Acer developing 'ace in the hole' ultrathin, putting MacBook Air on notice
By Vlad Savov 
posted February 12th 2010 3:25AM
posted February 12th 2010 3:25AM
posted February 12th 2010 3:25AM
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Acer would be getting sloppy seconds giving it to the Macbook Air then, as Asus has already handed it to them w/ the hybrid graphics boasting UL30Vt-X1 thin and light.
@Ducman69 have u ever seen a macbook air? It is not the bees knees but the UL30Vt-X1 with it's 1.3 Ghz cpu is nothing but a glorified netbook. Sure you get better graphics ( way better than on a netbook ) and larger screen but the device is about 2x thicker than the Air and if my previous experience with ASUS is any indication of their quality then don't expect to get the promised 11 hour battery life or the computer to last more than 3 years. There is a reason why you only get one year of warranty and there is no way to extend it through ASUS.
And as far as MSI goes, iI really hope you guys can cram an i5 in a 0.7" body without overheating problems. Cause the last thing anyone needs is another 1st get Macbook Air.
@(Unverified) Um, the cpu in the UL30VT is a 1.3GHz Core 2 Duo that can do a whole lot more than an Atom can.
@Ducman69
Well if Acer can give me a better build quality then Asus did on their UL30 I might actually be willing to grab me an Acer instead, because the UL30 has extremely poor build quality, not to mention their crappy Seagate harddrives.
@hvakrg Well, the UL30Vt-X1 at least from personal experience feels solid enough to use in a sword fight. Only hate that it has a fingerprint magnet finish, some kind of genital warts/acne on the touchpad (you get used to the bumps though), and a glossy display thats too reflective to use outside even though the LED display would otherwise be bright enough. Everything else though, bravisimo!
@(Unverified) Oh btw, I had skipped past your post earlier... netbook performance? The SU7300 is an excellent processor, and Asus delivers it w/ a one-click turbo mode to w/ overclocks the memory and CPU to 1066MHz (1.75 ghz) at a small sacrifice to battery life. In this way, it is truly a hybrid machine capable of altering CPU and GPU performance to maximize battery life and silent operation.
To compare it to an Atom processor makes you sound like a n00b, regardless of the fact that the dedicated fairly powerful GPU offloads a lot of work from the CPU.
Would you like some ice for that burn? :D
I think the Timeline's are thin enough. I have a 3810t and wish the 1810 was out when I ordered my 3810t last July. Look forward to the 1810's successor.
@jayayess1190
Likewise a 3810tz owner here, and it's about the perfect dimensions for me... I can hardly imagine it being thinner.
I have to find a reason why the devices like Macbook Air exist, I mean the thin-ness is really awesome, as a WOW feature. But once you factor in the slow processor, lack of ports and drives, and the decreased battery life and lack of features...wtf?
I hope all and any contenders release better machines with some sort of real world value
@yulebellow People that have used the Macbook Air and left frustrated are mainly the ones that tried the ridiculously slow 4200rpm drive model, since the SSD for the longest time was near $3K. Bootup and application launches are excruuuuciatingly slow, but its clear its just the drive thats the bottleneck: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7hc6qZ_PGI
The Air with a couple USB3 ports and HDMI (so you don't have to carry a stupid dongle) w/ a decent SSD w/ TRIM support (should be in OSX 10.7) minus the Apple tax is a very appealing machine.
@yulebellow I'm with Ducman, the Air has an acceptable processor for its form factor, but you gotta have the SSD.
@yulebellow
Maybe it's not for you. The MBA is a fairly fast CD2 processor with a 9400M chipset. The current 2GB memory limitation is becoming a liability but otherwise it offers pretty good performance. I'm not sure you'd want to run Final Cut on it but that's not what people buy them for so it's not much of an issue. The size is nice if you happen to travel a lot or simply use your laptop in a situation where you might be picking it up and sitting it down dozens of times a day. For ports, again it really depends what you specifically want or care about. I almost never plug anything into my laptop. wifi + bluetooth tethering and sometimes an external display.
So basically your specific needs may not be compatible with ultra-thin laptops but it's not too hard to understand other people might care about different things. Ultra-thins are a niche market but profitable because the people who want them will typically pay a bit more. That's why all these companies make them.
Eh, I think the "headline feature" of a MacBook Air is OS X - there are several "PC" options that offer lightweight form factor, comparable cost, and possibly even more USB ports, so you really have to want an Air if you end up with one. For the record, I do like it. I don't own one (the SSD option isn't quite large enough for what I need out of a laptop) but I have a few friends who do, and it's a nice Mac, worth the feature trade-offs if you travel a lot.
Congratulations Acer. The MacBook Air has only been out for what, two years now? I guess its true when they say that Apple is two years ahead of the competition.
@High actually, the closest competitors to the MBA are the Dell Adamo and the MSI X340, both of which came out within a year of the MBA. The X340 offers way better value than both of them though.
This is really only an update of a Dell X1 that I used to tote 4 years ago...the history of netbooks began exactly at that point
@fhernandez
I was going to disagree, but after some thought I can see where the X1 was one of the starting points of the netbook move. I always thought the Asus Eee PC 2G Surf was where the real netbooks started appearing. I bought one of those the first week they were out. Brought it on a trip to Maine and everyone who passed had to double take on this little white and baby blue laptop with a 7" screen running WinXP. I would almost argue that the X1 still falls in the Ultra Portable Notebook realm. But I can see the common genetics.
The Macbook Air hasn't been the thinnest laptop for a long time. Why are they still comparing it as such?
Wow, after all these years, companies are still trying to outdo the Air? Guess what, I don't think the MBA is selling that well in the first place. Simply being thin is not good enough. Trying to be thinner can only mean 2 things: crappier battery life and even poorer heat dissipation.
Last I checked the MacBook Air isn't the impressive ULV that it was when it first came out. Many notebooks have been released that get longer battery life, have better specs, and are thinner as well.
Not to mention it sucks using an SSD in OS X since it has no TRIM support.
I own a vaio x that is much thinner and lighter than the air. However, most telling for me was when a best buy had a mac air displayed next to a Dell adamo, most likely to promote the adamo as thinner. But the air just blew it away on style. Most people were more interested in the air! Next day comparison display was off and replaced with a comparison spec sheet!
Acer really needs to stop imitating Apple and Sony, do these guys don't have any creativity?
@bakkermaarten007 My Aspire 6920G has a large touch-sensitive media control to the left of the keyboard; Apple and Sony don't have that. My laptop has a Blu-ray drive; Apple doesn't do that. It only cost me $1099 two years ago; Sony doesn't do that.
(expects serious downvote)
@Suigi I'm referring to the look of the laptop...
More laptops that are cheap and comes with all day battery life? Sign me up.
Just bought an Acer Timeline and love it. I got the 13.3" variety, less than an inch thick, about ~7 hours of real life battery use (they advertise 8)... weighs a couple pounds. Solid $650 pricetag on NewEgg.
It is nice that it is thin but what about the weight? If it ways 7 lbs that wouldn't be impressive. If it weighs 2 lbs or less it would be impressive. I can get a Sony Z with a much faster processor that weighs 3lbs but it is 1" thick. I'll take the extra 1/4" if it gives me more speed provided it is about the same weight. However if this thing only was about 1 or 2 lbs I might prefer it.
it's about time apple put some effort into the macbook air. it's the bastard premature child that got no attention in the macbook family.
Why is "thinness" still an obsession? All the new computers nowadays are around 1" thick. I'm not going to be buying one brand over another just because I saved 1/8" in thickness.