Customer Reviews

Acer Aspire TimelineX AS4820T-3697 14-Inch Laptop (Aluminum)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this laptop for grad school after looking into several thin-and-light laptops with long battery life. I will be commuting several hours in the subway and staying on campus more or less all day, so I wanted a laptop that would be relatively light to schlep, and have a long battery life to last all day without being plugged in. My laptop usage consists of mainly webbrowsing, word processing, movie watching, and occasionally playing games. At first, I bought the ASUS UL80, but the trackpad was intolerable so I returned it. Then I bought this model, which I am very happy with so far.

Weight/size/battery: It's not VERY light...definitely heavier than the Asus, but still a portable weight. It is very thin and compact as advertised. Mine has a 9 cell battery which does stick out and add significantly to the weight - the laptop doesn't lie flat because the battery makes a little ledge. On the plus side, it probably helps keep the laptop cooler by allowing the heat to dissipate (btw the laptop does have good heat control), but the con is that if you do actually put the laptop on your lap it's kind of annoying because it juts into your legs, but that's a minor gripe. I haven't tried to push the battery life limits, but I used the laptop on battery for about 4 hours with most of the battery indicator still full. ETA: with screen brightness turned to minimum & power saving settings, my battery lasts about 9-10 hours. While playing a graphics-heavy game with sound, off of a CD, it still lasted an amazing 5-6 hours. Also, all the heat blows out of the left side, so make sure you keep that side uncovered.

Build quality: It has a nice matte metal finish that doesn't pick up fingerprints easily. The area around the keyboard is a shiny black plastic, but it doesn't seem to pick up fingerprints either. (ETA: When I just touch the surfaces it doesn't leave prints. But if I smear/slide my fingers on it, it'll leave a mark. The cover will get printy, but the area around the trackpad won't.) There is some flex in both the screen and the keyboard, but it doesn't bother me because it's not as if opening the laptop or typing will snap either in half. The screen is incredibly thin though, so I can see how some people could be worried about durability...but again, I don't see how normal usage could possibly break it.

Screen: For me, the 14" screen was a good compromise - not too bulky to schlep, but not too cramped for typing and watching movies either. I'm no graphics expert, but to me the colors and everything look fine. I'm not used to the aspect ratio though, so things appear more horizontally stretched out than I'm used to.

Keyboard: I like the way that the keys look - like flat rocks floating in space. Neither chiclet keys nor old school keys. They feel a little different and I will have to get used to it, but I can type with ease. They keys aren't very quiet but nothing outrageous. There is no numberpad, but I like that they wrote a numberpad over existing keys that you can use if you push Fn. I don't like that you need to use 2 hands to push Fn and the media keys to control your media though (i.e. play, stop, volume etc.). The Fn button is all the way on the left, and all the media control keys are all the way on the right so you can't do things like pause your music with one hand. The key placement isn't terribly intuitive either - volume up/down are on the arrow keys, while mute is up on F8. I wish the laptop had dedicated physical one-touch buttons for things like media control and wireless. Also, the arrow keys are about half the size of regular keys, which I don't like. I'm just nitpicking though - the keyboard in general is adequately functional and easy to use.

Trackpad: The trackpad is comfortable to use - neither under nor oversensitive. The multi-touch gestures are easy and intuitive. The pinch gesture for zoom is the most useful to me because it's not redundant. I don't use horizontal flick ever because the screen is so wide it's generally not necessary to scroll sideways. I don't tend to use the 2 finger scroll either because I prefer to use the scroll area on the right side of the trackpad (and it's a little ridiculous that there are 3 ways to scroll vertically on the trackpad - scroll area, 2 finger, spiral). If you do want to use the 2 finger scroll, be sure to keep your fingers far apart enough to register as 2 fingers. The right/left click buttons are just 1 single bar under the trackpad. They are easy to click, but I wish they were 2 separate buttons. The trackpad is off-center and aligned slightly to the left from the keyboard, so I often click too much in the middle when I want to left click, and have to slide my thumb to the left to complete the action, and then realign my hand back to the keyboard. I'm not even sure why it's off-center, since this model doesn't have a number pad, and it's not even centered with the space bar. It's slightly annoying, but something I'm sure I can adjust to quickly.

