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    The Acer TravelMate P645-S (2015 update) is upon us!

    Discussion in 'Acer' started by Brounoh, Jan 21, 2015.

  1. Brounoh

    Brounoh Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi,

    I have been eager to get my hands on a P645 at the end of last year but the release of the new Broadwells i7 just now pushed me to postponed by a few weeks, or maybe 1 or 2 months, until the P645 would be update with a 5th gen i7.

    I believe it is around the corner.

    Please see these links below:


    This only problem with this "-S" model is this link:
    NoteBookABC webshop - Acer - Notebook-ok - Acer TravelMate P645-S-500S NX.VAFEU.001
    It is named -S but has a 4th gen i5 CPU / and 4th gen Intel HD GPU. Probably a mistake.

    I am keen!
     
    Brounoh, Jan 21, 2015
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  2. kidziti

    kidziti Notebook Consultant

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    The Broadwell chip has had a bit of a rocky start and Intel is already gearing up for its successor, Skylake. You might want to consider grabbing a Haswell-equipped TravelMate while they can still be had. With the 256 GB SSD, an i7-4500u, dedicated Radeon 2-GB graphics, 8 GB dual-channel RAM and a battery life of almost ten hours under normal office use (eg. Word, spreadsheets), it's hard to beat the performance parameters, and everything the Broadwell seems to have promised lately won't translate to much performance gain especially with routine laptop business applications. But it probably will be pricier.
     
    kidziti, Feb 9, 2015
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  3. Brounoh

    Brounoh Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi Kidziti,

    thanks for your input.

    While you make some very good points, I just find a bit silly to get a laptop now, mid Feb 2015, with last year CPU gen while they are already plenty of similar laptops being sold with 5th gen i7 (I am seriously considering the new Dell 15 7000 with 5th gen i7, while I know it is bigger and heavier).

    I agree with you that it is difficult to beat the current P645, and that's exactly why I would be even more keen if there would be a 5th gen i7 in it !!!
     
    Brounoh, Feb 16, 2015
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  4. Brounoh

    Brounoh Notebook Enthusiast

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    Brounoh, Feb 17, 2015
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  5. kidziti

    kidziti Notebook Consultant

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    Does anyone know how the graphics performance of the new P645-S stacks up against its Radeon-equipped predecessor? I noticed they do not offer dedicated graphics, but rather integrated Intel HD 5500 graphics with "shared" memory.
     
    kidziti, Feb 20, 2015
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  6. Brounoh

    Brounoh Notebook Enthusiast

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    The P645-S seems to be the model with no dedicated GPU, just the new Intel HD 5500. THO, the P645-SG seems have a dedicated GPU.
    I have only seen an official listing for the P645-S; I only saw the P645-SG in 3rd party eastern europe and south africa websites.
     
    Brounoh, Feb 21, 2015
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  7. bryf50

    bryf50 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Doing some research p645-sg is the dgpu model. They apparently have switched to Nvidia with a 2GB 840m. Should be a bit faster than the 8750m in the current model and Optimus>Enduro.
     
    bryf50, Mar 4, 2015
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  8. kidziti

    kidziti Notebook Consultant

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    This looks like the S model equivalent to the topline P645 Haswell:

    http://laptop.bg/laptops-acer-TravelMate_P645-acer_travelmate_p645_NX_VAGEX_002

    2799 lev converts to a little over $1550 USD, which is $300 over the current Haswell/Shark Bay model. Seems a premium to pay for a generally unproven chip that offers less than a 7% performance gain on Cinebench tests:

    http://laptopmedia.com/processor/intel-core-i7-5500u/

    The Radeon HD 8750M graphics engine has also been replaced with the GeForce 840M. Both are equipped with 2 GB dedicated memory. GPU Boss summarily scores them identically, but concludes by giving the edge to the Radeon:

    http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-HD-8750M-vs-GeForce-840M

    General opinions on various fora between these two on a Google search suggest the actual difference between these GPU's is minimal.

    Talking about the top-line equipped versions of both these ultrabook versions, one way to approach this conundrum is this: the newer system (P645-S) may be incrementally faster than the current one, but that may further infuse value into the Haswell ultrabook since (1) the -s is already at a significantly higher price point and (2) it may (finally) produce a price reduction in the Haswell version. It is worth noting that waiting for a price drop in the -s may be frustrating. In the past twelve months, the price of the current P645 has remained remarkably stable, with the "sweet spot" being around $1250. That said, the US price on the P645-s has yet to be established.
     
    Last edited: Mar 9, 2015
    kidziti, Mar 8, 2015
    #8