Requirements a bit of fine tuning
Strong machine and fantastic battery life
Acer Aspire Timeline AS4810T-8480 14-Inch Aluminum Laptop - 8+ Hours Battery Life
 List Price: $699.99 |
Product Details
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Product Description
Acer Aspire Timeline AS4810T-8480 Pad comes with these specs: Intel Centrino Mobile Processor Technology- Intel Substance2 Solo Processor SU3500, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit with Serving Pack 1, 14" HD Acer CineCrystal LED-backlit Display, Mobile Intel GS45 Utter Chipset, 4096MB Dual-Channel DDR3 1066MHz Memory, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD, 320GB SATA Difficult Drive, 8X DVD-Super Multi Double-Layer Drive, Acer Crystal Eye Webcam, 5-in-1 Digital Media Index card Reader, 2nd Generation Dolby Sound Room Audio Enhancement, Intel WiFi Element 5100 802.11a/g/Draft-N Wi-Fi CERTIFIED, 3 - USB 2.0 Ports, 1 - HDMI Harbour, Convenience Buttons- Multi-gesture Touchpad, Acer PowerSmart Technology, Acer Back-up Superintendent, Touchpad-lock, 6-cell Li-ion Battery (5600 mAh), 8+ hours of mobile life, 4.2 lbs. | 1.9 kg (system unit only), AC Power Adapter, AC Power Rope, Wireless Setup Card, Registration/ Limited Warranty Card, McAfee Internet Guarding Suite (60-day insert)Customer Reviews
Requirements a bit of fine tuningPros
1 Extensive specs at a great price
2 Battery life of 5 to 6 hours
3 light & thin
4 Mediocre screen &ergonomics
Cons
1 Does not perform well out of the box, needs bios/wifi updates, bloatware transfer
2 acer website is very confusing for picking up the right drivers etc
Strong machine and fantastic battery life
I bought this laptop this erstwhile October. The main selling point, for me, was the price. I needed a new laptop with egregious battery life, so when I found it for a great price, I ended up purchasing it. I did not have great expectations for this laptop, but it has surprised me with its power and reliability.
The outdo thing about the Acer AS4810 is the battery life. Running Windows 7 on the "High Bringing off" setting, the laptop can run for a little over 6 hours.
I don't play games on this laptop, so I cannot criticism on that. I do, however, watch a lot of high definition video. Using the right codecs, such as CoreAVC, the Acer AS4810 has no maladjusted running high definition video.
Overall, it's a fantastic laptop.
3.5 Stars
This is my first Acer computer, aesthetically speaking; it is the nicest looking laptop I've seen so far and one of the thinnest -- measuring at a only 1" thick. The 14" screen, weight and dimensions are just a fraction more compared to an picturesque Netbook, but you get much much more. For one; you're not getting an Atom processor but an Intel Centrino Core2 On one's own CPU. Yet small, but it also comes with an integrated DVD Burner (almost unheard of for its size) as opposed to having an visible unit dangling around. These are only a few good reasons why I bought the unit, but...the ultimate bargain was the long battery life! Acer claims that it can pull more than 8 hours. Reading my reviews here on Amazon (also from several other sources) most reviewers seemed to have stood by their claims. So for this, I am willing to sacrifice the trade-off of not purchasing a Dual Seed or Core Duo2 CPU system but instead opted for the ultra low voltage 'Solo' core for its mobile life.
Although the 8480 was deemed versatile for most apps but it wasn't user-unreserved "out of the box". Acer did not update their Timeline series with the latest BIOS and necessary drivers before rolling out to the masses which resulted the computer in a immutable 100% CPU spike and ultimately rendering the unit to freeze and therefore a forced-shutdown/restart is the only answer. For this, it has caused a large number of confused day to day average-Joe and the typical novice consumer-frenzied letdowns, not to touch on, the numerous negative feedbacks as to why their newly purchased computers did not add up to the mfg claim.
Most of you reading the reviews by now should recollect what you must do to get the unit running in tip top condition, for those of you who haven't, here's what you MUST do before using the notebook for the first time:
1.) Have 3 unrelieved DVD discs ready for burning and making the recovery discs because Acer (and most Manufacturers these generation) does not provide any.