Speed: I had a 3.5 year old laptop with a Core 2 Duo processor, 4 GB of RAM, running Windows 7 before this one, with very mediocre speed. It would take a full minute to open firefox at startup, and sometimes decide that copy/pasting a paragraph of text was too much work and freeze. The new Asus I tried out also had these specs and was only mildly less mediocre in speed than my old laptop. This Acer laptop is much faster. I haven't tried to run anything too crazy on it, but for simple multitasking (e.g. firefox + word + utorrent + gridrepublic) it worked really well. I haven't found myself constantly waiting for things to open...at most a few seconds once in a while. For simple everyday student use, this laptop is speedy and frustration-free. For me the perfect mix of performance and portability - a desktop replacement that you can take anywhere.

Guts: I'm a fan of Windows 7. Came with junk stuff to uninstall though...but what doesn't.

Webcam: It's obviously not digital camera quality resolution, but it's good for a webcam. I just wish there was a light indicator to show when it was on. The Acer Crystal Eye Webcam software was user-friendly and easy to figure out, unlike the software for my old HP's webcam. ETA: The webcam picture quality is like this: imagine if you took a normal digital picture and got photoshop to add a mild/moderate "illustrate" or "oil painting" effect.

Multimedia: Can't comment much on graphics because I haven't played any crazy games etc. Watching stuff, everything looked fine. The sound is not fantastic, but pretty standard as laptops go. I wish the speakers were on the edge of the laptop though, so that you can close the laptop and still listen to music. ETA: The sound is a little on the quiet side. When I watch some movies, the sound is just loud enough when I set the volume all the way up.

ETA: Here are some Windows Experience numbers from my computer for an objective measure of performance:

Processor: 6.8

Memory (RAM): 5.9

Graphics: 4.7

Gaming graphics: 5.1

Primary hard disk: 5.8

Hope my review was helpful! I didn't include specs or technical things because you can just scroll up to Amazon's description for that. Over all, I'd recommend this laptop to other commuter students. I'm very happy with my purchase. I'll post updates if anything comes up.

First I must say that this is one of thinnest laptops I ever had.

The battery life is real good if you use the right energy profile,

a really nice LED display and a beautiful Aluminium case. The most important

about the case, is the fact that doesn't get too warm, even though using it in your lap,

the battery pack works as if using an inclinated base, allowing the air flow through

the laptop.

Although the sound it's great, I will prefer a louder speaker system, I have

to use my earphones or find myself a very silence place to hear everything, e.g. in

a movie.

My only complain is the fact that the price dropped about $100 one week after my purchase...

not so lucky I guess.

Have had it for a month now... perfect for me. Thin, light, fast, looong battery life... everything Acer claims. The 9-cell battery does physically extend from the back, giving it a nice tilt up, but adds a little weight and kind of negates the thin profile when it is installed. But hey, I travel a lot and man does this thing go and go and go! Looking to buy the 6-cell battery to swap when the monster life isn't needed. Again, as I travel a lot I debated between the 3820 and the 4820 (3820 being smallest but with a premium processor/OS, screen, and keyboard you give up on a netbook). I decided on the 4820 with CD/DVD drive that doesn't come on the 3820. Glad I did, as I use it more in my work than I thought I did. Anyway, no complaints; very happy with this unit.

Waited six months for this to hit the states after it was released in Europe, and it was definitely worth the wait.

High end performance but with a battery that truly lasts all day.

Core i5 processor scored in the top 20% of all computers tested on [...], and I tested it on battery power.

Set up and transfer of my files from old computer was incredibly fast, much quicker than the transition to Vista four years ago. Rather than Windows Transfer Wizard, I manually uploaded my files from an external hard drive.

Windows 7 64-bit home premium has much better backup software built in than Vista did. I also use the free software that comes with Seagate external hard drives. Every night I make automatic backups including a system image on two external hard drives.

