While it's always a fun rush to see an
unopened box in a Canadian store room, we're much more excited about what's inside the box, and friendly tipster James somehow managed to buy himself an
Acer Aspire Timeline 5810TZ-4657 in Iowa about a week ago. For a scant $598 he got a 15-inch display, DVD drive, Intel U2700 1.3GHz processor and 3GB of RAM -- which makes most similarly specced "thin and lights" seem a little silly in comparison. He says he's gotten around 7 hours of battery on max power saving mode, and about 4-5 hours on max use, finds the 720p webcam comparable to a Flip camera, enjoys the keyboard and multitouch trackpad, and overall finds the system to be very quick and responsive running Vista. Acer still hasn't confirmed an official lineup, price or availability for these things, but we've gotta think it's gonna be soon -- if this is right, it's almost too good not to share.
posted May 26th 2009 2:25PM
How does U2700 compare to Atom...?
It's much, much better on a clock-for-clock basis. Even dropping the speed to 1.3 GHz, it should still be faster than Atom.
The Core 2 Solo ULV "U2700" is far faster than any ATOM. It is a full-on 45nm Core 2 (Penryn-based) chip just running at very low power -- supporting SSSE3, 64-bit, etc.
Even the cheap Intel Celeron M ULV 723 @ 1.2Ghz is far faster than an Atom and is the chip I wish netbook makers would start to use at the low-end instead of Atom. There is also an upcoming dual-core version called Celeron M 743. Both of these chips
are basically cheaper versions of the 45nm Penryn-based Core 2 Duo ULV chips with less cache and some features missing.
James has deserved the right to scream first!
I find your lack of symmetry disturbing.
agreed, Im not sure Id like typing on a keyboard that is so off-center to the screen. Can anyone with experience using a keyboard like this comment?
Actually, the position just below the space key makes sense - less accidential cursor moving due to palm-touchpad contact, less hand movement needed to actually move the mouse while typing...
I picked one up in the US at a local WalMart several weeks ago. I'm loving it, its the best computer for the price
Is that screen a 16:10 or 16:9?
That keyboard would be awfully small to type on, if they put in a full keyboard on a laptop with 15.4 inch screen.
Yeah, cramming a number pad into a 15" laptop seems a bit overkill...
Other than that it looks nice, has apparently both good enough performance and good battery life and the price is really amazing. Very interesting model.
Shame about that chiclet keyboard. I tried out a different Acer with a chiclet, and it's AWFUL. It's flimsy and the keys balance on one little knob. They're just begging to fall off.
Real shame, because the design of the computers themselves are excellent.
James also enjoys long walks on the beach and candlelit dinners. He told me so.
Please report this post, so that Engadget finally takes notice of this idiot.
No more paying $2500 for stuff like this :).
Fail at posting first!
Ummm... we sell these at our Wal-Mart.
Unless theres more than one Timeline. We've had them out for about 2 weeks and we have working displays.
It's quick ut didn't know it had a multitouch-pad. Will check it later.
There are 3 models (3810, 4810, 5810) - 13", 14", 15" (.something)
IIRC the 5810 is the one that is not found yet (and is above), though as my (further-down) comment notes, this doesn't match those specs at all.
Oh... lmao, makes sense. Sorry bout that.
I'm a bit confused. That doesn't even close to reflect the specs on the Acer site (SU3500 or 9400, 4GB RAM, ...) - unless they're really trying to be confusing, anyway. (And, why would they include 3GB? These aren't i7's after all... though perhaps that's all that's being seen by Windows?)
http://www.acer.com/timeline/spec/spec.html
Never had a good experience with my old Acer laptop. Vista sucked on it. It's what made me switch to a Mac. :)
Switched mine to XP, no more problems :)
With prices staying the same or are lowered with new small laptops, and them getting even better specs. I feel I was cheated with my N10J :(
I was excited by this laptop, and was looking forward to see the "brushed aluminum" in particular. Well, I saw it today and was disappointed since it's just an extremely thin, decorative aluminum sheet. I was hoping for a cheap(er) mac air... BTW, it was the 13" model and at least the led screen looked good.
did you seriously take a whole 5 minutes to write "first!"? either that or the people who commented before you all traveled in time.
Acer Canada's got a partial line-up in its Price List, tucked nicely
away on their website.
http://www.acer.ca/acer/wr-resource/1619086089/upload/pent1/245/notebooks_matrix.pdf
Looks like most of the models are debuting on June 30th, although I'm
pretty sure the bottom two 15.6" Timeline models are actually
14-inchers.
So... Where do I get a model with any sort of 3G?
http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/07/acer-announces-aspire-timeline-ultralights-699-to-899/
I thought price was announced?
Regardless, I really want one of these for college.
Actually the timeline series has been selling in Tawian/Hong Kong for a while.
And There are models end with G(3810TG/4810TG/5810TG) that comes with ATi 4330 512MB(Same weigth!!)
You can switch between X4500MHD and ATi 4330 on-the-fly!
Kinda sounds like Sony Hybrid display.
Anyone see the OS rating? Is there any clear shot?
3.2 I guess?
Yeah...I initially thought nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngreen on white....sigh....but...other than the battery life, (I listen to 2-4 hours of podcasts a day)...and some fritzy stuff with the A-data 4G micro SDHC...a Palm...ANY Palm can run circles around a WM machine when it comes time to do what a pda is REALLY meant to do...Search ...er...Find TEXT. As per Peter Rojas's comments...
Dear Palm,
Man, what a crazy year, right? We know things haven't really been going your way lately, but we want you to know that we haven't given up on you, even though it might seem like the only smartphone anyone wants to talk about these days is the iPhone. It can be hard to remember right now, but you used to be a company we looked to for innovation. You guys got handhelds right when everyone else, including Apple, was struggling to figure it out. And it was the little things that made those early Palm Pilots great -- you could tell that someone had gone to a lot of trouble to think about what made for a great mobile experience, like how many (or rather, few) steps it took to perform common tasks.
The problem is that lately we haven't seen anything too impressive out of you guys....you don't think the Centro is impressive??? Sure, over the past few years the Treo has emerged as a cornerstone of the smartphone market, but you've let the platform stagnate while nearly everyone (especially Microsoft and HTC, Symbian and Nokia, RIM, and Apple) has steadily improved their offerings. So we've thrown together a few ideas for how Palm can get back in the game and (hopefully) come out with a phone that people can care about. (And we're not talking about the Centro / Gandolf.) Read on.
So yeah, it was probably a smart move to recognize that you needed to offer a Windows Mobile version of the Treo to appeal to enterprise users, but there are literally millions and millions of consumers who want a high-end, powerful mobile computer that isn't built around Exchange server support. What they're looking for is a great user experience. Apple has done a good job tapping into that market, but there's still a huge opportunity out there for Palm to offer a smartphone that's just as engaging as the iPhone, but that's also open, rather than closed, and more geared towards productivity.
Frankly, you've taken a turn from being the respected underdog and innovator to repeat offender in stale gear. Every press release you issue or "leaked" photo we see these days is another dent in your already banged up armor, and really, we're not sure how much more we can take -- our loyalty has practically become an embarrassment among peers. The New York Times totally nailed it when they said "Palm is about to release a new model in its Treo line and photos leak out to silence." That said, we humbly submit a few (mainly practical) suggestions for how you can turn things around, organized by hardware, software, and other.
Hardware
Get thin - Three words: FIGURE IT OUT. If HTC, Apple, and Motorola can offer thin (and we mean friggin' thin) smartphones, you can too. We know you think the Treo is perfectly proportioned, but it's not. It's chubby. No excuses any more, ok? It doesn't have to be as thin as the iPhone, but you've gotta trim some of the fat.
Bigger, higher resolution displays - Make the screen bigger and up the resolution and you'll go a long way towards winning us back. There's no reason the 750 shouldn't have 320 x 320 (or higher) -- Windows Mobile 6 supports that, or didn't you hear? But for new devices you might want to have the keyboard slide out, like with the HTC Hermes or the Samsung i730. It's a really smart move. The long and short of it is this: if you can find some way to marry the expanse of something like the iPhone's or G900's massive, high res screens and still retain the spirit of the Palm keyboard, people will be very interested.
Speaking of the keyboard, don't mess too much with it - Apple may or not add a physical keyboard to the iPhone (our money says it won't happen), but the one the Treo has now is pretty good and it's pretty much the one thing that's keeping a lot of Treo owners from jumping ship. And from what we hear, the Centro is going to have a keyboard that's "impossible to type on" -- not a good sign. Then again, HTC's signature sliding QWERTY form factor is really compelling too, so you might do good to whip up a really messaging-heavy device built around that kind of design. But again, don't be tempted to mess too much with what's good about the Treo's input.
Make it look nice - We know Jeff Hawkins thinks Palm (well, technically Handspring) nailed it with the Treo form-factor, but it's been almost FOUR YEARS since you introduced the Treo 600, and apart from a few long-overdue improvements here and there (losing the antenna stub, making the casing a few millimeters thinner, tweaking the keyboard), it's essentially the same phone. The Treo used to win design awards, but now it looks really clunky compared to devices like the Dash, the Curve, and the iPhone.
YOU NEED TO MAKE THE PHONE LOOK NICE. Phones are a big part of people's lives now, and if they're going to spend $400 and up for one, they're going to want something they won't be embarrassed to use in public. C'mon, even RIM has figured this one out. How have you failed to see that innovative and engaging design is necessary to win (or even compete) in the mass-market consumer cellphone world? We know that's where the Centro is aimed, and we're not so sure it's going to hit the mark.
Add WiFi - Is it really almost 2008 and the Treo STILL doesn't have WiFi? No excuses any more, sort it out.
Think about adding some storage - There was a time when just having expandable storage via a memory card slot was enough, but that time's passed. People won't mind sideloading via USB if you make the Treo appear as a mass storage device, meaning you can add embedded flash memory (a few gigs would be nice). 8GB in a cellphone is now the new bar. Meet or exceed it, but don't ignore the fact.
Finally, put the kibosh on the Centro / Gandolf / Treo 800p - You're going down the wrong path with these devices...and everyone knows it but you. We don't want to harp on this, but if what we've heard in the initial reports, and seen in blurry photos is what you're really going to offer, and believe it or not, you'll actually be able to expect a reception from your community roughly twice as lukewarm as it was for the Foleo. Palm, put your ear to the ground and listen. We hate to be jerks, but now appears to be the time for some tough love. But jerks you are on this one Peter...I refer you to
Software suggestions
Completely overhaul the OS - [COLOR="Red"][B]but don't loose the 15 second search time for over 1800 phone notes...or 1000 Memos...remember...it takes 12 minutes to search for a word on a WM5 or 6 platform...after all...what is a PDA FOR?...besides phone calls...storage...and more importantly SWIFT RETRIEVAL of stored text...something at which Windows Mobile sadly fails...I don't blame HTC, I truely believe that if a 8125 was loaded with the Palm OS, the search time would be under 10 seconds...but right now 12, or 10 of 5 or 1.1 minutes for a text search is completely unacceptable...and THAT is why I went back to the Palm OS!!![/B][/COLOR]
...so...yeah...Wifi would be nice but we ALL KNOW how fast that kills the batteries on WM 5-6 machines...read HTC...dunno about any other WM machine like RIM's latest Blackberry offerings, but I 'd be willing to bet this is a physical/physics/chemistry situation....todays technology sucks at making small, long lasting batteries....but...I understand innovations are on the way...so that may not be the issue any more.
The ISSUE...is you want a playpretty?...get an Iphone...you want to LOOK productive...get a Windows Mobile phone or pocket pc....
You want productivity?.....Get a Palm...
finis
Chas
What a stupid location for the touchpad, i hate the offset keyboard, is a numberpad so important that you'd rather do all of your main typing off-center??
battery life specs are impressive but again, im a long way away from even considering buying an acer laptop
how do they design a neat netbook and then mess up laptops so bad
I don't have a clue how my old comment on palm vs other smartphones got here but I AM responding to the request for the 5810tz metrics. I moved my old hard drive over from my "coffee inundated" and now dead Acer...the Windows experience index ...after installation of my HD was 2.0....where my previous Acer was 3.1 and seemed to run Aero just fine. I was about to take this 5810 back when I decided to use my backup of the original os/acer drivers and when I installed the Intel accellerator driver...wham!...3.1 on this machine....I think I'm keeping thus sucker...
Chas
where can i get a 14" with the dual core 1.4 ?