Acer Aspire TimelineX 1830T Thread

Yea.. I agree.
Been using my wife's new 1830T i5 side-by-side with my 1810tz.
Yea.. its a little faster. But for most typical users, its certainly not worth the cost and
the bother to upgrade. Some folks like gamers may see a big difference... I don't know.

You may find interesting this quick review I posted at ~Amazon just yesterday.

 

I would like to know about the fan noise and if it has a constant spinning or has up and down disturbing variations? I would like to change my 1410 for a 1830 but for now I see only biased reviews.

 

Our 1830t i5 has been quite quiet.. about the same as
my 1810tz after installing the "1810tray" software fix.
Actually, fan noise never occurred to me while using the 1830.
It does seem to run warmer, but nothing to worry about.

 

Ok, thanx for the info!

 

Not to divert the conversation, and apologies in advance if this is deemed entirely useless and/or irrelevant. I've seen alternatives to the 1830T discussed earlier in the thread, saw this and thought I'd share: Samsung SENS X170. Only available in Korea right now but I really hope they bring this or some direct equivalent to the US soon. Seems comparable to the current crop of 11.6 inchers.

edit: more technical specs here (from january, possibly outdated): Samsung Leaks SENS X170 Laptop

 

There is a big misunterstanding on these comparisons between 1810t and 1830t. Most of them are between su4300 and i5, well guys it's more than obvious that in this comparison i5 is faster, warmer and with shorter battery life, why are you so surprised? I'm surprised that your are surprised!
For a real comparison you HAVE TO COMPARE the i5 with SU9400!!!
su9400 very likely will be more powerful than i5 430, batterylife will be the same and the temp will be alike!
It's not hard to understand that it's totally unuseful comparing su4300 and an i5...
So wasted time...

 

Sorry but I don't agree.You seem to think that the su9400 is much more powerful than the su4100.Essentially they are the same thing with minor differences.So comparing the i5 with(su4100-7300-9400)will more or less yield the same results......

 

Sorry if it has been asked already but do the keyboards of the 1810 and 1830 visualy at least look the same to you??How about the batteries?

edit:very nice review at Amazon Mr UnderTaker.Thanks!!!

 

The i5-430UM is faster than the SU9400. Even at only 1.2GHz the i5 is faster, and when it turbo boosts, obviously. More like the SU9600 might be closer in speed to the i5.

 

1)So why don't compare also su3500? 4100 over 3500 won't have so dramatic improvement. Here differences are minimal, and every minimal difference is important!
2)beside this you have to compare similar product..., my 7300 scores better than a su4100, and even better does su9400, here is the comparison of specification: Compare Intel® Products,

Therefore every comparison between su4100 and i5 is ridiculous and falsed.
1810t with su9400 rocks, it does have very similar performances compared to i5 at similar batterylife and similar temp.
Don't you agree? so just proove it, atm su9400 hasn't been compared with i5, until that you cannot state differently.

 

Yea whatever..You seem to thing that the su4100 is slower than the i5 but the su9400(which is 0.1ghz!!!more than the su4100)is faster than the i5.....!!!!Whatever!!!

edit..Don't think that I am knocking the1810T.I love it and I am not planning on buying the 1830T.

 

Zooster, it was proven when the SU4100/SU7300 first came out that there is minimal difference in performance between them. They are both faster than the SU3500, but it is a single core. The SU9400 and SU9600 are the top of the culv's, and yes they might be close in speed and performance to the i5-430UM, but the i5 will still win in many tasks thanks to it having L3 cache, Turbo Boost, and improved architecture thanks to being a Nehalem processor.

And not that it matters but the cpu rating on Windows Experience Index for the top culv's are:

SU7300: 4.1
Core i3-330UM: 4.1
SU9400 (in my 3810): 4.2
SU9600: 4.8
i5-430UM: 4.9
i5-520UM: 4.9
i7-640UM: 5.7

And here are some comparisons that show how the SU9400/SU7300 perform almost the same, but the i5's are much better.

 

As you stated, no comparisons have been made yet, so I don't see why you get so upset. Yes they SHOULD have similar perf, point taken. No need to get so excited.