Important tip: be sure to make a set of system restore dvds as soon as you are up and running before doing any updates or adding any of your own software. I played with the computer for two weeks to be sure it was everything I wanted, then wiped the hard drive and started from scratch using the system restore dvds I had made. Note to geeks: by default the BIOS is NOT set to boot from the cd/dvd first, so you will need to change that boot sequence yourself. If you don't understand what I just said, don't worry about it, as the default configuration on this laptop is just about perfect anyway. One change I would suggest to everyone: by default the power management is set to sleep when you close the lid. Personally I set it so nothing happens when closing the lid. This is an easy change for even a novice user.

Unlike my last Acer, the hard drive on this laptop is not partitioned in half. However, instead of making a backup image on the second half of the hard drive, you will have to use an external drive, which most would agree is a better way to do it anyway.

The old Acer grid vista feature is now a part of Windows 7, which is a compliment to Acer.

Wi-fi works great.

Windows 7 blows Vista and Macs away. Incredibly fast startup, hibernate, and shut down times.

All in all a great machine. Two things really set it apart from everything else out there. The first is common to all Acers: synaptics mouse driver truly beats averything else in my opinion. Once you get used to all the extra features you'll never settle for a lesser mouse.

Second and most important, the 9-cell battery with this laptop gives true 8-12 hour life. The system does a lot of amazing things on its own to conserve battery life (e.g., automatically depowers the cd/dvd drive if you're not using it, has a different cooling fan profile on battery vs. plugged in), and it really works. There is no degradation in performance, and the time remaining prediction accurately adjusts for how much processor power you're demanding.

Something I forgot to mention earlier: this laptop never gets hot working on your lap like my four year old Acer did.

Given a choice between this model and the other TimelineX 4820 with a smaller hard drive, slower processor, and smaller battery, I am glad I spent a few extra bucks for this one. Truly the best computer I've ever used.

First off, I am writing his review on the laptop itself. I am not going o fix any typos tha occur as a result of the keyboard itself. *MY* spelling mistakes, numerous as they are, I intend to find and eliminate. The reason I am pointing this out will be addressed soon.

Now, this laptop is nearly amazing. With the extended battery and Intel's amazingly efficient idle modes, for average web browsing use, I can literally unplug tthe power in the morning and run the computer basically all day. For the sake of full fair disclosure, I will point out that I replace the OEM hard drive with an OCZ Agility 2 100 gig part. The hard drive access times and battery life are not ypical of the product as configured by the manufacturer. I also reinstalled windows 7 when I installed the drive and left off any non-driver software from the restore discs. Tha said, I usually see 10-12 hours of batery uptime for simple web browsing. Running CPU intensive tasks like watching a DVD or running a malware scan can push projected uptimes to about 3.5-4 hours. With a core I5 and 4 gigs of RAM, there is plenty of processor power to do everything I have ever attempted. The most intensive games I've ried, however, were a few TellTale tiles, and they would ge really choppy at anything but the second lowest graphics setting. I did not buy this for games, though. I was more interested in having mobile web access and entertainment while travelling and to avoid having to tether myself to a wall or desk while at home. For that, this machine is absolutely brilliant. A home-run.

The bad. This is perplexing. For as much thought and care as has apparently been put into design a good looking, brilliantly function computer, there are two MAJOR build quality issues. The first was alluded to in my preface. The keyboard is beyond bad. It is broken. It arrived broken. It has always been broken. The 't' key frequently fails to register presses, and some fraction of the time, it doubles up on a single stroke. The 'k' key sometimes doubles, although if the 't' problems were as infrequent as the 'k' problems, I would probably not be mentioning either. The 'c' also occasionally doubles, but its frequency of problems is to the 'k' what the 'k' is to the 't'. Even if the keys all did function correctly, the floating island design of the keyboard allows debris to sometime get under the keys and is difficult to clear if debris does happen to fall in. Secondly, the hinges broke. While I don't expect mechanical devices to last forever, the left hinge started to make cracking sounds after about a month of using his compuer. A month later, the right hinge started to as well. Another month, and I realized the aluminum back plane had broken free. A closer look revealed that the plastic bezel around the screen simply was able to take the forces placed on it by opening the lid by grasping the front edge. If I open and close the lid from the base, near the hinges, I can prevent further damage. But this is clearly an example of a deeply flawed design. The natural tendency will be to open and close the lid at the front edge. What I have read on forums is tha this flaw will eventually damage the display.

