Acer Aspire Timeline AS3810TZ-4880 13.3-Inch Laptop – 8+ Hour Battery Life

6 Responses to “Acer Aspire Timeline AS3810TZ-4880 13.3-Inch Laptop – 8+ Hour Battery Life”

1. 6
   William Says:
   May 20th, 2012 at 6:33 pm

   AcerAspire Timeline AS3810TZ-4880 Notebook comes with these high level specs: Intel Pentium Processor SU2700, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit with Service Pack 1, 13.3-inch HD Acer CineCrystal LED-backlit Display, Mobile Intel GS45 Express Chipset, 4096MB DDR3 1066MHz Memory, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD, 320GB SATA Hard Drive, Acer Crystal Eye Webcam, Multi-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader, 2nd Generation Dolby Sound Room Audio Enhancement, Acer 802.11b/g/Draft-N Wi-Fi CERTIFIED, 3 – USB 2.0 Ports, 1 – HDMI Port, Convenience Buttons: Multi-Gesture Touchpad, Acer PowerSmart Technology, Acer Backup Manager, Touchpad-lock, 6-cell Li-ion Battery (5600 mAh), 8+ hours battery life, 3.5 lbs. | 1.6 kg (system unit only), AC Power Adapter, AC Power Cord, Wireless Setup Card, Registration/ Limited Warranty Card, McAfee Internet Security Suite (60-day insert)

2. 5
   Charles Says:
   May 20th, 2012 at 6:33 pm

   By Charles

   

   2009-06-28
    
   This is a product I really wanted to love, and came very close to loving it.

   It is very well built. The lid is razor thin yet well hinged and stable. The overall structure is solid. The keyboard is among the best I have used, with full-size, dedicated, Home, End, and Page Up/Down keys. Putting it side by side with my SONY Z, which costs over $2K and is considered one of the best ultra-portables, the Acer more than holds its own. In fact, I actually prefer some of the designs aspects of the Acer. Performance wise, the Acer is a slower class machine. Compared with my main work computer, a MacBook Pro running under Windows, equipped with a solid-state drive, the speed difference is not that obvious for my everyday tasks, which include Office applications and Web access. Working with my 2+GB Outlook files, navigating through large number of attachments, I didn’t feel much speed compromise.

   I will not go into all the features, only some things I noticed immediately. You can get phenomenal battery life without much compromise (some laptops require reducing display brightness to barely visible to reach long battery life, not so with this Acer). The computer runs quiet and cool. The wireless performance is stable (I use 802.11n exclusively).

   A really pleasant surprise is the computer is equipped with S/PDIF digital output, embedded in the headphone jack. This is the same arrangement with all MacBooks, which in my opinion is one of the most underappreciated features. Plug in a special Toslink cable (very easy to find due to the popularity of Apple), connect the computer to a home theater receiver with digital inputs, you can by-pass the computer’s analogue circuit and enjoy the best possible digital sound through the receiver in your home theater setup. S/PDIF output is extremely rare among laptops at ANY price, let along a $600 `budget’ computer.

   Now the downside, the first limitation is relatively minor but peculiar. The sound from the built-in speaker is weak and shrill. I noticed there is a decorative clear Mylar strip which covered not only the LED indicators but also both speakers. I don’t know if this is an oversight but it is quite possible that the sound can be improved by merely removing the Mylar. I didn’t try it yet, the computer is a little too new to go under the knife.

   The LED display is crisp and can be turned up very bright. Compared with the better displays, however, the screen is a bit washed out. This makes long-term viewing a little fatiguing. Another limitation is the viewing angle. I am not talking about several people reading the screen at the same time. I am talking about one person trying to get a good view of the entire screen. Viewing a movie with dark scenes in darker surroundings reveals this limitation. There are always some parts of the screen with poor color rendering no matter how you angle the screen. This only came up under some conditions and at the price range, the point is more an observation than a criticism.

   Now the Achilles’ heel, the mouse button is VERY hard to press. This is further escalated by the fact that the button is recessed to make room for the protruding Webcam when the lid is closed. The combination of rigid switch, small button, and the awkward reach makes the button extremely unpleasant to use. I read this in some reviews but was unprepared by the degree of the problem. My fingers actual hurt after prolonged use. I did somewhat remedy the problem by adding a 1/16″ thick piece of foam on the mouse button (cut out a notch to clear the Webcam). This softens the surface, making button pressing less uncomfortable, while at the same time makes the button easier to reach. Even with the modification, however, I still find it difficult to live with this shortcoming and I don’t know if I will ever get use to it. Some people may not mind it as much and one can use an external mouse or use tapping to perform some of the button functions. To me at least, this is a glaring defect on an otherwise great product.

   Other than the issue of the mouse button, this is an incredible laptop for the price.
   

3. 4
   Linda Says:
   May 20th, 2012 at 6:33 pm

   By Linda

   

   2009-06-25
    
   I received my Timeline 3810TZ today and so far I am very happy with it.