@Thundernet : as he said earlier : so much wasted time. He reminds me of kids comparing their "processors" in the courtyard Don't let his tone get to you!

 

well intel announced the new cpu's with max power of 18watt tlp including the gpu and memory interface. So according to the spec sheet of intel the lastest cpu models should use up even less energy (previous cpu even su9600 had a max power consumption of 10watts already, without gpu and memory interface).
And according to acers spec sheets the 1830 got a stronger barttery. So i m really surprised that zooster is so surprised about the people here being surprised

 

And I'm surprised that you're really surprised that zooster is so surprised about the people here being surprised.

 

My 1830T came!! Can't play with it yet, need to go to class. Bye!

 

LOL...The best!!!!

 

hahahahhahahaa.......

This was ridiculously funny...

I hope no-one is SURPRISED.... anymore......

 

The keyboards on the 1810tz and the 1830t seem to be identical but with a slightly different surface.
Can't really tell because the 1810tz has a year's worth of wear. The characters are smaller on the 1830t.
I'll take a closer look when I get home.

The batteries look very similar. So I tried inserting the 1830t 5800mHa battery into my 1810tz.
It did NOT slide in, and the connectors do not line up perfectly.
A small thing I dislike about the 1830t is that unlike the 1810,
the battery sticks out the back about a quarter inch.
Its just an aesthetic issue. Like the designer made a mistake.
Also the battery color is noticeably lighter than the body color.
Probably because I got a first-batch unit.

What I do like is that the display opens up to a much wider angle like 160 degrees verses 130 degrees in the 1810.
Good for using the machine in an almost vertical position.. like when relaxed on the sofa.

BTW.. the "UnderTaker" moniker comes from my trying to find the lowest prices on stuff before I take it home.

 

Hahaha nice surprising guys

What I meant is that none has really compared 1810t (su9400) with 1830t (i5-430). About this (till now) hypothetical comparison there are only speculations. Su9400 not only have 100Mhz more but also 1MB of cache more than su4100, not mentioning VT and other instruction...
In conclusion: there are a lot of words and speculations, and not only one real comparison on bench.
I guess Acer doesn't like much a comparison with su9400, maybe because the resulting winner (of course i5) is not sooo much ahead.

About battery life... someone said it's just 5,5h... but hey, it was supposed to be less hungry of battery, wasn't it?? 18W all included and so disappointing battery life? uh?

Since battery life, despite this incredible(!) 18W, is worse than 1810t (su9400) and since this i5 is not as fast as ppl tought, I'm trying to find an actual good idea to sell my 1810t (su7300) and buy a new model... so let's talk about real new features:
1) does it have 1.3Mpixel cam?
2) does it have USB 3.0 like most of new laptop/netbook of 2010?
3) does it have Bluetooth 3.0?
4) does it support SD XC?

 

In conclusion, you should just skip the 1830T since it doesn't meet your requirements. You can now leave this thread to those who still want one. Thank you

 

BTW, there's a lot of customer reviews on Amazon about the 1830T :

Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Acer Aspire TimelineX AS1830T-3927 11.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

some quotes :

"I wanted to upgrade the machine to this new model. But...I won't. And for a single reason: the keyboard. It's not that it's small. It's that it doesn't have dedicated home and end keys. To use common Windows window management keyboard shortcuts like "top of document" in a long Word document (Ctrl-Home) or "bottom of document"(Ctrl-End) is a three finger combination on Acer keyboards. Pity. On such a small, light, capable machine you'd expect they'd have engineered a more intelligent keyboard layout simply because such a machine actually _encourages_ one to ditch the mouse."

"The keyboard is very good, the letters have a really nice size and you can type on this for hours and hours. I really loved the full size left SHIFT button, what is extremelly annoing in others netbooks. The keyboard don't have problem of flex, maybe just a little bit but that's will not be notice or be a problem when typing."

"I discover that this machine can last longer than 6 hours of solid internet conexion."

