Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 - Finding the Right Balance

Finding Balance

Acer has always built notebooks that seek to find the sweet spot between quality (of build and components) and affordability. Often, consumers do get a good buy from Acer as their products tend to be value for money and that bodes well for many consumers. Late last year, Acer announced their desire to change their focus towards quality products that will help people associate the brand with more desirable traits. However, it appears that  someone forgot to forward the memo to the rest of the company.

Unfortunately that’s the feeling you’d get once you put your hands on the much discussed 15.6-inch Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 notebook. That’s because most of the new notebooks that were launched and reviewed recently were using tougher materials like aluminum alloy, magnesium alloy, carbon fibre or even Gorilla Glass. Plastic alone doesn’t cut it anymore (perception-wise). Granted the lid of the Timeline Ultra M3 machine is made of a metal alloy, the rest of the chassis is made from plastic.

But of course, there's more to the new Acer Timeline Ultra M3 that has helped it make some waves in the online space. For starters, it's nicknamed as the first true 'Ultrabook' because of it's slim build (20mm), decent weight (2.2kg) and it packs in a discrete graphics unit in that thin frame (take note that all references are with regards to the 15.6-inch form factor of the notebook). To be precise, the M3 packs in a spanking new NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M graphics module. In case you haven't heard, the new NVIDIA GeForce 600M series of mobile GPUs hail from the same desktop series of products based on the new Kepler architecture that's made from the 28nm process technology and was officially launched yesterday. Compared to the its predecessor, the GeForce GT 540M, NVIDIA promises double the performance with better power efficiency and stronger tessellation performance. We'll soon touch on these aspects to see if it really makes a difference in our performance benchmarking section. 

Design and Build Aspects

So we started this review pointing out Acer's liberal use of plastic in the Aspire Timeline Ultra M3, and it did disappoint us somewhat. But initial disappointments aside, we have to admit that the the M3 is a machine that is still very well designed and constructed. When handling and using the machine, we didn't find any weak spot on the notebook that creaks or squeaks.

In fact, the use of plastics could be a major factor that contributes to the 15.6-inch notebook's very light 2.2kg weight. And at 20mm, it could very well be the thinnest 15.6-inch notebook we’ve seen so far. Take note that you might find NVIDIA and Acer touting this model as an Ultrabook, but in our point of view, with its size and form factor, it's nowhere near the Ultrabooks we've seen to-date that are handy and portable. Calling the Timeline Ultra M3 is a bit of a misnomer to the public, but we do get the idea that it is much more portable than other notebooks of it's form factor.

And if you haven’t noticed from the pictures by now, the M3 is fully covered in black. Some may find the choice of color uninspiring, but then again there is little leeway to go wrong with black, especially if it’s matte black. The only thing that is shiny here, is the Acer logo right in the middle of the metal alloy lid.

Externally, the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 is fairly devoid of any features that leap out to hit you in the face. It’s only when you look hard enough can you see the two status LEDs on the left front side. But once you see the status LEDs, you’ll also see something that shouldn’t be found anywhere outside of the of machine -- the power switch.

What was Acer thinking when they decided that the power switch should be placed there? Sure it isn’t hard to reach, but it definitely isn’t the first place you’d look when you want to turn the machine on. When the machine is safely placed on a table, this might not pose much of a problem (except for the initial stage when you can’t figure out just where the switch is). However we feel this could be a major user-friendliness issue if you have the notebook on your lap. You may not accidentally hit the switch all the time, but there are chances, and when it happens, it will no doubt be the cause of some burst blood vessels when the machine abruptly goes to sleep, or worse, turns off.

Another baffling design choice is the location of all the ports - they were found at the back of the machine! With twin USB 2.0, one USB 3.0, HDMI and Ethernet ports, the quantity of connectivity options won’t be an issue, but getting to it easily is the problem. If the notebook is on the desk, you’d have to either get up, or pull the screen down in order to plug anything in. If it were on your lap, you’d have to juggle the notebook just to plug in a USB storage device. Not the most convenient of things to do. This gets worse if you're on the move. 

Plastic Everywhere
 

Interior Build Quality

Most people usually overlook the hinges because laptops stay open or stay closed most of the time. The actual amount of time you spend interacting with the hinges is minimal, yet we feel the hinges on a notebook play a huge part in forming your first (and probably lasting) impression of a notebook. If the process of opening the lid is hassle-free and one handed, then it means you’ll be starting your experience with the notebook on a good note like we did with the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3.