   I was looking for a notebook I could use for browsing the internet, email, video conferencing and watching videos (i.e., YouTube, NetFlix Play Now Streaming Movies). I do not intend to use this for any “heavy lifting” and processor intensive work (that is what my PC is for). I was very delighted to find that it also comes with Windows Movie Maker which will help me make little videos for posting on YouTube.

   I tested the video and processor power by playing a movie streamed from NetFlix in Full Screen mode. The task manager showed the processor was at about 50% while the movie was playing. Not bad at all for a ULV single core processor running at 1.3 Ghz. There was never any skipping or stuttering in the entire movie.

   The hard drive and cooling fan are both very quiet. I have to listen carefully to hear them.

   The bottom does not get hot at all. It is very comfortable to rest on your lap.

   The battery life is excellent. Even with playing movies and doing other things to push the processor I’m still running on battery power after six hours with about 40 minutes left on the battery indicator. I suspect I could get the full eight hours promised if I was not pushing the system so hard.

   The weight is great. At only 3.5 lbs I can carry it around easily.

   Another plus is that this notebook comes with a Windows 7 Upgrade coupon. Even more amazing is that I will be able to upgrade to Windows 7 this Friday, June 26th 2009… several months before the official release of Windows 7 in October 2009. Very cool. If you want Windows 7 and you want it NOW… buy this notebook and use the upgrade option.

   Closing the top causes the system to go to sleep mode (this can by changed by you) and when you open it again and touch any key, the system is back up and ready to go in just one or two seconds.

   Setting up my WIFI and my network printer was a breeze.

   A few negatives:
   
   The video is crisp and clear, however the viewing angle is a bit narrow. The only other minor problem is that the stereo speakers are not very loud even with the volume turned a the way up. This is ok so long as you are in relatively quite area.

   If you are looking for the PC version of the MacBook Air (at half the price), this is it… and then some.

   I might update my review after a few months of use to give you more details about “real world” use.
   

4. 3
   Helen Says:
   May 20th, 2012 at 6:33 pm

   By Helen

   

   2009-06-24
    
   Anyhoo, I erroneously clicked 13 year old when I first wrote my review. So here’s an update. I was able to get the wifi working by restarting my modem and router.

   TNE GOOD:
   
   1.Thin and light

   2.Nice screen. Movies are clear, crisp, and bright. Note: It is best if you choose the balance mode instead of the high performance mode. High performance mode is too bright for my taste.

   3. Battery is great. You can get 6 hours watching dvd movies on a balance mode; 5 hours on high performance mode; and 8 hours just by surfing the web

   4. Netflix and Youtube picture quality is excellent. No lag or stuttering. Very smooth

   5. Keyboard is great. It’s like a macbook keyboard.

   6. It is fairly fast for a 1.3g processor although it won’t beat any benchmark

   7. It doesn’t get hot. I have been using it for four hours now and it is just warm.

   THE NOT SO GOOD:

   1. Definitely not for graphic intensive gamers and power user. Of course, I knew this before I bought it.

   2. 150 degree viewing angle.

   3. Body doesn’t feel as solid as the macbook. Then again, what would you expect for the price

   CONCLUSION: This is just perfect for my needs. I am not a gamer and not into heavy graphics. I just watch movies and surf the web. This is a great laptop for the right price. I prefer the 13 inch because of its thinness and lightness. There are many much powerful laptops for less than the price of this but those are heavy. I used to have a netbook (ASUS EEE PC 1000 HE). The screen was just too small for me and it couldn’t handle HD movies.

   I recommend this laptop to anyone with basic computing needs. High end users should look elsewhere.

   7.

5. 2
   Mark Says:
   May 20th, 2012 at 6:33 pm

   By Mark

   

   2009-07-04
    
   This is a light-weight low-cost quality laptop that many people will find enjoyable to use: good keyboard, good screen, easy to carry around, good looking. But there are a few flaws in the hardware design and numerous flaws in the software and documentation that make this laptop frustrating to use, especially to someone who just wants to get some work done rather than tinker with it. This laptop is typical of many current electronic products in which the hardware design receives much more attention than the software that determines how the hardware is used by most users, and is yet another example of how Apple is unique in trying to do software and hardware well.

   The hardware flaws:

   1. As noted by others, the screen does not rotate back far enough for some viewers to get an ideal view of the screen. This is unfortunate for two reasons. One is that the screen is glossy and so reflects the surrounding background, and one would like to adjust the screen to decrease some reflections. Second, the lighting of the screen by the LEDs is not uniform, the screen is somewhat brighter near the edges. If using the laptop in a darker environment (the nonuniform lighting is otherwise not noticeable), one needs to tilt the screen to reduce the nonuniform lighting (center the screen) and this is hard to do since the screen doesn’t rotate back far enough.

   2. The touchpad is centered with respect to the laptop but not with respect to the FGHJ keys and so doesn’t align naturally with where your hands are as you type.

