The left side houses the VGA output, HDMI port, Gigabit LAN jack, one more USB 2.0 port and the audio in and out jacks.
Hidden Time
On opening up the Acer Aspire Timeline X 5820TG, we found the interior to be equally familiar, from the glossy screen down to the chiclet style keyboard. There doesn't seem to be anything new or tweaked, but it's probably a good thing since that would mean Acer has settled on a design that the company and the customers are very comfortable with. Who wouldn't like the clean and simple finish of the notebook? It doesn't scream out for attention, but that's just what some people are looking out for. In our opinion, the one notable aspect for improvement would be for Acer to replace the glossy screen for a matte screen or at least give that option upon purchase. Sure a glossy screen looks vibrant and great, but it can be very unfriendly in certain room lighting and definitely a bother when using in out in the open under strong sunlight.
If you were hoping to see something different on the interior of the Acer Aspire Timeline X 5820TG, well, you're going to be left disappointed. Also note the glossy reflective screen that's often found in consumer notebooks these days.
The keyboard is still a delight to type on, and the chiclet design feels more open, though beware of crumbs if consuming food near a notebook is second nature to you. Audio performance seems pretty decent but watch out for the weak bass. Also, the virtual surround works fine if you're seated right at the center, but if you're too far off center, you won't get the proper effect. Positioning is vital in virtual surround and it comes in handy for watching movies as the audio tries to envelope you for a better movie experience.
The chiclet keyboard makes typing on the Acer notebook a breeze, especially if you're a lady with long fingernails. The empty spaces allow your nails to slide inside without accidentally hitting the key above.
The Acer notebook's trackpad is in its usual fine form, and we like its responsiveness.
Last but not least, the audio from the 5820TG speakers come packing Dolby Home Theater 'magic', but don't rely on them for listening to music that need bass to get you into the groove.
Performance Benchmarking
Loaded with a dual-core Intel Core i5-430M, a measly 2GB of memory (comparatively speaking) and discrete graphics in the form of the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650, we're expecting the Acer notebook to fair reasonably in our benchmark tests. Whether the performance will match the price value, well, that's what we'll find out in the next few pages. For comparisons, we've lined up our other recently tested multimedia notebooks that are priced not too far off from the Acer machine in review today.
| Specifications / Notebook | Acer Timeline X 5820TG | Samsung RF510 | Lenovo IdeaPad Y560 | Dell XPS 15 |
|---|
| Processor | Intel Core i5-430M
(2.26GHz, Turbo: 2.53GHz) | Intel Core i7-720QM
(1.60GHz quad-core with 6MB Smart Cache) | Intel Core i7-740QM
(1.73GHz quad-core with 6MB Smart Cache) | Intel Core i5-460M
(2.53GHz quad-core with 3MB Smart Cache) |
|---|
| Chipset | Intel HM55 | Intel HM55 | Intel HM55 | Intel HM57 |
|---|
| Memory | 2GB DDR3 | 6GB DDR3 | 4GB DDR3 | 6GB DDR3 |
|---|
| HDD | 500GB SATA
(5400 RPM) | 500GB SATA
(5400 RPM) | 750GB SATA
(5400 RPM) | 640GB SATA
(5400 RPM) |
|---|
| Video | ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 | NVIDIA GeForce GT 420M | ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730 | NVIDIA GeForce GT 420M |
|---|
PCMark Vantage
Thanks to the higher clocks of the dual-core Intel Core i5-430M processor, the Acer unit scores very well in our general usage benchmark. Bear in mind though, the quad-core notebooks listed below will definitely do better if a program has support for multi-threading, and you can expect such programs to allow those other notebooks to perform much better despite the PCMark Vantage scores. If you're the sort who needs to run AutoCAD, 3D Studio Max and other such intensive content creation programs, you can bet that the quad-core multimedia notebooks would have a much bigger advantage.
Still the PCMark Vantage results do indicate that despite being a cheaper notebook, the Timeline X 5820TG still manages well for everyday usage and then some.