Once you open the machine, you’ll be greeted with more plastic, but this may not necessarily be a bad thing. The overall feeling of robust build is consistent with what could be found on the exterior of the machine. It still retains the all-black look, but this time it’s broken up by the metallic gray found on the keyboard housing, which is also plastic.

Often-times, when a keyboard housing is made of plastic, you will experience some flexing of various degrees. In this case, we found that there was indeed some flex on the keyboard, especially towards the center of the keyboard. However most of this review was also written on the M3, so take it from us, whatever flex you would encounter, it will not affect your daily use of this machine. That’s because even though the keys are shallow, they give a good deal of resistance (which means they aren't mushy) to make the overall typing experience fairly satisfactory. 

The next thing we enjoyed using was the very big clickable trackpad. It’s not glass or anything fancy, and is made of the same matte black plastic material as the rest of the palmrest. For a plastic clickpad, it didn’t really lose in terms of feel to a clickpad that is made of glass. The slight bit of texture that the clickpad has, didn't result in too much friction and allows you to get that cursor where you need to go. In fact, we found that the texture prevented any kind of residue build-up that would compromise the usability of the trackpad in the long run.

Multimedia Aspects

Usually, the two most important components on a notebook when it comes to its multimedia capabilities are its display and speakers (given the adequate standard performance of most platforms anyway). We’re very pleased to report that the speakers on the M3 are more than adequate for all typical needs you might have while on the go. We didn’t expect the speakers on such a small machine to amount to anything, but when we tried watching movies and playing games on it, we were pleasantly surprised. Sound from the machine was not only loud, but also pretty clear. Bass however, was quite weak, but given how affordable and slim the machine is, we really doubt there is any space for subwoofers to make an appearance on the M3.

As for the screen, well let’s just say we were very disappointed over the choice of a LCD panel with a resolution of just 1366 x 768 pixels. If there’s anything that we’ve learnt from the recent iPad launch (which sports a higher than full HD resolution), it would be that high resolutions on a small screens do make sense and are great for multimedia consumption. Surely the only reason Acer chose such a standard display resolution for a 15.6-inch screen is definitely related to a costing issue. Yes, the M3 is supposed to be affordable, which of course it is if you managed to get one from the recent IT Show. But at some point, we’d like manufacturers to turn to higher resolution displays, because a 1366 x 768 pixels resolution on a 15.6-inch screen looks exceptionally bad next to a new iPad. comparisons aside, think of the limited real desktop work space you get despite a large screen. We might have lived this disparity a few short years ago, but these days, with even 13-inch Ultrabooks sporting the same resolution (some even go up to 1600 x 900 pixels resolution), there won’t be any excuses that would satisfy consumers.

To make matters worse, there isn’t even an option for a higher resolution screen to go along with that spanking new graphics module from NVIDIA. If there was an option for a better display, we wouldn’t have to go so far as to declare the M3’s glossy screen (with terrible viewing angles by the way) the weakest link in this otherwise capable and 15.6-inch slim notebook.

Performance and Benchmarking

If you didn't catch our mentions earlier, the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 has a new graphics engine hiding in its belly that goes by the name of GeForce GT 640M, the latest mobile graphics engine from NVIDIA. According to NVIDIA, the 600 series graphics modules gives a significant performance boost over the older 500 series of graphics modules, and yet consume less power, resulting in longer battery life.

For comparison’s sake, we gathered a couple of multimedia notebooks that sport the older NVIDIA 540M graphic modules, as well as similar modules from AMD, to show you the difference between them. From here, you will be able to find out if getting the latest Ultra(media note)book that comes with the latest graphics module from NVIDIA would be worth spending any gold on.

Do take note however that the M3 sports a Consumer-class Ultra-Low-Voltage (CULV) processor that consumes much less energy (17W) than a conventional mobile processor (35W). Also note from the table comparison below that most of the compared processing platforms use an Intel Core i7 quad-core processor with an Intel HM65 Express chipset. The Acer notebook being the newest of them sports an Intel HM77 Express chipset with a dual-core Intel Core i5 processor. Given these differences, we would expect the Acer notebook to come off slightly slower in our benchmarks, but do check out the results yourself after the comparison table:-

PC Mark 7

The PC Mark 7 benchmark program tests every aspect of a notebook's prowess, ranging from its gaming, rendering, encoding and even data retrieval capabilities (the benchmark takes about an hour to finish). This is particularly good for multimedia notebooks that need to be adequately capable in every aspect. As you can see from the chart below, the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 has the best scores, but just barely. The GeForce GT640M discrete graphics module definitely played a major part in keeping the notebook in front of its competitors, even if it is sporting a weaker processor as it made up for in some of graphics related sub-tests.

