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Acer Timeline X 4820TG: Packing a Hefty Punch

By Aloysius Low - 21 Apr 2010

The End of Time

The End of Time

Acer's update to the Timeline series with the Timeline X may seem just like a normal refresh, but it's anything but that. Internally, Acer packed a wallop with a Intel Core i7-620M (2.66GHz) dual-core processor. It's blazing fast, has Intel's Turbo Boost and Hyper-Threading, which means the dual cores function as pseudo quad cores. Tack on discrete graphics in the form of ATI's latest Mobility Radeon HD 5650, and the Timeline X 4820TG looks to be powerhouse compared to its tamer predecessor.

The performance scores don't lie either, as the Acer Aspire Timeline X 4820TG (that's quite a mouthful to say out loud, don't you think?) pretty much showed that it could hold up well compared against the more gaming centric machines like the ASUS G51J 3D. You should be able to play most games on this unit with decent frame rates as long as you stick to mid-range quality settings. Add on the fact that it's pretty portable with its slim form factor and you have in your hands a unit to game with while away from your desktop gaming rig.

It's also quite a portable unit when we considering the outcome from our Portability Index. On our DVD battery test, the unit lasted for 189 minutes - and that's with discrete graphics enabled. Sure it didn't last as long as the first Timeline 4810T nor was it anywhere near the eight hours claimed by Acer, but it's still a reasonable amount of uptime to get work done, or even watch a movie on a long road trip. You'll probably be able to squeeze more if you're just thinking of using it for work by turning off the WiFi, optical drive and switching over to integrated graphics engine. The switch can be done automatically by the Acer Power Manager program when it detects the notebook is running solely on battery. Also, the program will also reduce the screen brightness to a fairly dim level (supposedly in a bid to get close to the claimed eight hours uptime), but you might want to override that for comfortable usage.

Value wise, the Acer unit, like all other machines in their stable, lays out a very attractive price point that hooks you in while making your jaw drop in awe. While the normal retail price is S$2198 for this Timeline X beauty is already decent, Acer will be having a special introductory price of just S$1998. Special offers aside, judging by the notebook's capabilities, it is still a really affordable laptop for almost everyone, including students. We're hard pressed to find anything similar or better at the moment in this segment, so if you're laptop hunting for an all-rounder, this is probably the notebook you'll probably want to be using for the next two years.

Overall, we've to say a job well done to both Acer for managing to squeeze a powerful platform within such a slim build, and Intel for bringing down the TDP figures for this powerful platform through good engineering.

The Acer Aspire Timeline X 4820TG may be a notebook that's a mouthful to say, but it's one notebook that easily kicks butt and chews bubblegum, and it's all out of gum.

 

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9.0
  • Design 9
  • Features 9
  • Performance 9
  • Value 9
  • Mobility 9
The Good
Powerful performance in a slim form factor
Affordable for its specifications
The Bad
Tad heavier than other ultra-thin notebooks
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