AcerAspireTimelineUltra
Latest
Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M5 review: an Ultrabook with discrete graphics (and an optical drive)
More Info Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 review Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M5 hands-on Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M5 Ultrabooks with Kepler graphics coming to the US for $680-plus The PC industry might have 100-some-odd Ultrabooks up its sleeve, but fortunately for restless tech reviewers like yours truly, they're not all cast from the same mold. As the year wears on, we'll see prices dip as low as $700, and a few will be offered with discrete graphics -- a nice respite from games handicapped at 30 fps. And, in some rare cases, you'll find machines that manage to achieve both. Enter the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M5 series, a pair of 14- and 15-inch laptops that start at $680, and, for an added premium, can be had with NVIDIA Kepler graphics. What's more, the 14-inch model we tested has a DVD burner, making it as much a full-fledged laptop as an Intel-approved Ultrabook. Accordingly, then, we'll be comparing it not just to other low-priced ultraportables, but to some budget mainstream notebooks on offer this back-to-school season. So how does it stack up? Let's see.%Gallery-161687%
Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 review
When Acer's Aspire Timeline Ultra notebooks made their first appearance at CES, these 14- and 15-inch laptops seemed like little more than the successors to Acer's TimelineX series. Thin-and-light laptops, complete with optical drive and some likely reasonable prices. While there's no mistaking that DVD burner and mainstream screen size, we now know a few things we didn't then: the 15-inch version you see up there packs NVIDIA's next-gen Kepler graphics... and Acer's calling it an Ultrabook. Acer's branding that there Ultra M3 as an Ultrabook because it's less than 20mm (.8 inches) thin, but given that 15-inch display, numpad, optical drive and graphical horsepower, it's hard to think of this as anything other than a mainstream laptop. If you accept Acer's marketing scheme, though, this is the first so-called Ultrabook to ship with discrete graphics. (We're expecting to see more -- many more -- of these.) As of this writing, at least, we don't have a confirmed price, though Acer has said the pricing for the Ultra series should align with current TimelineX notebooks (which is to say, we're hardly expecting this to be a $1,500 machine.) Until we know for sure, it'll be hard to say how sweet of a deal this is, but that doesn't mean we can't talk about what it actually does. How does the performance stack up against regular 'ol 15-inch laptop? Does it pummel your garden-variety Ultrabooks like you'd expect it to? Join us past the break where we break down exactly what this 'tweener can do.
Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra series hands-on
Ultrabooks aren't necessarily just for those that want tiny ultraportables -- Acer also thinks the mainstream consumer is going to be keen on the extended battery life and slimmer profile afforded by Intel's latest mobile platform. The Aspire Timeline Ultra series is an extension of the beloved Timeline... line, in the 14- and 15-inch sizes that attract the vast majority of buyers. We went hands-on with the two larger Ultrabook models which you can check out in the galleries below. Update: We've since had a second chance to get hands-on with the Timeline Ultra series and have refreshed our gallery with brighter, clearer photos and also subbed in a new lead shot.