Overall, the M3 faired well and showed that you don't need a powerful Core i7 processor unless you really intend to churn a lot of serious work on the move. If anything, the low powered processor even helps the notebook conserve power and ultimately, battery life as you'll see on the following page. If you’re wondering about the weak computational scores that the M3 has in comparison to the HP Envy 15, it is directly affected by the type of processor the machine has, and isn’t cause for any worry regarding the capabilities of the M3. In any case, the performance swings do happen in some of the sub-tests and the more stable set of results are a better gauge such as the overall result set.

3DMark 11

As a multimedia notebook, the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 has to be comfortable with gaming as well. It’s running the brand new NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M mobile GPU, that NVIDIA claims is much faster and more energy efficient than last generation 500 series notebook GPUs. Judging from the scores of the M3, you probably can’t tell if it is more energy efficient. But as for its gaming prowess, there shouldn’t be any doubts as the M3 comfortably leads other more expensive notebooks.

Far Cry 2

The ideal benchmark of a notebook’s gaming capabilities would then of course be a real game. The Far Cry 2 benchmark puts the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 in a scenario that taxes the notebook's graphics unit and the rest of the system . From the results below, you can tell that the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 is capable of running some of the more intensive games and given its low native screen resolution, the system shouldn't have any issues. Though you probably can't see much of a speed advantage of the new GPU, that's only because the Acer system is up against other more powerful processing platforms that levels up the differences in compute and graphics crunching platforms. We have to make do with these differences since it's not easy to get identically configured platforms for notebooks.

While the M3 runs Far Cry 2 with ease, even at very high settings, a much newer game like Battlefield 3 (which NVIDIA publicized it would fare well with the GeForce GT 640M on the Acer machine), we recommend that you keep your graphics settings low in order to have a lag-free gaming experience.

Battery life and Portability Index

One of the hallmarks of an Ultrabook, is its extreme portability compared to other types of notebooks. However, you can’t boast about how portable your machine is, if battery life is terrible and you need to have the power brick with you at all times. That’s why as long as a notebook is declared an Ultrabook by its manufacturer, more emphasis will be placed on its battery performance. Incidentally, that's why the Acer machine we're reviewing today is termed as such, but we wouldn't agree on it due to the large notebook size. In any case, to let you gauge just how effective the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3’s battery performance is, we've selected multimedia notebooks with somewhat similar hardware components.

While we've tried our best to keep the notebook differences to a minimum, there's only that much leeway we can get while dealing with notebooks. The only major difference here is that the Acer Aspire M3 runs on a more energy efficient dual-core processor, and has less battery capacity (for obvious reasons to match its platform's needs). From our comparisons,  you can tell if the lower powered processor and the more efficient GPU can squeeze more battery life. Also important to note is that the M3 has a much lower resolution screen than the comparisons and could be a contributing factor to its lower power consumption.

Battery Life

Most consumers who don't do research probably wouldn’t care much about battery life when buying a notebook. There are far too many other parameters to look out for, including price, design and components. However, having a battery gives computers the chance to break free from the shackles of a power outlet. That is a concept that the Ultrabooks take a step further, with a low powered processor and computing platform and loads of battery.

To get on with our battery life testing, we conduct this by having the notebook play a DVD loop until the battery runs flat. While video playback doesn’t utilise the discrete graphics on the M3 (thank to NVIDIA Optimus technology in the background playing its part to determine when the discrete GPU should kick in), what it does is to give you a gauge on how the battery fares when compared with other notebooks with similar components running a common usage scenario.

As expected, the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra S3 trounces the competition, even when pitted against another solid performer when it comes to battery life, the Samsung Series 7 Chronos, which also has an integrated battery (but a more powerful 35W processor). The other two machines sport more power hungry processors and / or older graphics modules, and will serve as a gauge on just how efficient the combo of a CULV-class processor and a GeForce GT 640 GPU are. In fact, the M3’s battery life is comparable to certain 13-inch Ultrabooks, which makes it even more impressive considering it’s got an optical drive to power throughout the test as well.

Power Consumption

Again, the more efficient processing and graphics platform of the Acer machine boasted lower power consumption than the competition. While the results look great, you'll have to consider that the difference in hardware more than made up for these differences, including the lower resolution display (1366 x 768 pixels) that the M3 has.

However, even though having a display that consumes less energy leads to great battery life, this is one trade-off that we are hesitant to make. Having said that, we imagine that there will be plenty of casual users out there that don’t mind having a lower resolution screen simply because when you place the notebook at the recommended viewing distance away from your eyes, one can’t make out the individual pixels anyway. (On that note, it’s also not recommended to place a new iPad beside the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3.) However, if you need the real estate to work with more onscreen data, the M3 is immediately out of your consideration list.

