Laptop-Review.eu

We are starting up our laptop reviews after a bit of a hiatus, and here in the fall we will be trying out a number of different laptops from previously reviewed manufacturers. To start with – a Timeline from well-known Acer.
The Acer TravelMate Timeline is a handsome computer aimed at the student and business segments, in part due to the notebook’s mobility and particularly battery life that exceeds 8 hours. The notebook also offers Intel’s new CULV Core 2 Duo SU9400 processor at 1.4 GHz, 4 GB of RAM, a 500 GB hard drive and onboard graphics.

The configuration we tested goes by the name Acer TravelMate TM8371-944G50N; the other configurations can be found here:

http://www.acer.co.uk/

The product was kindly lent to us by Acer

Specifications

Category
Students - business

Processor
Intel® Core 2 Duo SU9400 – 1.4 GHz – 3 MB L2 cache - 800 MHz FSB

Chipset
Intel® GS45 (Cantiga-GS) + ICH9M

RAM
2x 2048 MB Samsung DDR3 SDRAM – PC3-8500 - 1066 MHz

GPU
Intel® GMA 4500M Shared onboard

Hard drive
1x 500 GB 5400 RPM

Display
13.3 inch AUO B133XW01 V3 LCD panel - 16:9 HD WXGA – 1366 x 768px

Sound card
Intel® 82901IB ICH9 – High Definition Audio (A3) (RealTek ALC269)

Optical drive
None

Battery
6 celled 2.8 Li-Ion battery

Connectivity
Intel® WiFi Link 5100 AGN – 300 Mbps* (Draft-N)
RealTek RTL8168C(P)/8111C(P) Family – 1000 Mbps
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR

I/Os
3x USB 2.0
1x VGA output
1x Kensington lock slot
1x Card reader (SD, MMC, MS, MS Pro and xD)
1x Docking Connector
1x Sound in- and output jacks

Operating system
Microsoft Windows Vista Business SP1 (build 6001)

Dimensions and weight
Width: 32.4 cm
Depth: 22.8 cm
Height: 2.53 cm
Weight: 1.65 kg

Price
About £700.00

Package contents

Along with the computer you get manuals, installation media, polishing cloth and the charger.

Construction & Design

First impression







The computer is black and the ‘skeleton’ made of plastic and aluminium. The design is fairly simple and very even on all sides. There are few details of note, making it rather neutral and classy. It seems less like a hunk of plastic compared to Acer’s earlier laptops and more of a quality product.

The lid



The lid is black with Acer’s logo in one corner.

The front



At the middle of the front, just below the touchpad, we have an orange diode that lights up when the computer is running on AC.

The rear



The rear of the computer is completely empty. The only thing of interest here is the battery.

The bottom



In the top of the picture we have the battery, with the RAM modules to the left and the hard drive in the bottom right corner.

The right side



From the right we have two USB ports followed by the LAN port. After that we have a so-called docking connector, useful if you have a docking station. Lastly we have the AC-DC input for the power supply.

The left side



From the left we have a Kensington lock slot followed by the VGA output. After that a vent, a USB port as well as sound in- and output jacks.

Buttons/Diodes





The notebook has four buttons above the keyboard. The first (de)activates the wireless network adapter, the second starts up Acer Backup Manager, the third starts up Acer PowerSmart Manager and the fourth and final is the power button.



The four buttons are lit with blue and orange colours when activated. At the front just below the touchpad, as previously mentioned, there is a diode lighting orange when the power supply is connected. At the left of the buttons are three smaller diodes indicating hard drive activity, numlock status and capslock status respectively.

Keyboard and touchpad



The touchpad works really well and is suitably sensitive. The left and right mouse buttons are located on either side of the built-in fingerprint reader. When the computer gets closer to full performance, the mouse sometimes jumps around on the screen, but it seems to be a rare occurrence.



The keyboard works really well and is pretty good to type with after you get used to it. All the keys are raised to the exact same level and are all very similar, so it can be difficult to find your way around them using only your fingers. You get used to it after a while though.

Display









The display is a 13.3 incher, running a WXGA resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels with an aspect ratio of 16:9. The panel itself is an LED LCD panel from AUO and has 10 different brightness levels that you can control via the FN shortcuts. The backlighting is even and just as strong as it should be. The angle of view is very wide; the picture is very crisp regardless of whether you view it from the side or below. It does get a bit bright if you view it from the top, though.

Special Features

Fingerprint reader



The fingerprint reader can be used to log onto the computer, as well as most websites. That is a good deal faster than typing your passwords all the time.

EasyPort IV



EasyPort is an interface that allows the computer to connect to a docking station.

Webcam





The webcam is a 0.3 megapixel and can take pictures in a resolution of up to 640 x 480 pixels. With it comes Acer Crystal Eye Webcam software.

