Acer Timeline 4810t Initial Impression And Review

I'm thinking SU3500 is about Intel Pentium Mobile 1.8GHz.
While SU9400 is about Intel Core2 Duo T5450 @ 1.66GHz.

Ball park figures though, handle with care.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

 

The difference in battery capacities is about 30-40 minutes approx difference based on mobile mark 7 results for other laptops. I would put it more at around 25-30 mins myself.
May be it will level it out still with 13.3v14.1 difference.
You know i have pointed this sort of things out under different scenarios.
To make a fair test though you would need to disable the dvd drive for the 14" version.

 

The max. battery profile will probably do that already.

 

for the 14.1 inches, acer power management automatically detect once you unplug the charger for more than a few minutes and disable the DVD drive. It notified me by posting an on screen note saying the dvd drive has been disabled without me having to intervene.

Once I plugged the charger back in, it told me that the dvd drive is enabled again.

 

flipp0, could you tell me what battery life you can get with the full-brightness?

 

Phil and howard thanks.
So it defaults automatically to Acer's max power management. It would be interesting to see how it does using Vista's (power saver) settings.
I think i might get my mum this laptop, the 14" version. It is on my list now anyway.

 

Picked up the 14" at Staples yesterday. Very surprised how snappy it feels in Windows 7. This is the 1.4 core solo. It can play Youtube HD pretty well @100% cpu. Very pleased so far!

 

I can play this!!!! (Timeline 14" Core Solo 1.4) Both full screen and in window! CPU is @ 100%. No real stutter here. Plays better with faster internet connection. I did optimize my windows 7 install turning off features I did not need. Performance index is 3.2.

 

Sure, I will make a battery test later this evening or tomorrow by using Battery Eater at full brightness.

 

Thanks flipp0, i will anxiously wait the result.
This will help me a lot.

2009 will be an exciting year with many thin-and-light ultraportables with CULV processors.
I am having a hard time to decide.

1. MSI x-slim X340 (already out)
2. Acer Timeline (coming out now)
3. Lenovo U350 (at the end of June)
4. Asus UX30 (July-August)
5. Gigabyte M1305 (around December)

September release of AMD Neo will make this market even hotter.

 

Running the battery test at maximum brightness is not very representative for common use in my opinion.

I'll try to make it a bit easier Get nr.1 off your list. Battery life is poor.

 

I agree with you that 100% brightness is not representative.
The reason to ask him for this test was just to get a fair comparison between notebooks.
Reviewers of notebooks use typically between 40-70% of brightness so that I really can't compare them fairly.
Some use 100% brightness and say the battery runtime of that particular notebook is poor.
Some use 30% brightness and say the battery of another notebook is good.
Even worse, some don't even say what brightness they used.
Therefore I always look for reviews that show batter runtime for maximum brightness.
It is just my way of comparing notebooks.

The list was based on the release date not my liking though.
I am not considering X-slim for that very reason.

 

OK just played some HD trailers from Apple. I tried the new Sherlock Holmes movie trailers using Quicktime 7.6 for Windows.

420p played flawless. Even skipping around. Full screen too.

720p played ok. Skipped a little bit. It was downloading it at the same time. Might play it better if it was fully downloaded. Not sure.

1080p played poorly. Skipped frames and pauses. Entire window does not fit on screen. Can only view 1/3 of movie.

All in all not too bad.

 

Thanks for testing.

1080p mkv's will probably play fine with Core AVC.

1080p Quicktimes might play with Quicktime alternative.

 

Another note. The laptop is quite. Gets slightly warm. Runs very cool. I am really happy with it. (For best results use Windows 7 too).

 

Newbie here. For the 4810t owners, does it come with Bluetooth? I can't find confirmations any where.

It seems that overseas there are SU9400/HD4330 4810T's available, but not in the states?

I only see SU2700 and SU3500 as available configurations on the US website:
http://us.acer.com/acer-v2/productv...&ctx1.att21k=1&CRC=2474330251#wrAjaxHistory=5

I'd love to see a SU9400/4500MHD combo.

 

I have not seen any models with HD4330 available in Europe yet.

 

Now into my second week with a 4810t with 3GB RAM and the 1.4 GHz chip.

Many of you are saying that it runs W7 RC1 well (faster than Vista) - I'm finding the opposite. I tried an upgrade route from Vista (resulted in constant desktop lock-ups), then a clean W7 install on a new partition.

The result was a barely usable set-up - windows took ages to open, it was slow to launch apps etc.

I didn't install any of the Acer drivers, just left it to update to do its thing. Driver Manager was clean, so I assumed everything was good.

Anyone know where I went wrong? I'd love to run 7 on this thing, but right now it's not an option.

 

Sorry I should've specified that I found the specs from the Acer Taiwan website (translation through babelfish):
http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translat...k=1&CRC=963683717&lp=zt_en&btnTrUrl=Translate

It seems that over there if you get the SU9400 for the 4810T, you'd have to get the HD4330 as well.

For me, I care more for the processing power than graphics capability so a SU9400/4500MHD combo would be perfect. Not to mention the HD4330 will probably suck a few more watts of power.

 

i wouldnt even consider the msi x-slim. it looks like a cheap mac knockout. acer looks and performs better and cheaper.

i havent seen any test yet, but guess amd neo is way slower than a su9400.

 

Did you install the 32-bit or the 64-bit version? I did a clean install of the 32-bit version and it works perfect, it is very fast.