Portability Index

The HardwareZone portability index is basically the chart you’d want to pay attention to if you were looking for a notebook that won’t break your back when comparing within similar class of of notebooks. The resultant scores found in this chart indicate whether or not it’s worth your while to bring your notebook out, and the mathematical formula has elements like the machine’s weight, battery life and mass (or in other words, the volume it takes up in your bag).

The longest bar you see in this chart, belongs to the world’s lightest (1.12kg) and thinnest Ultrabook in the market right now, the Toshiba Portege Z830. The the shortest bar, also belongs to a Toshiba, the Qosmio X770 which is a power-hungry gaming machine. Multimedia notebooks usually score about 0.5 on the scale, thus illustrating how the M3 fares as a lightweight multimedia notebook, which is very well, according to its 0.974 score.

This is definitely better than the Dell XPS 15z, Toshiba Satellite P755, Samsung RF511 and HP Envy 15. The Samsung Series 7 Chronos comes in second place amongst the 15.6-inch class notebooks, but the Acer Timeline Ultra M3 tops them all easily as it had longer batter life, compact dimensions and lighter weight. Of course, you would also have to note that the Acer's processing platform is of a lower class that helped it shed off a lot of excess baggage compared to conventional multimedia notebooks.

Against true Ultrabooks, you’d have to bear in mind that the M3 comes along with the full hardware package - optical drive, discrete graphics and a huge (but low-res) 15-inch screen. Add these factors in with its impressive battery life, and you have on your hands a very portable multimedia notebook that's capable enough for most casual users.

The Right Balance

The Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 is one of the first 'Ultrabooks' that deviate from the 13-inch form factor, and the very first to reach us with a shiny new NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M GPU in tow. This signals a desire from the manufacturers to break out from the usual 13-inch form factor and give users a wider variety of choices when it comes to Ultrabooks. To label the M3 as an 'Ultrabook' is probably overusing this new term because of the size of the 15.6-inch machine, but as far as its portability is concerned, it was indeed a leader in its segment.

When the M3 reached us, we wanted to dismiss it as a cheap plastic machine for the masses. However, as we spent more time with it, we were quite impressed with the overall build quality of the M3. Even the keyboard and trackpad felt much better in usage than their plastic material would suggest. This sturdy well-built notebook felt like it could take the slings and arrows of life pretty well, even if it was almost completely covered in plastic. But having a plastic shell also has its advantages as it made the machine feel like it weighs much less than its reported 2.2kg weight.

Another endearing factor would be its sleek design with a matte black coating that gave it a very serious, no nonsense look. This appearance might not appeal to all, but for those who want their notebooks to blend in with every scenario imaginable (school canteen, corporate boardroom, etc.), the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 will not disappoint. And to complete the look, the M3 also comes with a wide variety of connectivity options that you may need (although placed in a difficult to reach spot), not excluding a tray loading optical drive.

Another highlight of the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 is it’s early adoption of the new NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M GPU. The sleek design of the notebook plus being able to sandwich in the new GPU is what Acer and NVIDIA are promoting it to be the first 'true Ultrabook' as it packs respectable gaming performance capabilities. Overall performance of the machine is generally on par with higher specced multimedia machines or slightly better depending on the task at hand. As such, for casual all-round users who need a large screen notebook but without the bulk, this Acer machine comes well recommended. 

We do however greatly dislike two distinct aspects of the machine. Firstly, its badly situated connectivity ports make using the notebook a chore when extending its capabilities by hooking up accessories. Secondly and perhaps the deal-breaker for some, would be its low resolution 1366x768 pixels resolution glossy 15.6-inch display. At this day and age and especially for its size and class, we expected higher resolution displays to make better use of the screen size. We're not demanding for full HD displays, but anything better than this basic screen resolution would do better justice to its screen real estate. 

So what does all of this mean for consumers? In a nutshell, the very slim and robust 15.6-inch Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 is recommended for what it can do, and especially for its street price of just under S$1300 (although its suggested retail price is over S$1600, the recent local show saw it debut at just S$1298). For general productivity, internet usage and light gaming on a large screen, this machine is definitely great value for its physical attributes, raw performance rivaling previous generation higher specced machines and of course its reasonable price. It's a fine buy, provided that you're not overly concerned with the adequate, but relatively low resolution display that even 13-inch Ultrabooks are beginning to outgrow. While the Timeline Ultra M3 notebooks sold in the USA come with SSD drive options, none yet exist in this region, but we expect them to show up as time progresses.

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