Laptop-Review.eu

Here we are again, warming up these cold days with a review of another Timeline from well known Acer. This time we will be putting the 8471 model through our tests. The particular configuration offers a 14 inch display, Intelā€™s SU7300 at 1.3 GHz, 3 GB RAM as well as a 250 GB hard drive ā€“ all aimed at the student and business segments. This model also adds an optical life without compromising battery life, and to top it all off, the price has been reduced.

The configuration we tested goes by the name Acer TravelMate TM8471-733G25Mn; the other configurations can be found here:

http://www.acer.co.uk

This product was kindly lent to us by Acer

Specifications

Category
Students and business segments

Processor
IntelĀ® Coreā„¢ Duo Processor SU7300 ā€“ 1.3 GHz ā€“ 3 MB L2 Cache - 800 MHz FSB

Chipset
Intel GS45 (Cantiga-GS) + ICH9M

RAM
1x 2048 MB DDR3 SDRAM ā€“ PC3-8500 ā€“ 533.3 MHz
1x 1024 MB DDR3 SDRAM ā€“ PC3-8500 ā€“ 533.3 MHz

GPU
Intel GMA 4500M HD onboard ā€“ 64 MB Std.

Hard drive
1x 250 GB S-ATA ā€“ Seagate ST9250315AS ā€“ 7200 RPM

Display
14 inches ā€“ HD LED LCD - LP140WH2-TLB1 panel ā€“ WXGA (1366 x 768px)

Sound card
Intel 82801IB - High Definition Audio

Optical drive
1x HL-DT-ST DVD drive -RAM ā€“ DVD +R

Battery
1x Asanyo AS09D36 Lithium Ion battery ā€“ 5600 mAh ā€“ 11.1V ā€“ 6 cells

Connectivity
IntelĀ® WiFi Link 5100 AGN - 300 Mbps* (Draft-N)
RealTek RTL8168C(P) /8111C(P) ā€“ 1000 Mbps

I/Os
3x USB 2.0
1x VGA output
1x DC for AC adapter
1x Card reader (SD, MMC, MS, MS Pro and xD)
1x Docking connector (EasyPort IV)
1x Microphone jack-in
1x Headphones jack-out
1x RJ-45

Operating system
Microsoft Windows Vista Business SP1 (build 6001)

Weight and dimensions
Width: 34.2 cm
Depth: 25.9 cm
Height: 1.4 cm
Weight: 1.9 kg

Software
Acer Crystal Eye
Acer GridVistaā„¢
Acer Assist
Acer Bio-Protection
Acer Backup Manager
Acer PowerSmart Manager
Acer Launch Manager
Acer eRecovery Management
McAfee Internet Security Suite 60-day trial version
AdobeĀ® ReaderĀ®
AdobeĀ® FlashĀ® Player
Googleā„¢ Toolbar
Googleā„¢ Desktop
eSobi
Office Ready
Windows Live Essentials

Price
About Ā£675.00

Package contents

Along with the computer follows all the necessities like manuals, installation media and power supply. There is also an anti static polishing cloth.

Construction & Design

First impression









The lid



The lid is black with Acerā€™s logo in one corner.

The front



At the middle of the front we have an orange diode that lights up when the computer is running on AC. At the right we have the card reader.

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 just below. At the right we find the hard drive, and the small lid to the left of it is an extra PCIe Mini Card slot to connect another piece of hardware.

The right side



From the left we have two USB 2.0 ports followed by the optical drive. After that, AC-in for the power supply and lastly the Kensington lock slot.

The left side



From the left we have the RJ-45 port for Ethernet LAN,Ā  followed by a vent. After that we have a docking connector (EasyPort IV), VGA output, 1x USB 2.0 and finally the 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. At the right of the keyboard is another button that pushes the CD tray out of the optical drive.

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 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.



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.

Display









The display is a 14 inch HD LED LCD display, running a WXGA resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. The aspect ratio is 16:9 and the panel itself is from LG Phillips. The backlighting is homogenous, meaning the light is evenly distributed on the display. The display is still very crisp if viewed from the side or top, though it does get sort of whitish. There is some discolouration if viewed from below though.