 

It was the 32-bit version. Did you install any of the Acer drivers, or leave it up to Windows Update?

 

I did leave it up to Windows Update, except for the webcam driver.

Doing a battery test right now, using battery eater. The application estimate 4 hours and 30 minutes, that's with maximum brightness and 100 percent CPU load. I will report the result tomorrow.

 

o, yeah,
some people installed win 7 and said that it's faster than vista
but downside is that win 7 seems to give them 3~4 hrs battery life
I feel depressed. The reseason I am looking at this laptop is becuase long battery life (8hrs+)
but I don't know what setting they used (battery life or max mode).
I hope this laptop will have the amount of battery life it should have on officially-released win 7 (not beta version)

 

i'm getting over 8hrs of battery life surfing the net with minimum brightness with windows 7

 

it's good to hear that!!
It encourages me even more to buy this laptop

 

Battery eater has drained half of the battery by one. It now estimate 4 hours and 3 minutes. :-/
However, it is a very large difference between maximum brightness and heavy cpu load versus ordinary usage, such as web-surfing or using office apps with lower brightness. When I did the battery eater test on my HP 6730b it lasted only 1 hour and 30 minutes, but it lasts almost 3 hours for my typical office usage. I think it is reasonable to assume around 6-7 hours of ordinary office usage from the 3810t.

 

For those who bought their 4810t in the US, does it come with Bluetooth? There's no mention of it anywhere.

For example, Acer USA, check under 'Technical Specifications':
http://us.acer.com/acer-v2/productv...&ctx1.att21k=1&CRC=2474330251#wrAjaxHistory=1

vs the 3810t which does have Bluetooth listed explicitly:
http://us.acer.com/acer-v2/productv...tx1g.c2att92=447&ctx1.att21k=1&CRC=4276891233

I was hoping to be able to ditch the Bluetooth USB dongle if I were to buy a 4810t...

 

Thank you for the info, flipp0.
It is a great battery runtime.

 

From what I saw and experienced, normally, acer products sold in North America have better features (asus products as well)
For example, my travelmate 8204 bought in Taiwan only came with 1GB ram, but in NA, it was featured 2GB ram

So if there is bluetooth device in 4810T or 4810TG sold in Taiwan, there is no reseaon not having bluetooth in 4810T sold in NA. (I see bluetooth drive on Acer Taiwan's website)

 

Timelines in Canada don't seem to have bluetooth though.
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=39183&vpn=LX.PDM0X.044&manufacture=Acer

 

Oh it's on the website here too, it just isn't being sold anywhere yet.

 

Finally, the battery lasted 4 hours and 5 minutes with battery eaters default settings, wlan on and full brightness.

 

Thank you flipp0.
So I can conclude that batter eaters with default settings show that 4 hours (100% brightness and wlan on) to 8 hours (40% brightness and wlan on)?

What is your general impression of SU2700 CPU Timeline compared to P8600 HP 6730b during normal usage such as browsers and office applications?

 

Yes, that sounds like a reasonable conclusion.

During regular browsing and office use I do not feel any diffrence. Perhaps the timeline even feels a bit snappier, but thats due to the clean install of windows 7 I guess. However, the battery life combined with the look and feel of the Timeline makes it a very attractive choice in my opinion.

 

youtube hd videos may not work while streaming ,flash player doesn't benefit from gpu decoding. But if the user downloads the video first, and plays with mpc .it may work fine because of the gpu acceleration.
Can anyone try this?

 

o well, you beat me.
we will see if this particular 5810 sold in NCIX is exception
anyways, happy hunting for a new laptop with bluetooth

 

for test purposes i have 3810t with su9400. no problem playing HD video (1080p, Kung-fu panda and Bolt) with MPC HC using DXVA (DirectX video acceleration) with CPU at 10-20%.

i'm considering buying the version with su3500 so i disabled one of the cores and played the video (1080p) again - no problem again. cpu usage was high, but video played very well. with 720p the usage is low - maybe 30-40%

 

How is HD Youtube videos with the SU9400??? heres a link to test it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONqBj8aTMN8&fmt=22

Is it smooth or choppy? what about when full screened?

 

not available for me, but this one plays almost fine - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qicARYcTe6w

hardware video acceleration don't work with flash video and cpu load is pretty high

 

What OS do you have?

 

vista home premium

 

This is an excellent news.
So SU2700 plays 720/1080p and Youtube HD a little bit choppy, but SU3500 is a little more smooth.

 

chilko - you sure you clicked the HD button?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qicARYcTe6w&fmt=22

theres a link to it with hd enabled already, So you said its still choppy huh ?

 

My EEE plays this HD video fine at full screen. Can the SU2700 or SU3500 play it?

 

sure i clicked it

 

I read a China forum that they have successfully enable the hardware acceleration of intel 4500 graphic by using KMPlayer and Cyberlink DXVA codec. They can even play Blue Ray original disc with just 50% CPU.

The link in Chinese language
http://club.tgfc.com/thread-6082035-1-1.html

 

link isn't working.
which cpu did they use?

 

SU3500.

It's nothing new though, there had been printed articles in asian magazines saying by enabling hardware acceleration (dxva), smooth HD playback is possible.

Too bad Youtube HD doesn't count.

 

maybe via an firefox extension or greasemonkey script user can redirect the youtube hd video to an external player which uses gpu acceleration.

Lenovo u330 was on discount at a techstore, i tried acer timeline side by side. lenovo was only 100usd more. they are not exactly in the same league, but at that price range acer at least should use a su9400.