Acer announces new laptops for 2011

http://blog.laptopmag.com/acer-announces-new-aspire-multimedia-centric-notebooks?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+laptopmag+%28LAPTOP+Magazine+-+The+Pulse+of+Mobile+Technology%29

Acer rolls out new Aspire 5750, 5750G, and 7750G laptops with Intel's latest processors -- Engadget

Pretty mild if you ask me. Seems like they're going to put most of their marbles into their ultrathin designs.

 

Meh, no TimelineX refresh. Also 6550 ~~ 5650, GT540M ~~ GT420/425, except in both cases overvolted a little and clocks pushed up more. Rather mediocre unless they reveal something better later this year.

 

Rumor is that the TimelineX series is done. It appears that Acer and the rest of the computer world is chasing Apple's MBA units to make ultralight and thin (.8" thick) units at the cost of sacrificing GPU power in a 13.3" unit. Dual core sandybridge units may not be anounced until after CES. We'll have to wait and see. Actually, the show doesn't start until tomorrow. May be more news this week but the show seems almost dedicated to tablets.

Bronsky

 

If true that is a shame. I love the battery life, performance, and portability of my TimelineX, it's like a perfect compromise for what I need in a laptop. In fact I sold an ultra thin meh-grade performance Toshiba to buy this machine.

 

More NVIDIA Optimus-based laptops by a range of manufacturers can be found here.

Acer Aspire 5750G
15"
GeForce GT 520M/540M

Acer Aspire 4750G
14"
GeForce GT 520M/540M

Acer Aspire 4738G
14"
GeForce GT 520M/540M

Acer Aspire 4741G
14"
GeForce GT 520M/540M

Acer Aspire 3740G
13"
GeForce GT 520M/540M

 

Wow good find. So those 14" and 13" units are probably going to be announced sometime in Q1. I think the design nature of the Timeline X series will live on in these laptops. Hell, they have the same bodies more or less.

Still wondering what to do with my 4820TG...

 

NO!
I h8 Optimus, if Nvidia continue to refuse support Optimus for Linux.

 

Acer Aspire 4750G
Intel Core i7-2630QM
Intel HM55 Chipset
NVIDIA Geforce GT 540M
96 shaders
Looks like the Sandy Bridge is a drop in upgrade.

 

By "drop in" do you mean that they aren't changing/improving other components?

 

The chipset is still HM55 so technically it should be a drop in upgrade for existing HM55 BUT they may have updated firmware/Microcode etc so I am not sure.

 

This gave me a bit of wishful thinking...

Would Arrandale/Clarkfield laptops running on HM55 really have a chance of being drop-in upgradable to Sandy Bridge? I thought that this officially is not possible. If such a thing is doable, the shout of HUZZAH would resonate across the realm.

Of course, on second thought, that one extra pin...

 

Drop in SB ... how cool would that be.

A NVIDIA Optimus 3740G with a GT 540M GPU is not much of a replacemnt for the 3820TG TimelineX. I think the Sony SA looks much better with an I7 SB Dual core option, an HD 6630 GPU, 7200 rpm drive and better display for $1,250. Even the Lenovo E220 looks to have an option for an HD 6630 GPU. Hopefully, Acer has something else in mind to replace the 3820TG (but I don't think so).

Bronsky

 

the chipsets for the SB are PM67, HM67, QM67, there is no support for HM55, this is a arrandale chipset, and thus have a different socket.

BTW it appears that the socket for quads and duos are different, still waiting for more info to confirm.

 

I don't know...
This China site claims it uses HM55 Chipset BUT they may be wrong so I shall wait and see.

 

Btw Acer also released new AMD Based Laptops
"APU" Fusion Platform (GPU + CPU = APU) (Talk about marketing...)
Acer Aspire 5252 & Acer Aspire 4252.
So which camp are you going for now?

