing annoys me is the hard drive configuration. I definitely want to change it; remove recovery partition, have a free space for Linux and NTFS partition for Win XP. Did anyone encounter any problem when reformatting? What's the best way to do this?

Not enough software compared to other brands. Aspire arcade looks good for multimedia. Norton Anti virus 3 month offer. Other than these, there’s nothing much.

This Aspire lacks a USB port on a side. It would have been very convenient for my USB memory key. 3 USBs are not enough these days.

I couldn’t afford the full featured Aspire 2012WLMi. But I’m sure I will miss those additional features one day. Is it possible to fix a graphics card later? Other upgrades would be easier I guess, provided they are available.

All in all, I am happy with my decision to go for this Aspire. It will be my companion for the next couple of years at the University.

 

Hey, could you possibly post pics of your new machine? I really appreciate the review, and I may end up getting a similar machine, but I am concerned (and picky) about the keyboard layout.

Thanks!

 

If you really need more USB ports you can get a hub for about $30 CND.

I believe you can convert the partition by going to run and type "convert c: /fs:ntfs" without the quote and it should switch it over.

As far as formating goes unless you have an XP disk (normal install) then you will still get the acer crap on it. I dont think you will have any trouble with linux but im not sure on that.

As far as software that is the way that I like it. It keeps the price down and lets you install things yourself so you dont get crap that you dont want. AVG antivirus is free and works good you should give it a look.

Im probably purchasing a 2012lmi today or right away so hearing of no problems is reassuring.

 

Hi all, I'm in the middle of compiling a review of the 2012WLMi (with pictures if I can fix my digital camera)

But I'll try to answer some of the questions pretty quickly:

1. As far as I know, bluetooth is not an option, as in I don't think it can be added later (the 2012 doesn't even have any config with bluetooth as far as I know) - I think the reason that there is a bluetooth button is due to the chasis design being similar to the 202x series.

2. The built-in software is ok for newbie users, but I think overall it's probably the same as other manufacturer's pre-installed software. i.e it's bloated.

3. Now, as for the partitioning, I didn't like it either. What I did was use Partition Magic to combine the two user partitions and then convert it to ntfs. However, I did have a problem with two 7.5mb partitions left (one is the acer service partition, and some is unallocated)

This is the setup that will always be done by the acer supplied restore cds, which is a real shame.... HOWEVER... Acer supply all the required drivers separately as well on the first restore disk, meaning that you can fresh install windows from your own windows disk (assuming you have one spare)

I think your best bet is to wipe the hd totally and then partition it how you like and then install windows.... obviously this is not always an option if you do not have a spare windows cd.

I will be doing just that for the review, I will be wiping the hd and installing a fresh copy of XP Pro before doing some benchmarks.

- Odie

 

Thanks Odie. If I could get a XP Pro serial key from school (for free, of course), I will clean install it. But I think I will loose Aspire Arcade.

I checked the battery life. It took exactly 4hr 30min to completely drain off. This is the very first time I used the battery. I was continuously working with the notebook. Typing a report in MS Word, Internet browsing and copying a big chunk of files from my desktop. Listened to music in the mean time, about 45mins in total. 2 of them were videos for which I used Aspire Arcade. Connected to the Wireless LAN all the time. I was in Portable/Laptop power mode. Battery was fully re-charged in exactly 2 hours (off mode).

Some guys are comparing processing power of their computers at another forum http://www.notebookreview.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2657 . I checked mine immediately before I disconnected AC power and immediately after it with fully charged battery (To make sure other conditions are the same). I obtained 2min 17sec with AC and 2min 15sec with battery. It's strange to have a better value with Battery. But it at least suggests that the battery provides full processing power. Although this 'Super Pi' does not provide an overall measure of performance, the values are very good compared to other results for Banias processors (Of course not as good as Dothan and 3.2G P4).

I am slowly getting used to this keyboard. I use Home/End keys often. Lack of dedicated keys for them slows me down. I should buy a pocket mouse very soon. Used my USB memory key several times to transfer files from desktop. Another USB port (or one of the existing 3) at a side would have been very convenient.

PS: Later I figured out that my notebook has Dothan processor (M715) instead of Banias.

 

Hi Denis, I myself don't use the Aspire Arcade software, but I think you can also install that from the first restore cd (you just out the cd in when you've fresh installed your system and it will show you a webpage with all the drivers and programs that are provided separately on the cd)

I tried superpi yesterday and only got 2:35 on AC (always on power profile) which is a little strange, although I was running a few programs at the time. I'll be fresh installing XP Pro today hopefully (I've got some free serials from my University because of the Microsoft Academica Alliance program)


- Odie

 

Can someone please tell me whether there is an audible sound when writing to the hard disk (Aspire 2012). If there is, how bad is it? I want to make sure that there is nothing exceptionally wrong with mine. Otherwise, I will have to exchange it within this week.

 

denis, there is indeed an audible hard disk writing sound, although I only notice it in completely silent surroundings.

- Odie

 

Denis,

It also depends on what kind of noise you're hearing. Depending on the HDD brand you have in your system, they make different levels of noise. The Toshiba probably make the most noise when writing, but is still fairly quiet. The Seagate runs fairly silent when writing, but have an occasional click when it's sitting there idle for a while. The Hitachi/IBM drives also run fairly silent (probably one of the quietest) when writing, but also makes that occasional click noise when idle. I'm not too sure about Fujitsu. I think that's all the brands out there in the market.

-Vb-

 

I got my new 2012LMi on Aug 5. Since then it has spent two and a half weeks (two trips) at the Acer service center in Texas having minor but annoying things corrected, the touchpad and speaker connectors dislodged. I do like the notebook though, the performance and display are great and I think the touchpad features make it easy to use for just about anything. One thing though really gets me peeved. The aluminium colored 'paint' on the front leading edge of the notebook, just below the black strip, has worn away on the areas where my hands rest when I type or use the touch pad, revealing the black plastic underneath. I don't feel happy seeing this in a machine hardly six weeks old. My notebook is family! Has anyone else had this problem?

Also, a question: I converted the primary partition to NTFS and the machine seemed to run slower. I did not do any benchmarking but I am sure that programs loaded slower etc. Any thoughts on this? I have since restored and am again running Fat32.

- Patrick

 

the paint on my unit has rubbed out in what seems like the exact same place, above and to the left of the wlan led light. and it did happen rather quickly although it doesn't seem to be 'spreading'...

todd

 

Ratcatcher,

Converting to NTFS will normally make a system run slower. It changes the sector size from 32K to 512bytes (in most cases). This gives you the least amount of wasted drive space, but it slows down the system. Saving a 1K file in a Fast32 system uses 1 x 32K block of disc space, but only uses 2 x 512byte blocks in NTFS. Therefore making the system search in 2 block rather than 1 IMO.

If the color on your unit is fading, you may want to have Acer replace the top cover. It shouldn't be fading this fast. Normally, probably in a year or so, but not after 6 weeks.

-Vb-

 

has any other 2012 owners experienced the fading paint, and if so, taken acer up on it?

 

no. mine is fine. i carry the notebook around pretty often.