Acer Moves Forward in Time
by Dustin Sklavos on June 9, 2011 11:50 AM ESTAcer Moves Forward in Time
Acer's popular TimelineX line of notebooks has undergone a refresh to Sandy Bridge and brought a healthy number of upgrades to the hardware with them, including a major (and much appreciated) change to the keyboard. With models topping out at just 1.15" thick and 5.6 pounds in the case of the 15.6" model, these notebooks are made for performance in a thin-and-light form factor. So what is Acer bringing to the table today?
Their TimelineX line of thin-and-light notebooks is being released in 13.1", 14", and 15.6" models. Acer's press release is a bit cagey on details for the specific models (except to cite model numbers and weight), but there's some impressive engineering at work here. The 13.1" 3830T tips the scales at 4.12 pounds, while the 14" 4830T weighs in at 4.88 pounds and the "big daddy" 5830T remains a relatively svelte 5.6 pounds. Each of the notebooks comes equipped with an HD webcam with a 1280x1024 resolution, Intel 2nd Gen Core i3 or i5 processors, gigabit Ethernet, and 802.11b/g/n wireless networking. The 14" and 15.6" models also include integrated optical drives.
What's most appreciated (at least to me) is the change to a chiclet-style keyboard instead of the dire floating island keyboards that have plagued older Acer notebooks, but what may be most interesting to the rest of you is the inclusion of NVIDIA dedicated graphics. While we wouldn't expect the 13.1" model to sport anything other than the IGP, Acer has announced that the GeForce GT 520M and GT 540M would both be available in the new TimelineX notebooks.
Acer expects the notebooks to be available in retailers starting today with an MSRP starting at just $599.
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KingstonU - Thursday, June 9, 2011 - link
Love my 5820TG (15.6"). I'm satisfied with the build quality, as having a lower price is much higher on my priority list for a laptop than build quality.I bought it primarily as it was one of the few laptops with a HD5650 GPU (which I consider minimum to play ME2) though I don't need this 640GB HDD or this i5 CPU, would have liked to have an option to save more money on those two items by going with an 250GB and i3 for example.
Also I believe I am one of the few who actually likes this floating island keyboard style.
therealnickdanger - Thursday, June 9, 2011 - link
Likewise, I loved my 1830T. Core i3, 11.6" screen, 8-hour battery. Damn near fit in my pocket! It could play WoW, 'nuff said.Wizzdo - Thursday, June 9, 2011 - link
If only it ran OS X but I suppose Linux would be alright to.B3an - Thursday, June 9, 2011 - link
Yeah because they're such great and capable OS's, especially for gaming.Lol.
tmarques - Thursday, June 9, 2011 - link
Yeah, because laptops are such great and capable gaming machines. LOLSarcasm aside, not everyone wants an OS to play - some people settle from those that let work get done. I especially appreciate the virus free environment that Linux provides.
yyrkoon - Friday, June 10, 2011 - link
If you're using Linux to hide from viruses then you're living in a dream world. That complacency can change very quickly, just as Apple has proven to it's customers lately.Also, for what it is worth. Linux servers get rooted a lot too.
Learning how to secure, and use a system would serve you better. Whatever OS that system may run. Also proven by many Apple users lately . . .
tmarques - Friday, June 10, 2011 - link
I'm not dreaming, I know I must also take precautions. Either way the system is designed with a lot more security in mind.Windows 7(and Vista) is actually a lot more secure than previous versions of Windows, because it allows you to configure an administrator account to ask for a password when you want to do something funky and that actually improves security a lot, much like the same method in Linux(and Mac OS X too AFAIK). It's something you couldn't do feasibly in Windows XP, unfortunately.
It's a shame that OEMs like ASUS ship laptops with even UAC turned off which can enable an install to be completely destroyed by viruses in a couple of months. Had I known nothing, I would think Windows still sucked when it's actually a big improvement for the most part.
On the other hand, I still like to be able to move my OS from a system to another, when need be, without having to reinstall the damn thing and all the software. I'm not going there back soon... Windows lives in VMs around here.
yyrkoon - Friday, June 10, 2011 - link
Well sure, my intention was not to point and say you do not know what you're doing. Most people here do. I take that as a given. Usually. Just trying to make it clear to *everyone* out there that no OS is invulnerable.Technically Linux is supposed to be more hardened. But I do know that it is in fact possible to run windows, without any anti virus software, and not get infected, or exploited. Also technically, you do not have to know what to do so much as needing to know what *not* to do. Would you give any random application your root/admin passwd ? Probably not, but apparently a lot of OSX users would . . . I am still shaking my head over that whole deal. No doubt in my mind that there are at least as many gullible people using Windows.
Not working for either, i would have to surmise that Asus, and Microsoft both leave the OS as it is for the easier end user experience. Most people would not have a clue how to enable remote assistance, remote registry, or even just enable the server service. But would possibly have use for all three. This is just a simple example.
Otherwise, not knowing every_single_difference between Windows and Linux. I would have to say that out of the box settings aside. Current versions of Linux, and Windows 7 would have to be close security wise. Granted there are some things you can do in Windows that can not be done in Linux. But the reverse is also true. Of course, in the context of exploitation.
Anyhow, since vista, Microsoft has done away with the HAL of old. So technically, you should be able to image an install, and restore it on a different system. Then have it work as intended( assuming the hardware is all supported ). Personally, I have not given it a shot yet. As I am of the old school that likes to re install windows 1-2 times yearly. Kind of a bi annual spring cleaning for my personal computers. Before you say anything though, I would most likely do this with Linux too.( I keep my OS partition separate from my data always ) But not with production systems of course. Which by default would take less of a beating than my personal systems anyhow . . .
warisz00r - Friday, June 10, 2011 - link
All my friends who have REAL reasons for using Linux never cited security as one of them. For me, these people have more than enough COMMON SENSE to not get infected, regardless of which platform they're on.dananski - Saturday, June 11, 2011 - link
Sounds about right, Linux has way more important features than any arguable security advantage. I'm fairly happy with security on any OS nowadays but using Linux has in some ways forced me to understand what I'm doing a bit better, security-wise.