So that leaves me scratching my head. This is easily the best looking laptop I have had. It's fast, quiet, runs cool, and the battery life is absolutely amazing. The display is sharp and crisp, the onboard speakers aren't harsh or overly tinny like most others. The fan, on the odd occasion that it does spin up, is barely noticeable. But the broken-out-of-the-box condition of the keyboard (I mean, really? T? The second most common letter in the English language? he single most common consonant? Really?) and the braindead design of the hinges... I jus don't know what to say. It's awesome. And it's horrible. It's so close to a perfect laptop but they've shot themselves in the foot... with a howitzer. The keyboard borders on unusable and the hinges, from what I've read, are a deathclock. So I'll rate it in the middle. I can't hate it because I love it. Everything that's done right is mind-blowingly great. But I have to hate it. Because it makes a fool out of me with dozens of typos everyday. And these suicidal hinges tell me it must hate itself, or at least, doesn't like me being around it. Big dissapointment from a very capable and amazing machine.

Update: I decided to fix the hinges and what I found when I opened the up the screen housing was quite disheartening. The hinges have small tabs (approximately 1 square inch for each of the two hinges) that are simply glued to the aluminum back plate. When this glue gave way (which took all of about a month of daily use), all that torquing that destroyed the adhesive bond had to be transmitted through the screen bezel. But that bezel is made out of some of the flimsiest plastic I have ever seen. The thickness and rigidity are similar to the plastic cups some fast food chains use for large beverages. It is not nearly adequate for structural duties. I re-glued the hinge tabs with an adhesive of a brand and chemistry that I trust. If it doesn't hold, then I'll have to modify the the tabs to either run the contact plates up the full height of the screen or to drill the back plate to accept mechanical fasteners. One thing is for sure, the design as purchased is wholly inadequate. I would go so far as to say the hinges are fatally flawed. My previous score was 3 stars but witnessing the pure engineering incompetence that went into these hinges, I have to take at least another star off. The only thing holding it up at 2 stars at this point is that there are only about 3-4 days each month that ever have to worry about plugging it in while I'm awake. Most days, it's completely tether free until I go to bed.

Im so happy with my laptop, is been over two months and works perfectly, the battery life is amazing, lasts for up to 10 hours, and no less than 6 when i have brightness up. everything perfect and for the price is even better. totally recomend it.

Good computer. A little slower than I would've expected though but still fast. I like the keyboard. Easy to type on. The display is nice and clear. Battery life- A+

Due to defective keyboard, I had to sent the brand new laptop to Acer for repairs.

Even with a service order number, it is very difficult to get the updated status of the repairs as one has to go through IVR and then Acer call center where the quality of customer support is not fit for a major PC manufacturer.

As always, Amazon Customer service was excellent and they did their best in helping out with the problem.

In future, will think twice before buying an Acer product for the following:

1-Poor quality control. New laptop was delivered with a defective keyboard

2-Inefficient customer service.

Acer Aspire TimelineX AS4820T-3697 14-Inch Laptop (Aluminum)

I really like this notebook. It's my first notebook so I cann't compare it with anything else, but it's very good. The battery life is amazing. I can easy work 6-7 hours, with wi-fi ON. The only my concerning about it was that it dont have a dedicated video card, but the built in one, is quite good and is enough for wathcing any HD movies, and also for some older games...The cons till now is that it catches a lot of fingerprints, and sometimes it gets hot, esspecialy where your hands stay when taping.

anyway its a great laptop. It worth the money I spent on it.

When it comes to computers I dont joke. Was searching to finally get my own laptop. I spotted this one and decide to go with my instincts. Boy was I right. Thin, fast, sleek, nice, just an awesome laptop. The only thing I dont like how big the 9 cell is. Going to switch to 6. Still a good laptop!!!