Acer Timeline 4810t Initial Impression And Review

Just purchased the Acer Timeline 4810T from Staples at $599.99. This is is the 14.1 inches variant, thought I might post some initial impression for all who are interested.

Spec
Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500 1.4 ghz, 800 Mhz FSB, 3MB L2 Cache
4GB DDR 3 ram
320GB 5400rpm Western Digital
DVD+RW super multi
Wireless A/B/G (Atheros)
14.1 in 1368 x 768 LED (720P)
Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bits

HARDWARE
Contained the Acer Timeline, small form factor adapter/charger, 6 Cell 5800mah, 63WHR battery. manual and the usual documentation. No operating system dvd nor driver disc were included, however, the laptop did give me an option to create recovery discs.

The initial inspection of chasis was favorable, as you can see in the picture, it is thinner than a white macbook, roughly same thickness closed as the aluminum macbook. Chasis was rigid with no flex, the only part of the laptop that exhibit any kind of flex is the keyboard. Should you type hard, you can see the center of the keyboard being compressed downward. The chicklet style keyboard however, remained very usable and responsive.

Sound is loud and clear unlike tinny netbook speaker.

Mine comes with 3 USB port, 1 VGB, 1 HDMI, 1 ethernet port and 1 DVD+RW super multi. It also has a 5 in 1 memory card reader towards the front. 1 headphone output and 1 microphone input.

DISPLAY

The LED is very bright and zero dead pixel. The quality of the LED is that equivalent to Dell and HP LED. Vibrant, very very beautiful. The screen however, is reflective and can be distracting to those that use this in the sun. But I am deeply impressed with the quality of the LED screen.

SOFTWARE

This Timeline came with Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bits. **In one of the pamphlet, Acer stated that anyone who purchased an Acer computer on or after JUNE 26, will get a free copy of Windows 7 equivalent to the level of Vista installed** Meaning I will be missing out since I purchased this laptop before the said date. I'm assuming other computer manufacturer will have the same promotion soon. The laptop came with a moderate level of junkware. Not as many as HP but still lots of game, utility, which I promptly uninstalled with pc decrapifier.

SPEED

After uninstalling all the junkware and cleaned the laptop with CC CLEANER. It takes 46 seconds for the laptop to boot up into the log on screen, and additional 20 seconds until the desktop is present and usable. So in the absence of too many bloatware, it's about 66 seconds before the laptop is usable, which is not bad for a single core 1.4 ghz.

Microsoft Word, Excel, Power point 2007 took approximately 3 seconds to launch, which was very impressive. Fire fox took about 1/2 second to load. I have owned Dell mini 10, Asus EEE 1000HE (2GB ram). Overall the booting time, usability, office tasks, listening to music and watching video experience FAR surpass any of the netbook powered by Intel Atom CPU. This laptop does everything noticeably faster in Vista than Atom powered netbook in windows XP.

BATTERY LIFE

Here is why everyone is looking at this laptop. With power saver mode on and screen at minimum brightness, the battery meter indicated over 8 hours 30 minutes run time. This is with WI FI on, and surfing the net, with screen brightness to minimum. I also read from a source which had a pre release version of this laptop who conducted a resource intensive PC mark 2005, and this laptop endured 4 hours before the laptop shut down. Even at lowest brightness, taking note in class or surfing at cafe, the LED still emitted ambient light for it to be fully readable.

HEAT AND NOISE

While typing this review on balanced power mode, the cpu idles at 43C and HD is 36C. At no time was this laptop hot or even warm. The only place warmer than my hand is the vent which is by no means even close to being called warm at all. Rest of the laptop is cool to the touch.


The fan noise is not loud at all, your classmate immediately next to you might or might not notice. But in a quite room, it is audible. Mine has a semi high pitch noise from the fan, it is not annoying, just present. It's almost like as if Acer used a very very small fan which had to spin very fast kinda high octave noise, but at least its not loud. However, in classroom setting with paper noise, discuss going on, it is completely quiet.

WEI score
CPU 3.5
Memory 5.2
Aero Video 3.2
Gaming video 3.4
HDD performance 5.4

VIDEO PLAYBACK

Normal dvd quality video play back at 640 x 480 or 720 x 480 is silky smooth without lag. Quality is good, and color is vibrant. However, MKV files at 1080p and 720p files is mostly unplayable. I played Quantum of Solace, Defiance, the Brave one and few others at 1080p or 720p, completely un watchable. Very very laggy and choppy, this may have been due to the super compressed nature of MKV files. Youtube in HD was slightly better but still not very watchable, very laggy and choppy as well. My internet connection is 6 mbps, not super fast, but more than enough to guarantee smooth and fast HD file transfer. I downloaded 2 720P Call of duty Modern Warfare 2 trailer from gametrailer web site in WMV format. Acer was able to play these 2 files perfectly smooth.

During any high def video playback, the CPU usage was always at 100% usage. I understand this laptop is not high powered, but I was very disappointed in the high def video playback performance as this is advertised to be a 720P screen with HD playback and HDMI out. For those of you that bought this with intention for MKV and other compressed HD play back, you might be disappointed.

CONCLUSION

at 599.99 dollars, Timeline gives you LED, DDR 3 ram, 8 hours battery life and DVD drive. I have yet to seen a better deal for the given price. This is certainly worth the extra 200 dollars over any other 10.1 in netbook. Normal office and internet tasks are fast and flawless, you can barely notice that this is a single core laptop. I have owned Dell inspiron 1420, 1525, Sony vaio SR, Macbook 2009, HP DV3. For internet browsing tasks and office productivity, you might notice slight speed lag ifyou have lots of pages and applications open but just barely. SU3500 is a very capable cpu even under vista, though the CPU usage spikes to 100 very easily.

I am disappointed in the video playback department as most of the video format streaming online is high defition and this laptop is marginally capable in playing back some of the high def contents if it's not very compressed. But most of the HD video streamed from internet sources was too much workload for this laptop to be viewable. Since I have read at other places where the intel GMA4500MHD played HD video fine, I'm guessing the bottleneck is the 1.4 ghz 1 core cpu that's unable to process the instructions fast enough.

If you dont need high def video play back, and are in the market for a fast, inexpensive, office productivity computer that will lats you all day on a single charge, this is definitely for you. Acer has come a long way. But if you want a multi-media power house (read: compressed high def video playback), this laptop is not for you.

 

The reason the WMV files played faster is likely due to hardware acceleration in WMP11 through the GMA 4500MHD.
I remember reading that Win7 managed to activate the H.264 acceleration on the 4500MHD, but I'm not sure if that holds true to MKV files.
And yes, the Core 2 Solo might not be up to the task. I would recommend getting a model with a Core 2 Duo - they do exist.

EDIT: Or try what's been suggested here. MPC HC's beta build has support for GMA 4500MHD video acceleration.

 

Sorry Folks, Pictures Here...

 

Well this is very dissapointing, I was looking forward to the Acer Timeline series but now that I know HD Youtube videos are still choppy I wont be getting this :\

Do you think that the Dual core 1.4ghz processor will be able to handle it and play HD Youtube/Hulu videos smoothly?

 

in absence of any concrete evidence, my guess is CPU is causing the choppy HD video playback. Duo core should play perfectly fine, but then we will be talking about an entirely different realm of hardware.

 

Meh i guess ill have to wait for somebody to get the dual core 3810t model to be sure

 

this notebook looks great but i am very disapointed with the performance of su3500. su9400 is listed as an option tough i couldn't find a store that sells this model.

I wonder how su3500 performs compared to amd neo .

 

The Staple website says $699. How did you get it for $599?

 

Went to my local Staples at lunch and they have it in stock for $599 too! I was thinking about the 13", now I might just get this one!

I wonder if switching from Vista to Windows 7 will help performance?

 

Thanks for the quick review. 720p and probably 1080p mkv will play fine with Core AVC and MPC. Here's a guide:
http://www.danielandrade.net/2007/02/28/howto-play-high-definition-videos/

I'm susprised it can't play Yotube HD smooth.
Did you first download the clip? (red bar indicating)
Are you sure the laptop was in maximum performance mode?

 

It's on balanced mode, I did not try it on high performance mode, but I doubt it will matter, allow me to explain.

Playing Valkyrie 1080P in MKV files, just press play using VLC player, the frame immeidately froze and im getting like 1 frame per second. After trying to jump to different chapters, and areas of the movie, the movie just froze, came to a grinding halt. It's not until like 20 seconds later that it moved to the correct scene I chose. However at that time when it resumed playing, the color was washed out, lots of noise, basically the characters in movie became LEGO like character and color was all over the place. You see cube people not human.

I tried the same exact movie + a few others on my other HP laptop with P7350 C2D, 4 GB DDR2 ram and dedicated Nvidia 9300M GS 512mb video card, absolutely smooth no hiccup whatsoever no matter how i move the moves back and forth. Same goes for my desktop with I920, 6 GB DDR3 and GTX 260 video card.

WIth the amount of lag and being totally incapacitated, I really doubt putting it on max performance will make it viewable.

 

The max performance mode I meant for up Youtube.

Try MKV files with MPC and Core AVC (with the guide I linked). I had no problems playing 720p mkv on a Atom Z520 running at 1.24GHz and GMA500. Review.

 

Just tested in Max power mode for YOUTUBE HD, fail. I get approximate 1 frame per second, like small boat in middle of Atlantic ocean, CHOPPY.

 

Thanks for testing. Pretty disappointing.

 

I think you need the latest beta version of MPC HC to get video acceleration working on the GMA 4500MHD. Check the link I posted earlier in this thread.

 

That could be interesting. I think MPC with Core AVC codec will also do the trick.

 

How do regular flash, YouTube, Hulu and Apple trailers play? They should be fine, right?

(Oops just re-read your post:

"Normal dvd quality video play back at 640 x 480 or 720 x 480 is silky smooth without lag.")

 

switching from vista to w7 would help since 4500hd is a dx10 gpu.

i think i would play 1080p mkv with the patched mpc . coreavc won't help since it can not use the intel gpu.

anyways, su3500 performance is disappointing.

 

I just recently bought this laptop from staples as well, I love it, as for video playback, I must say, it's not so bad. Anything other than HD plays smoothly with fast forward/rewind working perfectly. When playing 1080p H.264, video plays fine until you fast forward/rewind, it'll take a few seconds to catch up, about 5 seconds, but plays smoothly after that. I of course use klite codec pack and MPC as the player. running windows 7 7201 as well with driver that came with it.

 

This is good to hear! Doesn't sound too bad to me. I plan on running Windows 7 on it too.

 

is the cpu easy to change by the user?

 

As far as I know, these CULV cpus are meant to play HD videos.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10254094-64.html

I have seen more powerful laptops showing stuttering issues with mkv files.
Most of the case, it was software and/or driver issues.

 

it is the chipset (integrated gpu) that decodes the hdmovie in these notebooks. single core culv cpu too slow for that. as far as i know youtube hd videos don't support gpu decoding.

 

I still think this notebook is a great deal at $599! Going to get it at Staples after work.

 

Thank you for the review,
I am going to buy 4810TG (with SU9400, and ATI HD4330)
Hopefully, it will not lag while I watch HD video

I need the power that is greater than Atom and long battery life laptop

Btw, I saw a Taiwanese forum where they are discussing 3810t having 100% cpu load issue (then laptop crash). Did you experience that?
Acer in Taiwan seems to work hard on this one (4 times BIOS update within a month); but some people said that after uninstall those acer software, their laptop seem to be stable. (4810TG with SU9400 version seem to be more table than any other timeline laptops with SU3500)

 

The ATI Radeon HD 4330 will take over certain kinds of video decoding (H.264, MPEG2, VC1) from the CPU, improving playback speeds.

 

today i tried the 4810t for a few minutes, even while doing very simple tasks cpu peaks to %100 very easily.

 

Maybe the CPU was in energy saving settings (downclocked) ?

Or loaded with bloatware. Even the Core Solo should have more than enough muscle for simple tasks. Flash HD will kill it though.

 

it was a demo unit, maybe cpu was in energy mode.

timeline was the most aesthetic notebook in the store. if they had su9400 version in stock , id buy right away.

it would also accelerate pdf rendering in adobe reader which is very useful if the user reads pdf documents with high resolution pictures.

 

Does any1 have a timeline with the SU9400? Does it play HD YouTube/Hulu videos smoothly?

 

A dutch user with 3810T SU9400 reported that Youtube HD is absolutely no problem.

 

OMG my dream come true! if only i could find a place to buy it in the US lol

Now that i read through i think he says that it studders a bit while full screen, buts thats ok i never use it in full screen anwyay

 

"I assume that fullscreen playback also works smoothly?

proc is around 70% for ordinary hd pictures .. I have also the infamous bird scene is playing .. but that does not work without stutter (but which is also quite heavy ).... but ordinary play hd movies he is also good to fullscreen."

 

Yes the CPU peak at 100 easily. Not saying it chokes everytime it reaches 100%, on normal tasks, there are no slow down even at 100%, but it can go from 20 to 100% easily and back down and up again.

 

are there any other model/brand with the new culv cpus thats alternative to timeline series?

 

MSI X340 is one. Acer was the first to market. Asus and Lenovo are coming next.

 

New Acer Aspire Timeline 13 inches with single cores come with several different CULV processors.

SU2700 is Intel Pentium processor (2M Cache, 1.30 GHz, 800 MHz FSB).
http://ark.intel.com/product.aspx?id=42004

SU3500 is Core 2 Solo (3M Cache, 1.40 GHz, 800 MHz FSB).
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=37133

SU3500 is more expensive but its TDP is 5.5W which is lower than 10W of SU2700.

I wonder what the real world differences are between Pentium and Core 2 Solo other than price and TDP though.

 

I would guess the Core 2 Solo to be about 30% faster.

 

I bought the 3810T yesterday, running Vista was a pain but Windows 7 Beta works perfectly! Youtube HD Video plays smoothly.

 

What CPU do you have?

 

The 1.4 Solo CPU. Not only youtube HD video but everything runs much faster in Win 7.

Edit: I highly recommend this guide for installing Win 7 from a usb key.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/howtos/how_to_install_windows_7_beta_a_usb_key

 

Good to hear!

how's the CPU utilization during Youtube HD?

PS. We're not talking HQ but HD right...

 

Flipp0, try this exact link in both full screen and regular.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONqBj8aTMN8&fmt=22

 

" This video is not available in your country due to copyright restrictions." Please send another link.

It seems like youtube HD video is not entirely lag-free.. :-/ Much better than under vista but still not perfect. HQ runs perfect.

 

and you are sure you have the Solo and not the Duo right?

 

Yes. However, I did mix up youtube HQ with HD. As I said, when I play a 720p youtube clip there is some lag.

 

Okay, I just hope that the duo will fix it :\

 

Thanks for your mini review.

I see that the 14" version uses a higher capacity battery than the 13" ULV Timeline models. So your may be getting about approx 45 mins less with say a typical 40% brightness?
If you do a full run down do post your results.
Battery life looks extremely good.

You most likely would get even better battery life if you downgraded/upgraded to XP.

 

Flipp0, can you play this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcT0...E62B231EE&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=2
Please end all other processes and tell me how your CPU usage is during playback (not full screen). CPU usage can be checked with Ctrl-alt-del> taskmanager.

Rach,
The screen is also smaller, not sure if you accounted for that.

 

What non-CULV processor is in same level as SU3500 or SU9400?