Acer Moves Forward in Time
by Dustin Sklavos on June 9, 2011 11:50 AM ESTAcer Moves Forward in Time
Acer's popular TimelineX line of notebooks has undergone a refresh to Sandy Bridge and brought a healthy number of upgrades to the hardware with them, including a major (and much appreciated) change to the keyboard. With models topping out at just 1.15" thick and 5.6 pounds in the case of the 15.6" model, these notebooks are made for performance in a thin-and-light form factor. So what is Acer bringing to the table today?
Their TimelineX line of thin-and-light notebooks is being released in 13.1", 14", and 15.6" models. Acer's press release is a bit cagey on details for the specific models (except to cite model numbers and weight), but there's some impressive engineering at work here. The 13.1" 3830T tips the scales at 4.12 pounds, while the 14" 4830T weighs in at 4.88 pounds and the "big daddy" 5830T remains a relatively svelte 5.6 pounds. Each of the notebooks comes equipped with an HD webcam with a 1280x1024 resolution, Intel 2nd Gen Core i3 or i5 processors, gigabit Ethernet, and 802.11b/g/n wireless networking. The 14" and 15.6" models also include integrated optical drives.
What's most appreciated (at least to me) is the change to a chiclet-style keyboard instead of the dire floating island keyboards that have plagued older Acer notebooks, but what may be most interesting to the rest of you is the inclusion of NVIDIA dedicated graphics. While we wouldn't expect the 13.1" model to sport anything other than the IGP, Acer has announced that the GeForce GT 520M and GT 540M would both be available in the new TimelineX notebooks.
Acer expects the notebooks to be available in retailers starting today with an MSRP starting at just $599.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
38 Comments
View All Comments
JarredWalton - Thursday, June 9, 2011 - link
That would be me. Sorry for the confusion. :)bobjones32 - Thursday, June 9, 2011 - link
Back when the m11x first came out, the TimelineX always seemed like a great alternative. 13.1" screen instead of a 11.9" screen, while having roughly the same body size and weight. It also had a nicely-powered deidcated graphics solution instead of an IGP, which put it in leage with the m11x.The problem is that those TimelineX's at the time never actually made their way to the US, which was extremely frustrating. The m11x is so appealing to me in its size and power, that it's astounded me there was never any comparable competition in the US.
Hopefully this series changes that...
Roland00 - Thursday, June 9, 2011 - link
Price is $779 at frys. This is the model I commented about in a previous post saying my local frys had it, but I didn't have the model number available.http://www.frys.com/product/6645364?site=sr:SEARCH...
Gnarr - Thursday, June 9, 2011 - link
...this stupid blue color on the palmrest?!?!? whyyyy? It looks so good except for this terrible blue crap :(warisz00r - Friday, June 10, 2011 - link
Because Acer have definitely confirmed that no other colour for the palmrest, right?ekerazha - Thursday, June 9, 2011 - link
The new TimelineX series has throttling issues when both the CPU and the discrete NVIDIA graphics are under heavy load. Some minutes with FurMark (about 10 minutes) or a heavy 3D game... and the CPU will underclock to 1.2 Ghz with a serious impact on performances (i.e. frames drop).ACER, FIX THE THROTTLING!
warisz00r - Friday, June 10, 2011 - link
I think throttling is necessary to prolong the life of the laptop.nevcairiel - Thursday, June 9, 2011 - link
I wish the display on the bigger models (15.4 specificially) would have a higher resolution, though. 1366x768 is fine for the smaller ones, but for 15.4 i would've loved at least 1600x900.TrackSmart - Thursday, June 9, 2011 - link
Agreed. It's almost criminal to put such a low resolution on such a large panel. Somebody make them stop this practice. Every year it gets worse.piroroadkill - Thursday, June 9, 2011 - link
Yet the opposite is happening with smartphones. In no time, we'll have smartphones with higher resolutions than most notebooks.. *sigh*