"The overall build quality of this notebook seems to be very good, it is made of very tough light weight plastic and has a black matte finish on the outside which is very sharp. The HD screen is designed for 720p viewing and seems to have a very sharp and bright display, this resolution is of course ther best you can expect on a smaller 11.6 ultraportable. I have seen many displays on 11.6 models and I believe the 1830T has the best screen that I have seen. The keyboard on the 1830T does not seem to be full size as the typing experience is comfortable but somewhat cramped. The keys have a very nice feel and good feedback but I was disaapointed to discover that the keyboard has allot of flex and seems a bit flimsy, something I did not expect on a $599 notebook.( This is why I am giving the 1830T 4 stars instead of five.)In addition, the trackpad, although comfortable seems very small. The mouse buttons are excellent."

 

So, on it now! This machine is much faster than the 3810T, the ssd (which I had already) is making things FLY!

 

I obviously skip this model, and I obviously won't leave this thread. Thanks for your big contribute

 

• Screen was a shock coming from the 3810t, everything is smaller and reminded me of when I saw the Vaio TT and got turned off from wanting it. But I am getting used to 1366x768 on such a small screen now.
• Nice WEI increase over the 4.2 my SU9400 scored, not sure what is up with the graphics.
• The machine is quieter on ac than my 3810t (sometimes).
• I miss the Synaptics touchpad, this Alps is annoying me.
• Non recessed touchpad is bad.
• Keyboard has more flex than the 3810t's, and am getting used to the smaller size (had an EEE 901 for a year so this should be no problem soon).
• Turbo Boost is fun to watch, it jumps up frequently including just changing web pages or editing this post.
• No side scrolling or two finger forward/back in Opera 10.6 and Chrome. Just as with my 3810t, Firefox does the gestures fine.

Overall I like it, the main thing I would change is the touchpad and add media controls to the F keys. This thing truly is blazing with my Intel SSD, didn't even turn on the computer with the original hdd in it. Never buying a laptop with an Alps touchpad ever again (older Dell Inspiron 9100 had one too and only found it had gestures right before it got traded for a Best Buy gift card).

 

Apparently Acer is shipping these with either the Alps or Synaptics touchpad. I received one of the first i5-430's from Amazon and it has the Synaptics which is what I prefer.

I'm having trouble with the webcam. It does not show up anywhere even in the device manager. I tried downloading and installing the drivers for the different webcam's that Acer uses in this model and none can detect it. Anyone else have this problem?

 

Try downloading the drivers from the 1820PT and watch for the camera in "All programs".

 

I'm thinking about dumping my Acer 1410 ( AS1410-2801) which I've upgraded to 4GB DDR2, 320GB 7200 RPM HDD, installed the "missing" Broadcom Bluetooth module and upgraded the Intel 1000 BGN to an Intel 5100 AGN for the dual-band 2.4/5 GHz support.

In other words the 1410 I have is basically an Acer 1810T with a slightly slower dual-core CPU (SU2300 vs SU7300) with 1MB less L2 cache and a 4400 mAh battery instead of the 5600 mAh battery.

If the batteries aren't even interchangeable between the 1830T and the 1810T... Meh.

Thanks for all the info guys.

Cheers,
Kermee

 

Just measured the 1810 and 1830 keyboards.
They are the same size and seem to have the
snap-in clips in the same location.
The key surface on the 1830 is not smooth like the 1810.

Screen shot attached shows the Windows performance
side-by-side. My 1810tz is stock but with a 7200 hard drive.

 

Wow! The graphics are really improved on the UM processors.

Bronsky

 

All this posts made me confuse.
I'm still deciding between AS1551-5448 (Dual-Core K625) and AS1830T-3927 (i3-330UM).
Can anyone answer this question: which one does 1080P video playback smoother through HDMI?
If both models can play, I'll go choose the 1830T.

 

What do you mean by smoother!? Both play 1080p content flawlessly.

 

I've played blu-ray on the 1830T w/o problems. I've also played HD TV shows w/o problem. The 1830T has had no problems for me playing back HD video.

I have not made use of the HDMI output but may try that tonight to answer your question.

 

And you still keep to be confused as long as this lack of real comparisons will last...

 

Do you want me to do some comparisons? I have my 1830T with the i5-430UM and ssd, plus my 3810t with its 500GB hdd and SU9400. I can see how much an improvement the i5 is over the SU9400 since you seemed to want to know that. What tests do you want me to do?