3DMark06
The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 isn't a slouch, and our 3DMark06 benchmarks result show that the Acer notebook's score of 8091 3DMarks means it's able to keep up with some of the quad-core notebooks equipped with lousier graphics hardware. A score of 8091 3DMarks also means that you can expect the Acer machine to run almost any game but more intensive ones would require light to medium game quality settings for them to be playable. To bad we could not run newer 3DMark benchmarks as the screen resolution of the notebook is inadequate.
Far Cry 2
In a "real world" test like Far Cry 2, the discrete graphics of the Timeline X indicate it's definitely capable of handling the game pretty decently; on medium settings, we're seeing a vast improvement that verifies our earlier speculation on the notebook's capabilities. Avoid the high/very high settings and you'll have on your hands a notebook that is quite capable of being a solid gaming machine.
Battery Performance and Portability Index
Powering the Acer notebook is this 6-cell 11.1V, 6600mAh battery.
The Acer Aspire Timeline X's main selling point is its battery life, so we're expecting to see good results here. The 5820TG has the ability to switch to integrated graphics for an even longer battery life, but given how our test methods are done (50% brightness and volume, Wi-Fi off and with a DVD video looped until the notebook dies), you'll probably gain at most half an hour more. So we've decided to use discrete graphics to give you a worst-case scenario. If your DVD drive isn't used though, you can be sure that the notebook will last even longer.
Managing 3 hours and 13 minutes before giving up, the notebook basically lasts the longest of all the 15.6-inch notebooks that we have tested so far, and the low power consumption figure seem to support this with the notebook drawing just 20.68W during our test run. Once we tie in our Portability Index results, we should have a good idea if this is a notebook you will want to be carrying around instead of leaving it deskbound.
Our Portability Index is a basically an index that we created to help us determine just how portable a notebook is. It's based on the battery life test divided by the product of weight and volume. The higher the resulting ratio is, the better the notebook fares. Compared against notebooks of similar builds, the Acer notebook is easily the best scorer for the 15.6-inch notebooks, so if you're looking for a notebook to wield around effortlessly (comparatively), well, here it is.
While Acer's good design and build are to be commended to achieve such a standing, do bear in mind that its hardware configuration is unlike, for example, that of the Lenovo ThinkPad Y560. Hence, this aspect should be taken into consideration: are you looking out for a hardcore performance machine or the most portable general multimedia machine? The Lenovo and most of the other 15.6-inch notebooks tested fit the former needs. The Acer TimelineX 5820TG fits the latter usage. So choose wisely.
The Hour Approaches
The Acer Aspire Timeline X 5820TG is a great notebook - no doubt about it. We've reviewed the previous Timeline models and have found them to be solid devices, notebooks that you can count on. While the hardware isn't exactly top of the line for the 5820TG, it tackles most of the mainstream user needs as you can see from our benchmark results. In fact, its choice of a good discrete graphics engine along with a mid-range computing platform makes the the 5820TG a value buy for large screen mobile gamers on a budget.
The design may be not as fresh as the those on other notebooks, but it's one that has served us well. From the slim form factor down to the chiclet keyboard, this is one notebook that we feel is made just right for everyday use. You'll also appreciate the speakers for its decent clarity, but watch out if you're going to be playing bass heavy music.
At S$1398 though, it's hard to argue to argue with the value proposition that is the Acer notebook. It's the cheapest 15.6-inch multimedia notebook that we've seen so far, and while the specs are a little under powered compared to the other 15.6-inch notebooks that we've reviewed previously, our own time with the notebook indicates that you won't notice any difference if you're not a demanding user. Do give the Acer Aspire Timeline X 5820TG a shot if you're really tight on a budget; you won't regret it.
The Acer Aspire Timeline X 5820TG delivers reasonably well and retails at a very affordable S$1,398. If your budget is stretched really tight, this notebook should be high on your consideration list.