Benchmark

The notebook is compared with

Samsung X360

-    Intel Core 2 Duo SU9300 – 1.20 GHz – 800 MHz FSB – 3 MB Cache
-    1 x 1024 + 1 x 2048 MB DDR3 RAM – 800 MHz
-    Intel GMA 4500M HD – 32 MB (dedicated) + 1164 MB (shared)
-    1.8” – 120 GB HD – SATA300 – 16 MB – 5400 RPM
-    13.3” LED – 1280 x 800 Pixels
-    6200 mAh – 6 cells
-    Windows Vista Home Premium
-    Price about £900.00

http://www.laptop-review.eu/

Acer Aspire 3935

-    Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 – 2.13 GHz – 3 MB L2 cache
-    2x 2048 MB Elpida PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM
-    Intel GMA 4500M HD Onboard – 64 MB
-    160 GB Serial-ATA HDD – 5400 RPM
-    13.3 inch 16:9 TFT LED-backlit display – WXGA resolution (1366 x 768px)
-    Price about £850.00

http://www.laptop-review.eu/

Boot times and out of standby:



Boot and out of standby times are measured from when the power button is pressed and the Windows desktop appears.

The computer starts up in about 55 seconds, which is decent but no better than the two other computers in comparison.

Battery life:



Idle test settings: Fixed clocking frequency of 1197.3 MHz, brightness at 1/10, hard drive standby after 10 minutes and WiFi deactivated.
Classic test settings: Clocking frequency ranging from 1197.2 MHz to 1396.7 MHz, brightness at 10/10, hard drive standby after 10 minutes and WiFi activated.

As can be seen, the computer can last more than 8 hours which is just phenomenal compared to most other notebooks around. At active use it shrinks to about 3.5 hours, which is still very acceptable in this segment.

Microsoft Office Load



Each program is loaded individually after a reboot as the Office programs load quicker if they have already been started up once during a session.

As can be seen, each program takes between 5 and 10 seconds to start up. It is quite acceptable but not exactly amazing. Here the processor is what drags down the performance and causes the long wait.

Point Benchmarks



wPrime calculates the square root of numbers up to 32 million and is capable of utilizing multiple cores to maximize performance. wPrime is measured in time, so the lower the better.
As can be seen, the Acer 8371 takes no less than 75 seconds, a long time compared to most other CPUs around. Samsung’s X360 is not much better though, but the Acer Aspire 3935 only takes 35 seconds which is pretty good.

3DMark 06 puts the computer through a number of graphics benchmarks and gives the computer a rating in accordance with how these play out.
The Acer 8371 comes in second here amongst the three, but the result is still not very good, because a score in this interval is generally poor compared to what you can get out of dedicated graphics. As such, the Acer 8731 does not get its strength from graphics performance.

PCMark 05 tests the overall performance of the computer and utilizes all the components to give an overall rating.
Once again the Acer 8371 comes in second among the three, but the score is decent for the segment.

Gaming
Since the computer only has an onboard GPU, you should not expect it to be able to run newer games. I decided to test it with a bit of Counter-strike 1.6 as well as FlatOut 2, both of which are older games and thus playable on most contemporary systems.







Counter-strike 1.6 would not run in a higher resolution than 1280 x 720 pixels, but as can be seen it reaches an average FPS of 45 in the de_aztec map. It is okay, but not good enough for serious gaming.

FlatOut 2 was able to run in the full resolution of the computer, reaching an average FPS of 18 with all settings at high. It did not run particularly well and was very choppy, but you can get more out of it by lowering details.

Conclusion

The Acer TM8371 is a decent computer for the student or traveller in that it offers a long battery life and does not take up too much space. The computer is simple in its design and thus physically user friendly. However, it contains way too much software that requires you to register and so on before you can take full advantage of Windows, which is very annoying for first time users.
The computer offers some practical functions like webcam, fingerprint reader, large hard drive and good battery life, but what drags it down is the performance; the processor is simply too focused on saving power. The computer is kind of slow and all the pre-installed software only makes it worse, so it is something you just have to deal with unless you remove it. 4GB of RAM is maybe a bit over the top, since the rest of the hardware cannot take full advantage of it.
All in all it is a fairly slow computer priced slightly high compared to what you get out of it. Do remember that the processor’s performance (or lack thereof) is a conscious move from Acer to ensure a long battery life. You just cannot have your cake and eat it too.  

Pros
Very mobile
Good display
Simple design
Good battery life

Cons
No optical drive
Too much useless software that requires registration

Battery: 5 / 5Graphics: 1 / 5Construction: 4 / 5Mobility: 4 / 5Software: 2 / 5Overall: 3 / 5