Now that the Acer c300 has had the price cut 20%

[Harl]

Now that the Acer c300 has had the price cut 20%, it seems to be cheaper than the M275. So far as I know, they have the same graphics, cpu, similar battery, 2-spindle, roughly same weight. Is there anything to recommend one of these two over the other, or are they practically identical to the point it likely doesn’t matter which to get? Currently I'm tending towards acer, just because they've been in the tablet-pc biz longer. I've never owner a tablet before, so don't know what to look out for, (my requirements are 2 spindle, convertible form factor. decent battery life, and pressure sensitivity).

[Trev]

What is 2 spindle?

[Harl]

quote:Originally posted by Trev

What is 2 spindle?


A spindle is any motorized rotary media drive, such as a hard drive, floppy disk, cd-rom drive, etc. A computer obviously needs a harddrive, and I want to be able to watch DVDs on my tablet, thus I need a “two-spindle” tablet is needed.

So far as I know, the acer c300 and the M275 are the only two-spindle tablets there are.

I initially thought “spindle” was some dumb techy-sounding buzzword, but as I reflect on it, it’s probably a useful term coming from actual engineers :)

[jsco]

I was also considering these two tablets. I ultimately chose the Gateway M275XL. It is slightly more expensive than the Acer C300, but it does have better specs. (1.6GHz vs 1.5GHz, 60GB vs 40GB) Though, its biggest advantage is support. If I ever have any problems with the notebook I think it will be easier going through Gateway than Acer and\or the esoteric web store you bought the computer from.

Either way, I'm sure that you will be happy with whatever choice you make.

good luck,
Justin

[printmkr]

In the Acer forum, two different c300 owners complained about some distortion from pen pressure, namely "small waves around the pen" particularly with an empty scree. Has anyone experienced this with the Gateway?

[thehippo]

Isnt the M275 half a pound lighter too?

[Macharoni]

The C300 does have a removable CD/DVD drive while the M275 does not. According to a poster in the thread on "Hardware News" the ODM for both the Acer C300 and M275 is Wistron, so you should be getting basically the same components for the tablet innards no matter which way you go.

[printmkr]

Are both screens glass?

[Railfanner]

Printmkr: The M275 has a tempered glass shield over the LCD. This completely eliminates "ripples" or "small waves around the pen" as the glass hardness does not allow pressure applied by the pen to push in on the LCD (causing distortion or ripples). No matter how hard you press, there is no light distortion/rippling on the M275 display! This is a VERY satisfying thing when using the pen to write on the screen. Also, the glass makes writing really smooooth - like a perfect flowing fountain pen.

The M275 is lighter than the Acer, AND is made with a magnesium-alloy case. This is a big deal - the notebook doesn't flex nearly as much as a plastic case, and it is much more durable - I've read complaints of the Acer C300 "brittle Notebook case" and the breakage that follows bumps.

The other item is the display on the M275 is VERY bright - about the best I've ever seen on a notebook.

[Railfanner]

Macaroni, you CAN remove the DVD/CDRW from the Gateway M275. There is a small phillips-head screw with a "lock" icon next to it, once you unscrew that, the slide-lever pops the drive right out.

So if you don't want to carry the optical drive you can take it out.

[thehippo]

Can you put anything else where the DVD/CDRW is?

Also, I tend to agree with Rail in that the screen is very bright. I've heard a couple complaints about the M275 screen, but in my couple of hours of playing with it, I've got nothing but good to say about the screen.