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Acer Aspire TimelineX 5820T review

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Verdict

Switchable graphics and a Core i5 CPU make it a very versatile laptop at a reasonable price

Review Date: 22 Apr 2010

Reviewed By: Mike Jennings

Price when reviewed: £765 (£899 inc VAT)

Overall Rating

Features & Design
5 stars out of 6

Value for Money
4 stars out of 6

Performance
5 stars out of 6

Acer’s Timeline laptops have always been about efficiency, with low-voltage CPUs and long battery life coming ahead of performance in the priority stakes. That's all about to change, though, as Acer updates the Aspire side of the range to use an efficient CPU that can handle a little more strain.

We are, of course, referring to Intel's Core i3 and i5 processors, which are making their way into various models in the Timeline family. Unlike the 45nm, Penryn-based CULV chips in existing models, this TimelineX 5820T uses a Core i5, built on the more efficient 32nm Westmere architecture with all its accompanying benefits.

The Core i5-430M’s 2.27GHz frequency, for instance, is far in excess of any CULV chip, and both of its cores are kitted out with Turbo Boost so a busy core can borrow a little boost of power from an idle one as required. There’s also Hyper-Threading technology, as well as a 500MHz GPU integrated on to the die itself.

These technical improvements manifested themselves in much more laptop-like benchmark scores. The TimelineX 5820T sped to an overall score of 1.54, which is only a shade slower than the ever-popular Dell Studio 1557, with its mobile Core i7-720QM processor.

The upgrade isn't so much about processing speed, though, it's about the freedom the Core i5 brings to the table. As well as the aforementioned Intel graphics, an ATI Radeon HD 5650 chip is present to take the strain when required. It can only be enabled when the Acer’s plugged in – which scuppers any chance of portable gaming – but it managed a commendable 37fps in our Medium-quality Crysis benchmark. The High quality benchmark was a step too far, but there’s enough there to tempt casual gamers.

The key thing about the dual-graphics setup is that they're switchable. Not in the dynamic sense of Nvidia's latest innovations – you still need to manually select one or the other in the driver menu, unfortunately – but when you're out and about the power-hungry ATI chip is disabled so it won't impact on battery life. While the TimelineX 5820T can’t match the nine-hour lifespan of previous CULV siblings, its light use time of 6hrs 42mins is impressive in the arena of 15in laptops, and it's efficient enough to give 2hrs 30mins when under full load, too.

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Comments

User comments

Where to Buy????

An 'A' Listed product from a top brand company. This article is a few weeks old, yet none of the acer website links show where you can buy this model. The acer website does not have a laptop sales section, and the only contact number (which provides pre-sale advice) has no info on this laptop. I cannot beleive this. A recommmneded product and you can't buy it. Can anyone advise if they know of somehwere in the UK to buy this model? Thanks

By MrPloppy on 11 May 2010

Where to Buy????

By MrPloppy on 11 May 2010

Clim

I too find the situation very frustrating. Acer widely advertise the models Aspire 5820T and Aspire 4820TG in the “fliers” they have inserted in a number of magazines. Yet the laptops appear not to be available from any outlets, and their customer service cannot offer any useful information either. I googled Aspire 5820T and found one seller but theirs is for a model with a different processor, memory and HDD.

I recently read in the Time magazine that Acer have overtaken Dell to become the second largest PC makers in the world. It’s amazing that they could have achieved this position, yet leaving prospective customers not knowing where to buy their products!

By climy on 12 May 2010

Clim

By climy on 12 May 2010

When ...

Here in Portugal Acer have announced Timeline X at April .. until now we have not seen one single unit in stores!! What hell... It is frustating ...

By hpatrick1 on 28 Jun 2010

Where to buy?

I'm trying to find the spec with 5650 card but I cannot find it anywhere in the UK. Acer is a multinational brand right?!?

By fresh1 on 27 Dec 2010

To buy!

Hello all,
I bought one from John Lewis yesterday in London :-).

But it's Internet works toooooo slow can anybody help plazzzzz?!
And the battery didn't work 8hours :(

By SieYal on 2 Mar 2011

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