Acer TravelMate C110: Centrino infused Tablet PC
by Andrew Ku on September 19, 2003 2:15 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Construction — Build, Appearance, Size (continued)
Seeing that the C110 is a convertible tablet PC and small in its own right, there is only a single clip that secures the screen when closed. There isn’t much on the front of the C110 except for an infrared port and small hole for a microphone. While the microphone is out of the way of general typing, it isn’t when the touchpad is to be used. The scuffling motions will create unwanted noise. This also is a poor location, considering the C110’s function as a tablet PC. When switched to a tablet PC, there is really no way for the microphone to pick up speech directly without turning the C110 explicitly for that purpose. It doesn’t matter if you are right handed or left handed, but in either tablet PC portrait orientation, the microphone is going to be covered by either your hand or your inner forearm. In normal tablet PC landscape orientation, the microphone will be facing away. In the inversed tablet PC landscape orientation, the microphone will be facing your torso and likely covered by whatever garment you are wearing. This also goes for the infrared port. But in normal tablet PC landscape orientation, it will still serve its purpose, since it will point to the device with which you want to communicate.
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On the right side of the C110, there are several I/O connectors. Starting from the left side, there is a PCMCIA slot, stereo output, mono line input, one unpowered 4 pin IEEE1394 firewire port, and two USB 2.0 ports. It should be noted that a rubber cover must be removed to reveal the USB and firewire ports. The rubber is quite durable, and is a good substitute to a hard plastic cover.
The C110 is just shy of completing the normal array of sound connectors, since it is missing a dedicated microphone input, but the mono line in can serve in this regard. The PCMCIA uses a removable dummy card, and we found this to be inferior to the spring door design. The dummy card doesn’t really cover the entire PCMCIA slot, so dust can collect internally over time. This is aside from the fact that the dummy card can easily be lost or damaged, since it is relatively small and make of plastic.
Above the rubber cover that hides the USB and firewire ports, there are several vents that exhaust heat from components like memory and the north bridge, which are directly below the right side of the keyboard. To the right of the USB ports, there are two additional sets of vents, which passively exhaust heat from the processor.
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The backside of the C110 also uses rubber covers to hide four ports (from the right): a connector for Acer’s Easyport replicator, modem, Ethernet (with a set of LED status lights), and VGA. Left of the connector for the port replicator, there is a Kensington lock slot and above that are several vent slots, which also passively exhaust heat from the processor.
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The left side of the C110 is featureless minus a power port and a few exhaust slots, which are for the hard drive directly below. The cover to access the hard drive can be removed, but there shouldn’t be any need to unless an upgrade is to take place. Once the cover is removed, the hard drive slides out by pulling a take to disengage it from the motherboard.
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The top, as we noted earlier, is only home to three status LEDs. The casing is made of magnesium alloy, which adds to the C110’s structural integrity and maintains the ultraportable theme. The hitch is that the hinge, which rotates the screen between the tablet PC and notebook function, is made of plastic. Upgrading it to the material of the casing will help for those unwanted drops.
The internal stylus is housed in the top right hand corner of the screen. It is thinner than Electrovaya’s internal stylus, and comes a bit harder to use. We still prefer the pen-like stylus, which we saw in the FIC SlateVision tablet, that is also included with the C110.
The TravelMate C110 measures 10.1" x 8.5" x 1.2" (257mm x 216mm x 29.7mm) and weighs 3.2lbs (1.4kg). Overall, this makes the C110 smaller and lighter than the Electrovaya Scribbler SC500 and the FIC SlateVision tablet, only exceeding either in height by a tad. The small profile design comes in handy for “on the go” functions.
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Flipping the system reveals an access panel, which covers a single SODIMM slot and an Intel MiniPCI 802.11b wireless card. The other SODIMM slot is below the keyboard, and isn’t designed to be user accessible. The only way to access the other slot is to unscrew the three screws in the row towards the back. Then, you will need to flip the system right-side up and unseat the keyboard. After that, there is an additional metal plate to the right, which must be unscrewed to access the other SODIMM slot.
The 14.8V 1.8AH Lithium Ion battery pack is to the front of the system and is fairly easy to remove by sliding the release clip. The heat generated from the battery and other internal components was reasonable, as the system is based on Centrino technology.
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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