Introduction
Contents
The TimelineX is Acer’s name for ultra-thin laptops with simulated surround sound that promises over eight hours of battery life. TimelineX laptops can be found under Acer’s TravelMate (TM) and Aspire (AS) series, with Core i3, Core i5 or Core i7 processors. There are two TimelineX series under the Aspire series, the “old” and the “new.” The new Aspire TimelineX comes with a blue casing, instead of the gray and black casing that was used before, and second-generation Core i CPUs (“Sandy Bridge”). The AS3830T-6417 is part of this new series.
The Aspire TimelineX series is comprised of three different base models: the AS3830 model comes with a 13.3” display and no optical drive, while the AS4830 model comes with a 14” display and a DVD writer, and the AS5830 model comes with a 15.6” display and a DVD writer as well.
After the base model number, Acer adds a second set of numbers that encodes the type of CPU, hard drive size, and amount of RAM memory the product has. Although it would be possible to create a lot of different configurations, so far for the North-American market Acer decided to offer only five different models of their new Aspire TimelineX laptops: two configurations for the AS3830, one configuration for the AS4830, and two configurations for the AS5830. We summarize the main differences between these five models in the table below. They all come with Windows 7 Home Premium, one USB 3.0 port, Bluetooth 3.0 interface, 1.3 megapixel HD webcam, wireless IEEE 802.11b/g/n networking, Gigabit Ethernet port, HDMI, and SPDIF output. All models use the Mobile Intel HM65 Express chipset.
| AS3830T-6417 | AS3830TG-6431 | AS4830T-6642 | AS5830TG-6402 | AS5830T-6862 | |
| Display | 13.3” | 13.3” | 14” | 15.6” | 15.6” |
| CPU | Core i3-2310M | Core i5-2410M | Core i5-2410M | Core i5-2410M | Core i3-2310M |
| Memory | 4 GB DDR3-1066 | 4 GB DDR3-1066 | 4 GB DDR3-1066 | 6 GB DDR3-1066 | 4 GB DDR3-1066 |
| Hard Drive | 500 GB | 500 GB | 640 GB | 640 GB | 640 GB |
| Optical Drive | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GPU | CPU | GeForce GT 540M | CPU | GeForce GT 520M | CPU |
| USB 2.0 Ports | Two | Two | Two | Three | Three |
| MSRP in the US | USD 650 | USD 780 | USD 700 | USD 800 | USD 600 |
Although the manufacturer lists that all laptops use DDR3-1066 memories, our model came with DDR3-1333 parts.
As you can see, two of the models have a dedicated graphics chip (GeForce GT 520M or GeForce GT 540M), while the other models rely on the graphics processor integrated in the CPU.
Believe it or not, Acer’s website and the product manual don’t list all features present on the laptop. They fail to mention that new TimelineX models have USB 3.0 ports (which is a major feature); they don’t list the resolution of the embedded webcam; and the chipset isn’t listed. They say the product comes with DDR3-1066 memories, but our model (which we bought at a regular store) came with DDR3-1333 modules instead. They also don’t publish a complete list of programs that come pre-installed.
Let’s now take a better look at the Aspire TimelineX AS3830T-6417.