2.) Go to Acer's support site and choose your model, but here's the trick; in between the top part of the verso and the drivers' lower part of the page, there is very tiny drop-down box for you to choose your Operating System -- put to rights sure you choose the right one. For example: choose "Windows Vista Proficient in Premium 64Bit" if you are using this OS. Most people tend to miss out on this part because it is pretty hard to see on the age.
Update to the latest Bios (there are two released simultaneously; one is the regular and the 'OE' stands for "Olympic Copy"
3.) Update to the latest Video Driver
4.) Update to the latest WIFI driver
The rests of it are unmandatory.
Upon my updates, the unit has performed flawlessly, there are no more 100% CPU usages but in the 10-30% order and applications seems to run much smoother like it supposed to. The one thing that still hinders is the 'Sleep Wise'; if you closed the lid and reopen it, the unit tends to freeze up a bit and takes time for it to root come back to its original state. This happens mostly if you have a browser opened at the time of conclusion the lid. Acer needs a new BIO for this, or perhaps Windows7 will rectify this dilemma.
Pros:
*Light Weight
*Thin
*Freestyle Life (8+Hours)
*Screen resolution and bright enough
*DVD Burner (Integrated)
*4GB DDR3 RAM
*320G Tiring Drive
*HDMI port
*Keyboard (quiet, very nice play and dependable feel with no diving/caving while typing -- unlike my Toshiba Dependant)
*Mouse Pad (very responsive and non-erratic)
*Design/Beauty
*Very solid feel -- no flexing or creasing of any unwell
Cons
*Single Core processor
*No 'Caps Lock' light
*No 'Numbers Lock' light
*Tiny Power Button -- tiny import it is designed to work only with the tip of your fingernail (needs to press twice to power ON or hang on a last for 3 seconds -- only if you are using the AC cord with the Battery detached, otherwise just radio b newspaper people once with Battery attached)
*No Express Card slot
*No eSata
*No Phone jack (couldn't use Windows Fax)
Freestyle life & weight worth the hassle!
Pros: A twice hanker (real time) battery life, super light weight for 14" examine laptop w/internal DVD player, & glossy screen w/ great colors. Aluminum chassis & metal lid vs. molded soft. Wireless easy to set up. Great price + Windows 7 upgrade.
Cons: Speakers - tin sturdy unless I use headphones then really improves. Bloatware and a bunch of driver updates and potentially bios too. Acer buyer service reps no help for soft or hardware issues and their web page for driver updates is a disorganization.
I did extensive research before purchasing at Office Depot for $549 mid October. I pre-eminently wanted a laptop (not netbook) that was this weight or less and that would last at least 6 hours while travelling, if not more. While I use Office software, it's supporting so while not super fast, still faster then my last LT which was 4 years old.
There were some very helpful reviews on Tiger and Amazon about what needed to be updated to baulk crashes. Thus, I was willing to take on the hassle of having to load a bunch of driver updates and potentially scintillate the bios (which I have not yet had to do). I did most of the driver updates but not all of those related to the wireless or other optional features as there is no refrain from on Acer's site to determine if they are relevant.
I did have some freeze ups until I turned off the sleep function. Most were then eliminated but I updated the bios to 1.28, and most drivers, as many reviewers at other sites said it was needed. So far so things but the Acer site is very un-user friendly for finding the latest driver. They just keep adding new ones in no discrete order. Also, before using wireless, turn off the Windows Security Functions (as much as it lets you) assuming you are using Internet Pledge Software.
While the customer service is very weak (compared to Dell - most of my computers including present XPS One) or Gateway (4 years ago)), they did send me a free recovery CD set (since I was unqualified to make them after wasting 5 DVDS). I like the feel of the full size key board but am not a intimation pad user so cannot comment - use a wireless optical mouse. Volume could have a bigger compass so louder option.
Finally, yesterday I used the free software to upgrade Windows 7 and was properly simple (esp since did not add much software except Office prior). Acer update disk helps - only puzzler was at end after install was done. The new OS did not recognize my DVD drive; needed to finish the process by inserting Acer disk back in after Windows. Restarted once and it was there which was a worthy surprise as there have been problems reported about this on the Windows 7 microsoft blog.
TOO SLOWWWW!
As you had Known Windows Vista is the worst OS ever, some laptop works well enough with it, but the unwind really not. And this is not one of them, The only two reasons for me to buy this laptop were the huge battery duration and the option to acquire a brand new copy of Windows 7.
This copy hasn't arrive, i will wait for it to introduce it and then see if all the problems has gone or still remain.