 

Hi,

Can somebody please let me know the SSD size that can fit in the 1830T? 1.8" or 2.5" and thickness of the drive.

If somebody please post the model number of the SSD they bought, I much appreciated.

Thanks.

 

I have a 2.5" 160GB Intel Gen 2. Any 2.5" ssd should fit fine.

 

They are different laptop, and the comparison is not trustable since 1830t has a ssd. 3810 has a weared battery and anyway the consumption is different since it's a different laptop, and furthermore it doesn't have a fresh install of win7: impossible to compare them.

 

How much difference in battery life is there? Does the i5-430UM last longer than the SU9400?

 

Wong about the battery. My 3810t has 98% of its battery capacity left since I rarely used it on battery. It was normally plugged in with the battery out. And I am about to sell the laptop, so right now I can install a fresh copy of Win 7.

Watching the World Cup now, but afterwards I can do the battery tests and some other benchmarks.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried the 1820PT drivers and still no luck. Does the webcam normally show up in the device manager? Mine does not even as an uninstalled device.

 

For those wondering about the 1551 and its radeon 4225, here's a video with various games. Keep in mind this is with the single core K125. I hope we'll soon see something similar with the Intel HD graphics...

AMD Nile (Athlon II Neo K125 + ATI Radeon HD 4225) Gaming Performance | Netbooknews - Netbooks, Netbook Reviews, Smartbooks and more

 

Wow. That's actually quite impressive. I'm betting some of those games are CPU bound; dual-core would probably improve playability.

Cheers,
Kermee

 

I think that will be a nail in the coffin of Atom based netbooks..If people continue to buy Atom netbooks then it's a matter for the psychologists to analyse...

 

Yes it should show up in the device manager where you can see the brand.Call Acer support and demand to tell you the make of the camera and where the drivers are located..

PS:You have to install the drivers first and then will show up in the device manager.

 

Haha Zooster got to you too!!!He is a feisty fella ..He wants numbers and he wants them now....

 

I'm not going to do any tests. Now that I have my 1830T I can send in my 3810t to get serviced for the recall from last year.

 

hey guys,

i've only read about the core i3 and the i5 versions of the 1830t.Why?

What about the U5400 ? Do you have any experience with this CPU? Do you think it's much faster because of the "castration", most importantly probably the lack of the turbo mode?
Would you prefer the U5400 over a U4100 of an 1810?

 

Harsh review of the 1551 on Amazon (with a dual core Turion K625!) :

http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-A...sr_1_1_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

some highlights :
"The CPU is definitely an AMD Turion II Neo K625 Dual-Core running at 1.5 GHz, which scores 1012 Passmarks. You can see its Passmark CPU performance score and compare it to other CPUs at: PassMark Software - CPU Benchmarks - List of Benchmarked CPUs. Bottom line is something like 61% of the performance of the good old 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo, which isn't that fast for a desktop, but this isn't a desktop."

Processor: 4.3
Memory: 5.9
Graphics: 4.2 (the lowest score), but Aero themes work just fine, so don't worry
Gaming graphics: 5.2
Primary hard disk: 5.7

"I personally tried high-def 1080p videos encoded using each of the two Blu-Ray standard encoders, and CPU utilization rarely went over 20% in Task Manager (i.e., 40% of a single core, since PowerDVD is mostly single-threaded when playing back videos). I also tried playing a 720p AVC encoded video created by a Kodak Zi8 "flipcam", which also played back accelerated in PowerDVD. No such luck when using VLC 1.1.0 for playback, which stuttered at times on the Kodak video with one of the CPU cores spiking to the roof, but I think it is limited to hardware acceleration only on Nvidia cards."

Now the BAD : "One MAJOR shortcoming of these Acers (AO721/AO1551) is the vertical viewing angle. In fact if you look at a black, but still backlit screen, at the optimal viewing height/angle, you will see that the only part that is actually black is a horizontal stripe which is about 1/3rd of the vertical height of the screen."
"Cheap Plastic Hinge Arms that Hold the LCD Panel" "The arms are hollow molded plastic and do not seem sturdy at all. As you open and close the panel, there is some give, and one constantly fears that these things will break in a year."