   3. Speakers are small and weak and produce sound that is usable but not clear. Haven’t yet tried the laptop with quality headphones to see if the sound chip generates good output.

   4. There is no light or feedback from the screen regarding whether the Caps lock key has been turned on or not, similarly for other toggle options like Numlock.

   5. It is too easy to touch by accident the little icon above the keyboard that turns the wireless on and off. In fact, it is much too hard for a new user to even figure out what the purpose is of the three icons on the upper right part of the keyboard: the icons are too small and cryptic to figure their purpose out directly and the documentation that comes with the computer is too brief and poorly written to explain their purpose. It is not even clear for a first-time user that these icons are actually touch-activated buttons rather than indicators. The laptop should give some visual or tactile indication of their purpose, the documentation should be much better, e.g., their should be a video that activates when first using the laptop that shows clearly how to use the laptop.

   6. Like many laptops (except Apple), the keyboard comes plastered with stickers that are ugly, unnecessary, and hard to get off. This is just insulting to the consumer, one doesn’t buy televisions or cars or toasters with permanent stickers attached to their surfaces.

   7. It is too hard to figure out how to access and use the video camera embedded in the screen, the necessary software is not instantly visible from the desktop or menu system.

   Software and documentation flaws:

   1. The laptop comes with extremely little documentation: a one-page pamphlet showing you visually in a few panels how to insert the battery and connect the laptop to a power supply, and a short pamphlet that shows where various components of the laptop are located with brief (a sentence or two) and cryptic explanations of what these components are. Rather well hidden in one of the Vista menus is access to a slightly more detailed PDF file that contains more information, but this point is difficult to dig out from the given documentation, and even the PDF file is badly written, with insufficient explanation about how to use various features or even what is the purpose of some software.

   2. The laptop comes with a lot of crapware in the form of games and some possibly useful utilities, most of which have to be purchased to be used. The utilities that might be useful are not explained anywhere, so the poor consumer has to go to various websites to try to figure out what is their purpose. The desktop is covered with icons that you will want to delete right away, the menus are filled with links to the crapware that you will also want to delete. Why can’t all computer manufacturers give the user the option to select and install crapware from some menu, and then autodelete everything not selected?

   3. The operating system is 64-bit which can cause some confusion. For example, the laptop comes with 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Internet Explorer with no information concerning which to use. If you use the 64-bit version of Explorer (which might seem logical since the OS is 64-bit), you can not download an Adobe flash player (no 64-bit version available yet) or Apple Quicktime and so your browsing experience is reduced. Basically, you want to use the 32-bit versions of IE and of Firefox, which then work smoothly. Everything else seems to work smoothly.

   4. The laptop comes with Acer utilities (accessed under the Programs list) that are poorly explained or not explained at all. For example, there is something called “AcerGrid” whose purpose is hard to figure out just by running the software (it somehow partitions the screen into fixed regions to aid in organizing windows, but is an awful implementation compared to what Linux and Apple provide), and I still can’t figure out the purpose of the Acer VCM utility.

   5. There is a good chance that someone buying this laptop will be switching at the same time from Windows XP to Vista. There is no guidance on the laptop about how to use Vista, which has some confusing and poorly designed features for first-time users (even for long-time users). How about Acer creating a web-based tutorial for first-time users of their products?

   6. The Acer websites that provide support for this laptop are poorly designed and confusing to use. There turn out to be two different websites, panam.acer.com and a US version, that have different files. The manuals that come with the laptop can not be downloaded, there are no forums to help users help each other, the drivers lack documentation as to which to choose and use (there are multiple drivers with similar purposes). Yet another example of the hardware getting much more emphasis than the user experience.

   7. There is an Acer utility eRecovery that allows one to create DVDs (from a hidden partition) for restoring the laptop in case it crashes. This utility didn’t work, it failed to start writing to a blank DVD.

   Overall conclusion: a good laptop with excellent hardware, probably a price-performance leader for light-weight Windows-based 13.3″ laptops. But the documentation is incomplete and frustrating (which is typical of most Windows-based laptops, not just a problem with Acer) and many users will find it too hard to use some of the features of their laptop. Companies like Acer sadly still don’t get it: how to create a comfortable experience for using a complex piece of technology.

6. 1
   Betty Says:
   May 20th, 2012 at 6:33 pm

   By Betty

   

   2009-07-04
    
   I have had my Acer Timeline about a week. This is a very nice computer. It booted up fast and the keys are comfortable to type on(even with long nails). The weight is good, not heavy but not too light. The screen’s quality is good. I had no problem loading my personal software and the battery life is awesome! I have not even tried the battery saver feature.

   I will say that the speakers are disappointing, especially when the specs say “dolby sound room”. The sound is not tinny, just not very loud even at level 100. But I bought some nice ear-buds and with them the sound is just fine.

   Overall a very nice computer for email, watching videos and general work.

Leave a Reply

Click here to cancel reply.

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail

Security Code: