Acer is introducing a boosted line of Aspire TimelineX notebooks outfitted with Intel Core series processors and a promised battery life of up to 8 hours. Geared toward “road warriors,” with the notebooks, Acer is putting an emphasis on a mix of lightweight ultra-mobility and high performance.
Officials with the No. 3 global PC maker, in a Sept. 27 announcement, shared limited details about the laptops – the 1830T, 38020T, 4820T and 5820T – and held back on their official release date.
Acer’s hopeful standout among the four, all of which will run the Microsoft Windows 7 operating system, is the 1830T. At a weight of 3.09 pounds, the 1830T features an 11.6-inch LED backlit HD display and measures 11.22 by 8.03 by 1.01 (at its thinnest point) inches. Included are an Intel Core i7 680UM processor with Turbo Boost technology – a feature that allows the processor to, at the request of the OS, run faster than the base operating frequency – that runs at up to 2.53GHz, as well as a 500GB hard drive, 4GB of dual-channel memory and Bluetooth connectivity.
Like the other new Aspire TimelineX models, the 1830T also comes with 802.11b/g/n and Gigabit Ethernet LAN connectivity, a 1.3-megapixel HD Webcam with a resolution of 1,280 by 1,024, a digital microphone that minimizes echo, four USB 2.0 ports, and a multi-in-one card reader.
Pricing for the 1830T is set at $899.99, though Acer is offering additional configurations at reduced rates. Versions with either an Intel Core i3 or Core i5 ultra-low voltage processor, 4GB of DDR3 memory and a 600GB internal hard drive begin at $599.99.
Game for a PC larger than a purse? The TimelineX 3820T measures 13.3 inches; the 4820T, 14 inches; and the 5820T, 15.6 inches. Each comes with a choice of Intel Core i3 or Core i5 processor.
The latter two feature integrated DVD drives and up to 4GB of memory, expandable to 8GB. And to complement the large display on the 5820T, its keyboard includes a dedicated numeric keypad. The starting retail price for the 5820T and 4820T is $699.99. However, two versions of the 14-incher – called the 4820TG – include discrete ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 Switchable graphics and full DirectX 11 support, and so start at $799.99.
Pricing wasn’t announced for the 3820T, though the 13.3-inch unit weighs 3.97 pounds and measures 0.86 inches at its thinnest point. Included memory is either 3GB or 4GB, expandable to 8GB, with a 320GB hard drive.
In the second quarter, Acer lost the No. 2 market share position to competitor Dell, a loss that iSuppli analyst Matthew Wilkins attributed to Acer’s emphasis on mobility.
“With its product line heavily focused on mobile PCs, Acer’s sequential decline in notebook shipments impacted its position at the total PC level more than its competitors, which were able to draw on the upswing desktop shipments to bolster their total shipments,” Wilkins wrote in a Sept. 6 report.
While Acer experienced a 6.2 percent market share decline during the quarter, it nonetheless posted a 24.2 percent increase in shipments compared with second-quarter 2009 figures.
