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Article Index
Acer TimelineX 4820 - Acer leads the way
Specifications
Construction and Design
Benchmark
Gaming
Conclusion
All Pages

Construction and Design

The first impression



Acer is a popular brand, and there is certainly a reason for that. Their Timeline series is incredibly sleek and has garnered much praise within the business and office segments. If anything, the design is now even more stylish and is likely to appeal to an even wider group of users.
Their original Timeline series had a grey look, which has been replaced by a black one. The lid is now in black brushed aluminium with a bit of texture that is primarily visible in sunlight. The edges are round, giving it a softer look, which looks very professional along with the Acer logo in silver on the lid. The inside of the lid is more glossy, as is the display itself. That does give rise to problems with glare, and you pretty much use it as a mirror in sunlight.  




On the surface of the inside we have the brushed grey metallic look, combined with a black surface framing the black keyboard. This is definitely a business device and is sure to appeal to many as a professional and secure choice.




The power button is also specially designed – black, round and with rills around it. It fits in well with the rest of the design and appears to have been chosen with care. Some may be of the opinion that it is located in the wrong side, namely at the left whereas you usually find it at the front or towards the right. The speakers are right in the middle of the top, located under a chequered net with the words “Dolby Home Theather” on it. Seems like a good choice of partner, and one that automatically raises your expectations of the sound.






The trackpad is silvery as well, framed by a grey/silver lining. It has a very smooth look and seems quite soft. Below it is the touchbar, which again for some reason is not separated into two buttons as most people tend to prefer. The standard stickers have also been given their place, which sadly detracts a little from the otherwise positive first impression

The lid





The lid is incredibly thin and very rigid. As noted already, it is primarily black and this is what creates that distinguished look. On the inside is a webcam as usual, and despite the device measuring only 14 inches, it seems a lot bigger because the display really takes up most of the space. It is a great move to utilise as much of the space as possible, because that helps justify the size of the rest of the laptop.

The hinges are sturdy; at least you cannot open up the device with just one hand. I do believe they will last, and they should have no trouble keeping up the lid on a bumpy train ride and the like.

The front



At the front is the card reader and some diodes.

The rear



The rear is where you insert the battery – the lid also extends down here when the device is open, so there is no space for any ports.

The bottom



The bottom is where you access the hardware, but we will not be getting into that.

The right side



The left side



Overview



I cannot praise devices that have adopted HDMI enough. It is just great with the HDMI output so you can watch movies on your HDTV at home. They also managed to fit in no less than four USB ports, which is almost luxurious along with the optical drive. Perfect.

Diodes




The diodes are blue and look great against the black background. They shine quite brightly but work well for the device. Luckily they stuck to only a few colours – any more, and the device would look too much like a Christmas tree. Some makers seemingly choose diode colours at random, but since they do shine all the time, I think it actually matters.

They are located on either side at the top as well as down by the touchpad, indicating the status of standard things like battery, Bluetooth, WiFi etc.

Keyboard and touchpad




The keyboard is large and almost goes from edge to edge. The keys are nice and big, making them easy to hit. They have a great feel to them and provide just the right amount of resistance.
I think you will quickly get used to type with this keyboard – it used to be that laptop keyboards were discarded as poor and worthless, but I insist this is just a myth as many are actually very good.  
The touchpad is nice and big, and very clearly framed so you do not accidentally go beyond its borders. It is quite smooth as well, and you can scroll at the right side which is useful when surfing.
The bar combines the two buttons and is a hopeless as ever. You cannot click it in the middle but instead have to use the very edges. They would have been better off splitting it up in the middle, something that would not necessarily ruin the overall design.

Display





The display measures 14 inches and has a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. It is LED-backlit and incredibly crisp. The colours are rich and the picture is beautiful as the colours almost flow together. The result is a colourful and clear display with great contrast.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of glare as well, since it is a glossy display. It is hard to use in sunlight, especially with maximum brightness. This is something you just have to get used to, and while most people probably can, it can be rather annoying when you are in place where the ambient light changes all the time, such as a train.

We have started testing displays for pixel errors and faults in the backlighting. For this we use a program called MonitorTest. It works by, for example, blackening the entire display such that dead pixels – fields that do not change colour on the screen – are exposed. It also allows you to see if the backlighting is uneven.

No problems here. The display appears to be evenly lit and without faults.

Sound and speakers

The speakers are decent and while perhaps not suited for party-level music, they are fine for some radio and YouTube songs. You will still be better off with a couple of external speakers or headphones, but they still managed to get fairly good sound out of this device. What are typically lacking are the deeper notes, which is probably a bigger issue for genres like hiphop and electronica. In any case, the audial aspect is rarely the most important for businessmen.

Noise, heat and power consumption

As per the design philosophy, the device is very silent; it has to be able to run for a long time and should be suited for office work. Because of this it barely makes a sound, and the fan never gets out of control, regardless of stress.
In line with the above, the device does not get too hot either. Even at full performance did it never get very hot, and you can easily sit with it in your lap (though we do not recommend it).
You can tone down the power consumption dramatically by switching to the integrated GPU or increase performance by instead using the discrete graphics card. This means potential battery life can be very high, and Acer are generally quite good at making powersaving settings and functions.

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