CPU





IGP

AMD Brazos Lineup
APU Model	Number of Bobcat Cores	CPU Clock Speed	GPU	Number of GPU Cores	GPU Clock Speed	TDP
AMD E-350	2	1.6GHz	Radeon HD 6310	80	500MHz	18W
AMD E-240	1	1.5GHz	Radeon HD 6310	80	500MHz	18W
AMD C-50	2	1.0GHz	Radeon HD 6250	80	280MHz	9W
AMD C-30	1	1.2GHz	Radeon HD 6250	80	280MHz	9W

Full Article
Looks like Power Oriented design (IMO fails in terms of raw performance)

 

mediocre cpu power with weak gpu performance, whilst gaining a little battery life... reminds me of a netbook

 

Because
It is not a GPU, it is not a CPU, it is an APU.

 

because the brazos platform is to compete with atom.

so yeah the performance is more than enough

 

But it is MORE EXPENSIVE than atom so...

 

Notebookcheck shows that the GT540m is significantly better than the 5650. The GPU 3D Mark Vantage score on the 540m is 30% higher. That's a good upgrade imo, especially when the competition in that battery life + screen size category feature 310Ms to 330Ms and 5470s.
540M
5650

That Sony looks incredibly at under $1300. Those specs rival the Vaio Z (minus the SSDs) at 2/3 the cost.

 

Aspire AS8950G

hopefully with a better LCD panel

 

so theres basically no difference between last years and this years? So upgraded cpu, but similar gpu and everything else? Hmm I feel better now that ive bought a 3820tg. I would hate if they decided to go away from portable gaming.

 

The 540M should be compared to the HD 6630 which should have been in the TimelineX replacement. Both the 13" Sony Vaio SA and 14" Lenovo E420 will have more powerful GPUs than the 3740G. Acer is giving up its position of dominance in the 13"-14" ultralight/dedicated GPU market. I suspect we might even see more models in the upcoming weeks, as the SB dual core notebooks are anounced.

So far, I like the Sony. It has all of the advantages of the 3820TG and it is has a far better 1600 x 900 display. I already have an SSD, so the $1,250 price looks great to me. Plus, if you order by phone, you can usually get at least 10% off the list price.

Bronsky

 

Aren't those 6xxx Radeon GPUs not recycled 5xxx cards with improved video decoders?

Michael

 

Some of them are re-badged old ones like 6550 is in essence 5650 but 6600/6700 series is new- it has 480 stream processors while 5650 and 6550 have 400 stream processors.

 

My 3820TG should be here any day now and Your not making me feel too good about it (kidding).

400 vs 480 isn't a huge difference (no 25 fps increase or anything).

 

It's an upgrade nonetheless- 80 stream processors just like an upgrade from 4650 to 5650 (320 to 400). nVidia still gives you 96 CUDA cores in GT 540M- just like in GTS 250M.

 

You won't even see these for a few months yet. I love my 3820tg.

 

lol, how are these amazing specs not a worthy upgrade of the 3820tg?

Acer Aspire 3740G
13"
GeForce GT 520M/540M

When will this laptop come out?

 

Well the battery life isn't stated but I doubt that it'll be as good as the 3820tg. Also, the 520M is weaker than the 5650 based on notebookcheck's fps and benchmarks, and while the 540M has better benchmarks than the 5650, it's not getting an fps increase over the 5650 in real world comparisons.


Last, I always hear about the glitchiness of the Optimus switchable graphics even with driver upgrades, which contributes to hurting its battery life.

Edit: Actually, I looked closer at the 540M fps benchmarks, and depending on what you play, it does gain a decent amount of fps, but in the games I was looking at (Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Need for Speed), the fps gains are negligible.

Also, 15-19 Watt power consumption for the 5650 vs. 32-35 Watt power consumption for the 540M. That Nvidia card is a power hungry beast.

 

I would pay real money to have that P switch on my 4820TG just switch the friggin graphics when I want them switched and not otherwise. The autoswitching stuff is really cool, and a giant pain in the for me, even with the less troublesome ATI switchable stuff.

