Sandy Bridge with Long Battery Life

The new Acer Aspire TimelineX notebooks all have options for an Intel Core i3 or i5 Sandy Bridge processor. This is Intel’s latest generation of mobile processor that offers a balance between speed/power and longer battery life. That is why Acer is promising the incredible 9 hours of battery life with those models featuring integrated graphics and 8 hours for the computers with dedicated graphics. Even if you get just three-fourths of that, which is the typical real-word expectation when dealing with manufacturer’s battery life claims, 6 to 7 hours will still get you through most of the business or school day before having to get more juice. If you run these machines full-on while playing games you can still expect a nice 3-4 hours of fragging, racing or strategizing.

Multimedia with Dolby Sound

In addition to using these for basic day-to-day tasks, the new Acer Aspire TimelineX series computers will serve as multimedia hubs for those on the go thanks to Dolby Home Theater v4 Audio and the two 3DSonic Stereo speakers. The HDMI output means you can plug into an external display and watch 1080p HD movies or you could just use the laptop itself and get good sound and 720p video with the built-in 1366×768 resolution.

The displays will be 16:9 widescreen HD display and powered by either Intel HD3000 integrated graphics on the lower end models and NVIDIA GeForce 540M or 520M discrete graphics with Optimus technology on the higher end machines. The latter models will make for a powerful system that could handle some gaming and more advanced multimedia content creation tasks. Some models with the higher end graphics cards will have a shorter battery life as a result.

Three Sizes Available

The Acer Aspire TimelineX 3830T is the smallest and most mobile of the three new models with a 13″ display and weighing 4.2 pounds. At the thinner front edge it is only .87″ thick and 1.15 at the back edge. This model does not have an integrated DVD drive. For those who like the form-factor of the Apple MacBook Air, this would be an option for a cheaper Windows PC even if it is not nearly as thin and light.

A 14″ display is available in the 4.88 pound 4830T model. With the larger 5830T you get a 15.6″ display. The larger computer is 5.6 pounds. These two larger models also have a built-in DVD drive and a dedicated numeric keypads. All three will have Acer’s multi-gesture trackpad.

Other Specs

The one USB 3.0 port on all three systems is great for faster transfer speeds, but can also charge things like your cell phone or MP3 player while the computer is off so long as it is plugged in.

A 1280×1024 webcam comes built-in and a mic with digital sound for noise canceling sound while you are recording video or using it for video chat.

To get online or on the company, home or school network there is 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet LAN. Some models will also have Bluetooth 3.0 available.

Pricing and Availability

These models will be available today with a starting price of $599.99. The initial release includes the following models:

Acer Aspire TimelineX AS3830TG-6431 (MSRP: $779.99)

• Intel Core i5-2410M Processor 2.30GHz with Turbo Boost Technology up to 2.90GHz
• 13.3″ HD Widescreen CineCrystal LED-backlit display (1366×768 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio)
• Mobile Intel HM65 Express Chipset
• 4096MB DDR3 Dual-Channel 1066MHz Memory
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M with 1GB DDR3 VRAM
• 500GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• 1.3 Megapixel HD Webcam
• Multi-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader
• 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi CERTIFIED
• 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN
• Bluetooth 3.0+HS
• Dolby Advanced Home Theater v4 Audio Enhancement
• Two Built-in Acer 3DSonic Stereo Speakers
• High Definition Audio Support
• 2 x USB 2.0 Ports & 1 x USB 3.0 Port
• 1 x HDMI Port with HDCP Support
• VGA Port
• Multi-Gesture Touchpad
• Media Control Function Keys
• 6-cell Li-ion Battery (6000 mAh)
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Microsoft Office Starter 2010
• Weight: 4.12 lbs. (system only)

Acer Aspire TimelineX AS4830T-6642 (MSRP: $699.99)

• Intel Core i5-2410M Processor 2.30GHz with Turbo Boost Technology up to 2.90GHz
• 14″ HD Widescreen CineCrystal LED-backlit display (1366×768 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio)
• Mobile Intel HM65 Express Chipset
• 4096MB DDR3 Dual-Channel 1066MHz Memory
• Intel HD Graphics 3000
• 640GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• 8X DVD-super multi double-layer drive
• 1.3 Megapixel HD Webcam
• Multi-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader
• 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi CERTIFIED
• 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN
• Bluetooth 3.0+HS
• Dolby Advanced Home Theater v4 Audio Enhancement
• Two Built-in Acer 3DSonic Stereo Speakers
• High Definition Audio Support
• 2 x USB 2.0 Ports & 1 x USB 3.0 Port
• 1 x HDMI Port with HDCP Support
• VGA Port
• Multi-Gesture Touchpad
• Dedicated Numeric Keypad
• Media Control Function Keys
• 6-cell Li-ion Battery (6000 mAh)
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Microsoft Office Starter 2010
• Weight: 4.88 lbs. (system only)

Acer Aspire TimelineX AS5830T-6862 (MSRP: $599.99)

• Intel Core i3-2310M Processor 2.1GHz
• 15.6″ HD Widescreen CineCrystal LED-backlit display (1366×768 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio)
• Mobile Intel HM65 Express Chipset
• 4096MB DDR3 Dual-Channel 1066MHz Memory
• Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 128 dedicated system memory
• 640GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• 8X DVD-super multi double-layer drive
• 1.3 Megapixel HD Webcam
• Multi-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader
• Dolby Advanced Home Theater v4 Audio Enhancement
• Two Built-in Acer 3DSonic Stereo Speakers
• 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi CERTIFIED
• 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN
• Bluetooth 3.0+HS
• High Definition Audio Support
• 3 x USB 2.0 Ports & 1 x USB 3.0 Port
• 1 x HDMI Port with HDCP Support
• VGA Port
• Multi-Gesture Touchpad
• Dedicated Numeric Keypad
• Media Control Function Keys
• 6-cell Li-ion Battery (6000 mAh)
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Microsoft Office Starter 2010
• Weight: 5.6 lbs. (system only)

Acer Aspire TimelineX Refresh Announced with Longer Battery Life, Multimedia Prowess is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

Acer Aspire TimelineX 5830t

The Asian tech blog got their hands on some of these new models. One is a 13.3-inch Acer Aspire TimelineX 3830TGs. They also looked at a 14-inch 4830TG and a 15.6-inch 5830TG (pictured). They all come with an Intel Core i5-2410M processor and an NVIDIA GT540M graphics chip with 2GB of DDR3 video memory. There is a 640GB hard drive as well.

Engadget said that these notebooks only have 2GB of DDR3 RAM, but we can’t believe that is true. We are guessing that these machines will actually come with 4GB. The displays are 1366×768 resolution backlit LCDs. They have Dolby Home Theater speakers by Kenwood, which should provide nice sound for movies and games, not to mention playing music. The processor on the 13.3-inch is not as powerful. It is a Intel Core i3-2310M processor instead of the Core i5 in the two larger machines.

The new version of the TimelineX has a chiclet style keyboard. We hope this will improve on the previous inferior keyboards we tested on current generation TimelineX models from Acer. The trim around the trackpad is gone and they’ve added a second mouse button for easier right clicking. The chassis is not tapered anymore.

The price is dollars US is from $1,133 and $1,374 depending on the model. We hope these will show up outside of Taiwan, as the Acer Aspire TimelineX is a nice line of notebooks from the consumer friendly manufacturer.

Acer Timeline X with Sandy Bridge Spotted in Taiwan is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

Sascha spends most of his time working on netbooks. The Timeline should be a much better performer, striking a balance between efficiency and power.

via NetbookNews.com

Acer Aspire Timeline 3810TG Unboxed is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.