Product Listing

Acer Aspire Timeline X 5820TG - Timeless Classic

By Aloysius Low - 8 Mar 2011
Launch SRP: S$1398

Battery Performance and Portability Index

Battery Performance and  Portability Index

Powering the Acer notebook is this 6-cell 11.1V, 6600mAh battery.

The Acer Aspire Timeline X's main selling point is its battery life, so we're expecting to see good results here. The 5820TG has the ability to switch to integrated graphics for an even longer battery life, but given how our test methods are done (50% brightness and volume, Wi-Fi off and with a DVD video looped until the notebook dies), you'll probably gain at most half an hour more. So we've decided to use discrete graphics to give you a worst-case scenario. If your DVD drive isn't used though,  you can be sure that the notebook will last even longer.

Managing 3 hours and 13 minutes before giving up, the notebook basically lasts the longest of all the 15.6-inch notebooks that we have tested so far, and the low power consumption figure seem to support this with the notebook drawing just 20.68W during our test run. Once we tie in our Portability Index results, we should have a good idea if this is a notebook you will want to be carrying around instead of leaving it deskbound.

Our Portability Index is a basically an index that we created to help us determine just how portable a notebook is. It's based on the battery life test divided by the product of weight and volume. The higher the resulting ratio is, the better the notebook fares. Compared against notebooks of similar builds, the Acer notebook is easily the best scorer for the 15.6-inch notebooks, so if you're looking for a notebook to wield around effortlessly (comparatively), well, here it is.

While Acer's good design and build are to be commended to achieve such a standing, do bear in mind that its hardware configuration is unlike, for example, that of the Lenovo ThinkPad Y560. Hence, this aspect should be taken into consideration: are you looking out for a hardcore performance machine or the most portable general multimedia machine? The Lenovo and most of the other 15.6-inch notebooks tested fit the former needs. The Acer TimelineX 5820TG fits the latter usage. So choose wisely.

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9.0
  • Design 8.5
  • Features 7.5
  • Performance 9
  • Value 9
  • Mobility 9.5
The Good
Very Affordable
Excellent battery life
The Bad
No outstanding features
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