Also, Optimus cannot be switched under linux, but ATI switchable gfx can. Another point to the TimelineX TG series.

 

Wait are you saying that there are glitches in the switchable graphics for the 4820tg?

 

I've had it glitch out once or twice where I had to reboot to get switching to work. Usually takes a combination of changing states on and off of power many times. But generally I just hate the whole auto switch off GPU / low power CPU setting that happens when you unplug the machine. I'm a big boy, I can tell my laptop to go into power save mode when I want it to.

You play a video, go to turn the laptop to show a friend, the cord's a foot short to reach where you need the laptop to be to show the video, so you unplug it and turn it around and it goes switching on me. ugh. I just prefer manual transmissions and clutches I guess.

 

so with the timelineX being retired (I was about to buy one yesterday) can the new line from acer replace the timelinex?
I'm looking for 14" with medium-high end graphics card and with 6+ hours of battery life with the integrated gfx for under $900. Granted that the nVidia GPUs are more power hungry, you would usually be connected to a power cord when you are running something that requires that, and have it turned off otherwise.

I'm not to familiar with the Acer line, but I found this video of the 4738G.
Any thoughts? It doesn't look as durable as the TimeLineX.

YouTube - ?????????? ???????? Acer Aspire 4738G-332G25Mikk
Edit: I think this is some older laptop. Not sure.

 

Well the problem with Optimus is that it's glitchy, I think even now there's a bunch of laptops that don't properly switch or something of that sort.

There's also no concrete information to suggest that the TimelineX series *will* be discontinued, although it does seem like it's a big possibility now with the release of these other laptops.

In another thread, someone linked to a page which showed how the TimelineX series went through a much more rigorous testing phase than Acer's normal Aspire line, I'm not sure how the new 2011 line of Acers will compare, but I'm guessing unless they're branded with the "TimelineX" name, they wont' go through the same testing.

All in all though, the new laptops will no doubt be at least decent, but for me the kicker was the fact that battery life would be reduced.

I wanted the same exact specs as you, and I was looking at the Lenovo E420S that was shown at CES 2011. Take a look at it, it's absolutely beautiful looking on top of everything, with a switchable ATI 6630. The press release says it'll get something like 5.5 hours of battery life. From what I know, Lenovo is a bit more accurate with their battery predictions, so I'm assuming you can get 5 hours out of it if you need it for work/school etc. It's also at a good price point, starts at $749, although that's with integrated graphics.

Problem is...it's not out until April.

 

Starting price is actually $849
Its probably going to start with 2gb ram, 320gb HDD, i3, and without the ATI 6630. Or it may have a 512 MB version of it, if it does.
Without adding anything, shipping and handling and all that is probably going to bump it close to $900.

Depending on how the Acer is when it comes out, I may go to that. But I would settle for the lenovo since I trust their build-quality.

YouTube - CES 2011: Lenovo's Enterprise-Grade E220s and E420s Notebooks for SMBs

 

Yeah I saw that video too, but I think he misspoke, because all the written releases I've seen from Engadget and the like say $749.

Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E220s and E420s unleashed, glossy lids and outdated processors left behind -- Engadget

 

Looks like Acer's going to keep shipping its TimelineX models until the Sandybridge models are shipping. Centdirect claims to have an I5-460m HD5650 model of 3820TG and Amazon has listed the I5-480m HD6550 for preorder.

Bronsky

 

lol, its either going to be the acer 4820 or the lenovo E420s for me. All depending on which one is better priced and has greater battery life and then better specs.

 

Does anyone know how Acer's sales/profits have shaped up for the TimelineX series? They've sold like hotcakes, but I wonder how many units they produced.

 

It has undoubtedly spiked up! I'm their new fan now too after hating them for so long.

btw, does anyone know when the new timelinex series will be out? I'm planning on buying the new laptop around mid march or so. Is it possible the new 4820TG will be out by then?