I/Os

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 computer is compared with its ā€™little brotherā€™ in the Timeline series: the Acer TM8371 which has the following specifications:

-Ā Ā Ā  IntelĀ® Core 2 Duo SU9400 ā€“ 1.4 GHz ā€“ 3 MB L2 cache - 800 MHz FSB
-Ā Ā Ā  IntelĀ® GS45 (Cantiga-GS) + ICH9M
-Ā Ā Ā  2x 2048 MB Samsung DDR3 SDRAM ā€“ PC3-8500 - 1066 MHz
-Ā Ā Ā  IntelĀ® GMA 4500M Shared onboard
-Ā Ā Ā  1x 500 GB 5400 RPM
-Ā Ā Ā  13.3 inch AUO B133XW01 V3 LCD panel - 16:9 HD WXGA ā€“ 1366 x 768px
-Ā Ā Ā  6 celled 2.8 Li-Ion battery

The Acer TM8371 costs about Ā£700.00 and you can find a review of it here:

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 Acer TM8471 starts up in 42 seconds, which is very decent, while the Acer TM8371 takes 55 seconds. It takes about 6 seconds to get it out of standby.

Battery life:



Idle test settings: Fixed clocking frequency of 1197 MHz, brightness at 1/10, hard drive standby after 10 minutes and WiFi deactivated.
Classic test settings: Clocking frequency ranging from 1197 MHz to 1297 MHz, brightness at 10/10, hard drive standby after 10 minutes and WiFi activated.

As can be seen, both computers can stay awake for more than 8.5 hours, impressive to say the least. Acer did promise it and they certainly live up to it. At active use it does shrink to about 3.5 hours, but that is still quite good compared to other computers in this segment.

Processor and GPU:



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.
The differences to not appear to be very large, but there is a 15 second gap to the 8371, making it about 20% slower and that is significant. However, note that while it is 20% slower in this test, it is not 20% slower for everything else.

3DMark 06 puts the computer through a number of graphics benchmarks and gives the computer a rating in accordance with how these play out.
Not much of a difference in the 3DMark 06 test since both computers sport Intelā€™sĀ  GMA4500HD onboard graphics, which is not exactly made for graphics intensive tasks. The difference we do observe is almost certainly due to the other hardware affecting the score.

PCMark 05 tests the overall performance of the computer and utilizes all the components to give an overall rating.
In the PCMark 05 test, the two perform quite evenly. Once again the small discrepancy is due to minor differences in hardware.

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.
Starting up Word and Excel takes longer for the 8471 compared to the 8371, but the opposite occurs for Powerpoint. The most likely explanation is that the 8371 was running some programs in the background which affected the load time of Powerpoint. If the two were tested under identical conditions, the 8371 would probably be faster.

Gaming

The computerā€™s onboard GPU is not made for running heavier 3D applications, but I put it through some Counter-Strike 1.6 and F.E.A.R anyway.







I was able play F.E.A.R. with an FPS of 38, with all details and graphics settings at minimum. That actually makes it playable, but of course you lose out on the visuals. By increasing settings a bit the FPS fell rapidly, down to 4 at maximum settings which is definitely not playable.

In Counter Strike I ran the de_aztec map at a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels ā€“ the maximum allowed by the game. Here the FPS fluctuated between some 30 and 70, depending on where on the map I went. The lowest FPS was 29 ā€“ dangerously low ā€“ but otherwise the game ran smoothly. As such, it should be playable if you do not take it too seriously.

Conclusion

The Acer TM8471 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. In addition it has an optical drive unlike its little brother 8371, which is very handy.
The bottleneck still seems to be the processor ā€“ it does save power, but it comes at a price. It hampers overall performance and you feel it generally responds slower than other computers. It also runs a lot of software in the background (listed under Specifications), and that does not do any good for the performance either. Still, it is very much able to run standard programs and surf on the web with little trouble.
Overall, it is a very decent student or business computer, and the price is fairly good compared to the functionality. The only negative aspect is the slow processor, the speed of which you just have to get used to.

Pros:
Very mobile
Good display
Simple design
Good battery life

Cons:
Too much unnecessary software that requires registration
Low processor performance

Battery:	5 / 5
Graphics:	1 / 5
Construction:	4 / 5
Mobility:	5 / 5
Software:	2 / 5
CPU Performance:	2 / 5
Innovation:	2.5 / 5
Connectionspeed:	2.5 / 5
Price:	3.5 / 5
Accessories:	3.5 / 5
Design:	3.5 / 5
Weight:	4 / 5
Performance:	2.5 / 5
Overall:	3 / 5