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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 M5 Ultrabooks with Kepler graphics coming to the US for $680-plus
We spotted Acer's new Aspire Timeline Ultra M5 laptops at Computex earlier this month, and though we already knew some key specs (NVIDIA's Kepler-based graphics, for example), these Ultrabooks hadn't yet been announced for the US market. Today that changes, as Acer just revealed full specs and pricing details for those of us here in the states. The Aspire Timeline Ultra M5, available with 14- and 15-inch screens, lives up to its Ultrabook classification with a 0.81-inch thick profile and up to eight hours of battery life. As we noted previously, the M5 maintains some of the Aspire M3's design cues, including the chiclet keyboard, 1366 x 768 display and thin silhouette. At the same time, it ups the premium quotient with aluminum alloy done up in a brushed-metal finish. All models include a DVD drive and 500GB of storage plus a 20GB SSD. The base configuration will feature a second-gen (read: Sandy Bridge) Intel processor clocked at 1.5GHz, but higher-level options step up to an Ivy Bridge CPU clocked as high as 2.6GHz. The 14-inch version weighs 4.3 pounds and starts at $680 with Intel HD Graphics 4000 but is also available with an NVIDIA GeForce GT640M LE GPU for $780. The $830 15.6-inch M5 features an edge-to-edge screen, along with that same NVIDIA chip, but it weighs a heftier 5.07 pounds. The Aspire Timeline Ultra M5 Series will ship at the end of June -- in the meantime, check out the photos and press info below. %Gallery-158589%
The Ultrabooks of Computex 2012
It was last year that Intel chose Computex, a computer tradeshow in Taiwan, to introduce its Ultrabook concept to the world. Twelve months later, 110-plus models are in the pipeline, which meant the Taipei Convention Center was overrun by skinny, lightweight laptops. Make that skinny, touch-enabled laptops. Between those new Ivy Bridge chips and Microsoft putting the finishing touches on Windows 8, this week's show was nothing if not a five-day-long wedding between two tech giants: almost every device on display here was a vehicle for showing off Microsoft's glossy new OS. At every turn, a celebration of touchscreen notebooks. With more than 30 hands-on posts this week, we can see where one Core i5 laptop might look like the next, or how you might have failed to keep up with Jonney Shih's rapid-fire product announcements. Now that we're wrapping up here in Taiwan, though, we're ready to take a step back and think about what it is we just saw. Whether you felt overwhelmed by our wall-to-wall coverage or just need to catch up, we suggest you meet us past the break for a quick recap of all the new Ultrabooks. Oh, and if you're in the market for a new laptop, you can check your trigger-happy finger at the door. With few exceptions, we're not expecting these to go on sale until the fall, when Windows 8 is expected to start shipping.
Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M5 hands-on (video)
Acer's Aspire Timeline Ultra M5 laptops are hardly a mystery -- they've already been announced for the UK -- but until now we haven't had the chance to handle one in person. Luckily for us, then, both the 14- and 15-inch models are on display here at Computex, right alongside the similar M3 Ultrabook we reviewed earlier this year. Like the M3, they pack NVIDIA's Kepler-based GeForce GT640M graphics and can be configured with solid-state drives, but the M5's design is decidedly more polished, with a brushed metal finish, narrower bezels and backlit keyboard. Nonetheless, some things haven't changed: the keyboard layout is the same, as is the 1366 x 768 TN display and thin chassis, which measures around 20mm thick. No word on availability beyond what we already know, but for now enjoy the hands-on photos and comparison video.
Acer ships Aspire M5 Ultrabook to UK in June, Ivy Bridge and Kepler chips in tow
Acer made something of a splash when it trotted out its Timeline Ultra series of Ultrabooks at CES; those waves are just now hitting the shore with a full-on release in the UK under a tweaked Aspire M5 name. Both the 14- and 15-inch models are now known to be packing Intel's Ivy Bridge-era third-generation Core processors, and the "dedicated" video we heard about in January is NVIDIA's Kepler-based GeForce GT 640M, which we saw in the Timeline Ultra M3. Either new PC is still under 20mm (0.8 inches) thick with the option of an SSD, like the M3, but slapping the M5 badge on top means a much narrower display bezel, a backlit keyboard and other more upscale touches that show where your money's going. Picking the 15-inch model adds an optical drive along with a keypad for number-crunching. Mum's the word on exact specs and that all-important pricing, but those questions will be answered by the time the M5 hits British shops in mid-June. Now all that's left is to know when the new Aspire reaches the other side of the Atlantic.
