When it comes to Blu-ray, Sony may be the evangelist selling it to the masses, but in order for it to reach mass appeal the drive will need to appear in more than just Vaio notebooks. Which is why we're happy to see that Acer is the second company to put its support for the hi-def format on the shelves, with the introduction of its TravelMate 8215WLMi.

When it comes to new formats, Acer is fairly agnostic - it's already introduced a notebook featuring Blu-ray's rival format, HD DVD, so it was only a matter of time before we got our hands on this desktop replacement.

The look of the 8215WLMi is functional, rather than svelte. For the price, people may be expecting something more from their notebook, but it's sturdy to the touch and will certainly stand up to being knocked about on the daily commute.

Acer is the only notebook manufacturer that we know of who supplies its business machines with a curved keyboard. The keys are pitched at a five-degree angle, which matches the position of a typist's hands far more naturally. The keys are well mounted and the action is smooth, so once you've grown accustomed to the angle, this is a great keyboard to use.

It may be billed as a desktop replacement but you'll be able to take it with you on a semi-regular basis. Weighing in at 3.1Kg, and coming with a battery life - under test - of 271 minutes, there's a surprising amount to recommend here. The reason for the weight is the use of a 15.4-inch panel, rather than the 17-inch panels that usually feature on desktop alternatives.

The screen scene

The screen's a standard TFT, so you won't find the glossy coating common with Super-TFT panels. It's a bright screen but we found there was a slight haze, which stops it from having a genuinely white appearance when viewing spreadsheets and the like.

Thankfully, this didn't prove a problem when watching media, because the Blu-ray drive allows for high-definition movies. The TravelMate series is aimed at business users, which seems a little odd for a format that's being squarely aimed at the consumer market.