(Source: NotebookReview.com)

While the Acer Aspire 5672WLMi was only recently lauched in certain Asian markets such as Brunei, the dual-core notebook has already been available in the US for quite a while. Long enough at least for a review of the notebook to surface, and this time, it’s by NotebookReview.com.

Overall, the Aspire 5672WLMi gets a favourable review, with NotebookReview.com concluding that, “I have to say I am very impressed with the performance of the Acer 5670 with its Core Duo processor. The performance boost from the dual core is anywhere from negligible to a full twofold increase, something that does not come often in the computing world. Acer puts together a nice notebook that’s full of features and a pleasure to use thanks to a crisp screen and full connectivity. I would have liked to see a slightly sturdier build, but that is usual for me. The only big negative is the battery life. I’ve come to expect at least three hours from modern notebooks, and 4-5 is always a big plus. Running for only just over two hours under most use, the 5670 falls somewhat short. If performance is most important, however, shorter battery life is a small compromise. As a powerful desktop replacement with significant portability, the Acer 5670 excels wonderfully.”

(Source: Tom’s Hardware Guide)

It’s been going around that Europeans will have the Acer MP-500, a touchscreen portable media player, in around a month. We are probably talking about a PMP with a 3.5-inch touchscreen display, a relatively small 20-40GB hard drive, video out and 4-8 hours of battery life. It’ll support most audio and video formats too.

The unique part of the MP-500 is the provided stylus as an alternative for your fingers. This could be good or bad depending on whether Acer ensures that the virtual buttons are large enough for your hands. If they are, then the stylus will be a plus - rather than just a solution for small buttons.

[News via Engadget]

Ex-Managing Director of Acer UK, Paul Cook, resigned over a month ago, but then, we had little inkling of why he resigned. Recently, he revealed to CRN that his resignation was “no impulse”, and was in fact, something planned 3 to 6 months back.

However, other than this “tidbit” of info, it seems we have nothing new to work with. All we still have is this: “While we agreed on what Acer should be doing, we didn’t entirely agree on how Acer should get there. I believed in the ‘what’ but not the ‘how’ and I believe you shouldn’t stick around if you don’t agree on the ‘how’.”

Recently, DTC Worldwide reported that BenQ was the No. 1 projector vendor in Australia for the whole year of 2005. However, an equivalent IT Market Insights report revealed instead that Acer held top market share in Australia throughout Q3 2005 - at 14% market share versus 11% for its nearest rivals. As a result of these contrasting reports, ascertaining which vendor exactly is No. 1 in Australia’s projector market has been impossible.

In any case, as Acer is still a newcomer in the global projector market, the results of either report are definitely acceptable - especially in view of Acer’s rapid double-digit growth (54%).

On a global scale, Epson remains No. 1, and by a substantial margin as well.

[News via Smart House]

Acer recently reported consolidated revenues of US$762.89 million for January, a double-digit 12.2% rise compared to the same period of last year. It was also a 3.1% increase from the previous month of December 2005.

This announcement will be of no surprise to those paying attention to Acer’s recent successes in all regions, especially in its predominant IT businesses, e.g. notebooks. From Russia to India and Europe, all reports point to a strong possibility of Acer fulfilling its 2006 financial forecast of US$12.42 billion in consolidated revenues and US$310.56 million in profits after tax .

[News via Digitimes]

Acer Australia has launched a free reseller training program - aptly titled Acer eAcademy. But unlike most reseller training programs, Acer eAcademy is completely conducted online. It is aimed at helping Acer’s resellers develop their knowledge in sales and technical repairs of Acer products.

Basically, it’s just another “digitization” effort large companies have been trying to integrate completely into their organizations - in order to reduce costs and save time. As Acer’s eBusiness director said: “Acer eAcademy is designed to keep our channel partners and their teams up to date with the latest product and technical information in real time - meaning no longer do partners have to wait for organised face-to-face workshops which can be costly and hard to schedule due to people’s hectic work lives.”

[News via CRN Australia]

(Source: Acer)

In early February, Acer unveiled the Acer Aspire E500 in India - another step towards capturing India’s mainstream desktop market. The Aspire E500 is equipped with a 3.06GHz Pentium 4 processor, 256MB DDR2 RAM, and a 80 GB SATA HDD, but lacks a dedicated graphics card (on-board ATI RADEON® XPRESS 200).

This is clearly a sharp modification from Aspire E500-series desktops launched elsewhere in Asia, and thus, clearly reflects Acer’s target range in India’s rapidly growing PC market. Even Thailand’s model comes with a standard 1GB DDR2 RAM, a 250GB HDD and a 256MB PCI-Express ATI X600 Pro.

However, the Aspire E500’s “All-In-One Entertainment” function has not changed as India’s model still comes preinstalled with Microsoft® Windows® XP Media Center Edition, and equipped with a dual input TV tuner card with an Infrared (IR) remote and IR receiver.

[News via EFYTimes]

(Source: PCMag)

About a week back, we had the first Acer TravelMate 4062WLCi review by PCMag. This was followed by a semi-review by SMB IT two days later. Now, we have the second full-fledged review of the TravelMate 4062WLCi notebook by CNET.

Since there is little point repeating what I’ve already said in the previous reviews, I will go straight to CNET’s verdict. CNET awards the TM4062WLCi an overall rating of 5.9 out of 10, concluding that “The midsize Acer TravelMate 4060 tells a generally compelling story with its price, performance, design, and features, but when it comes to battery life, its tale turns to one of woe.”