Laptop-Review.eu

The Acer TM 8571 is a notebook aimed at the student who the occasional bit of gaming. Hardware includes Intel’s SU9400 processor at 1.4GHz, 4GB RAM, 320GB hard drive and a Radeon HD4330 GPU. As an added bonus, the computer is capable of lasting up to 6 hours on battery which is – relatively speaking – quite substantial.

The reviewed configuration goes by the name of Acer TravelMate TM8571-944G32M; the other configurations can be found here:

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

Specifications

Category
Students

Processor
Intel Core 2 Duo SU 940 1.40MHz  3 MB L2 Cache

Chipset
Intel GS45 (Cantiga-GS) + ICH9M (Enh)

RAM
2x 2048 MB Samsung PC3-850DDR3 SDRAM

GPU
Intel GMA 4500M HD
ATi Mobility Radeon HD 433(M92 XT)  512 MB RAM

Storage
320GB Western Digital S-ATA hard drive

Display
15.6 inch HD LED LCD display,16:9 aspect ratio, WXGA resolution (1366 x 768px)

Sound card
Intel 82801IB ICH High Definition Audio [A3]

Optical drive
DVD+R DL optical drive

Battery
Sanyo AS09D36 battery 6 cells 11.1V 56wh

Connectivity
RealTek RTL8168(P)  100Mbps LAN
Intel WiFi Link 510AGN  30Mbps*(N1-Draft) WLAN

I/Os
1x EasyPort IV (Docking connector)
1x VGA
4x USB 2.0
1x Kensington lock slot
1x Audio jack in- and outputs
1x DC-in
1x Card reader (SD, MS, MS Pro, MMC and xD)

Operating system
Microsoft Windows Vista Business SP1 (build 6001)

Weight and size
Width 37.8 cm
Depth 25.5 cm
Height 3 cm
Weight 2.2 kg

Software
Acer Launch Manager
Google Toolbar
Adobe Flash Player
Acer Backup Manager
Acer PowerSmart Manager
Acer GridVista, Adobe Reader
Google Desktop
Windows Live Essentials
Acer Bio-Protection
Acer Crystal Eye
eSobi
McAfee Internet Security Suite (60 days trial)
Acer eRecovery Management

Price
Around £600.00

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 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 computer is a 15.6 incher, so it is a bit bigger than the other models we reviewed.

The lid



The lid is black with Acer’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.  
Towards 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 covers 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, followed by a vent. After that we have a docking connector (EasyPort IV), VGA output, 2x 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. As mentioned previously, there is a diode at the front 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 the flat design. The arrow keys are small but not excessively so. Towards the right we have the numpad, which is quite handy when working with numbers.



The touchpad responds quite well and provides sufficient space for your fingers to glide around. Between the left and right mouse buttons we have the fingerprint reader. At the right of the touchpad is a button to deactivate the touchpad.

Display









The computer has a 15.6 inch HD LED LCD display with an aspect ratio of 16:9. It runs a WXGA resolution, corresponding to 1366 x 768 pixels. There are 10 levels of brightness which can be adjusted via the FN shortcuts. The panel itself is from LG. The backlighting is homogenous, meaning the light is evenly distributed across the display.

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

This notebook is compared with the Acer TM8371 and Acer TM8471 from the same series, so they are quite similar.

The Acer TM8371 has the following specifications:

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

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

http://www.laptop-review.eu

The Acer TM8471 has the following specifications:

Intel Core Duo Processor SU7300  1.3 GHz  3 MB L2 Cache - 800 MHz FSB
Intel GS45 (Cantiga-GS) + ICH9M
1x 2048 MB DDR3 SDRAM  PC3-850 533.3 MHz
1x 1024 MB DDR3 SDRAM  PC3-850 533.3 MHz
Intel GMA 4500M HD onboard  64 MB Std.
1x 25GB S-ATA  Seagate ST9250315AS  720RPM
14 inch HD LED LCD - LP140WH2-TLB1 panel  WXGA (1366 x 768px)
1x Asanyo AS09D36 Lithium Ion battery  560mAh – 11.1V  6 cells

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 computer starts up in about 1 minute (57 seconds to be exact). That is okay, but hardly an impressive result. In addition it takes about 10 seconds for it to get out of standby, which is quite a long time.

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.

The computer lasts about 6 hours on battery. It is acceptable, but Acer promises more than 8 hours on all three. The reason this one could not make it is because it was impossible to deactivate the dedicated GPU and switch to the integrated GPU instead, which is how it would have gone above the 8 hours. I received a popup message that informed me of this during both tests, which is why it is lower. I never discovered why it was unable to switch to the integrated GPU.

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.

In wPrime 2.0, the computer manages a time of 57 seconds, quite a bit better than the other two. However, it is not particularly impressive compared to other mainstream computers around these days.

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 8571 easily outperforms the others in the 3DMark test, no surprise since it is the only one of them to have dedicated graphics.

PCMark 05 tests the overall performance of the computer and utilizes all the components to give an overall rating.

Once again, the 8571 wins thanks to the dedicated GPU pulling up the score.

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.

The computer takes quite a few seconds to start up Office programs, even though it performs well in the other tests. Performance was probably affected by something running in the background, such as antivirus and the like.

Gaming

I put the computer through Frontline: Fuel of War, a shooter that belongs to the same genre as the Battlefield series. In addition I ran a demo of Fuel, a racing game.







The games were tested in the full resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels
As shown by the graph, Frontline falls in the lower end of the scale. You can squeeze some 27 FPS out of it at low details, which is not particularly playable. Not even the demo of Fuel was playable with an average FPS of 17. I could not alter any settings in the demo, but you could probably get a few more FPS out of it by lowering details if it were possible.
Neither game ran too well, so I felt compelled to take the computer through a bit of Counter-Strike Source as well. With an average FPS of 90 (70 at the lowest) on the highest settings it was perfectly playable, so older games are no problem.

Conclusion

The Acer TM8571 is a decent and handy computer that sports a nice design. The computer is mostly aimed at students who might want to indulge in some gaming now and then (though not newer games that demand a better CPU and GPU).

The processor is slightly slow compared to most others in the same category, although that was a conscious choice by Intel in order to conserve battery. The computer has quite a bit of pre-installed software which you can feel slowing you down now and then.

The notebook has a simple and straightforward design, making it easy to work with. It generally runs quite well, and with 320GB hard drive and 4GB RAM, it is more than enough power for most. Overall, the TM8571 is a fine computer when you consider the price.

Pros:
Good display
Simple design
Good battery life

Cons:
Low processor performance

Battery:	3.5 / 5
Graphics:	3 / 5
Construction:	3.5 / 5
Mobility:	3 / 5
Software:	2 / 5
CPU Performance:	2.5 / 5
Innovation:	2.5 / 5
Connectionspeed:	2.5 / 5
Price:	3.5 / 5
Accessories:	3,0 / 5
Design:	3.5 / 5
Weight:	3.5 / 5
Performance:	2.5 / 5
Overall:	3 / 5