TimelineX AS1830T: Ultraportable Core i5

Was looking to replace my walk-around laptop (an Acer Timeline 1810tz) with a more powerful one but still want the same form-factor, size and battery life.

I checked out the equivalent ones from Lenovo (the IdeaPad U160 looks nice) and Asus over at Amazon but could not find one so I ended up looking at another Acer upgrade — the TimelineX.

There were actually 2 models of the Acer Aspire TimelineX AS1830T — one with a Core i3 330UM running at 1.2GHz (2 cores, 4 threads) and the one with a Core i5 430UM running at 1.2GHz as well (2 cores, 4 threads). The only difference between the two is that the Core i5 has Turbo Boost up to 1.73GHz (will be useful when I’m using Photoshop, Cyberlink MediaShow, Movie Maker and Canon Photo Professional).

Acer Aspire TimelineX AS1830T-3721
Core i5 430UM @ 1.2GHz (up to 1.73GHz Turbo Boost)
4GB DDR3 RAM (max 8GB)
500GB SATA HDD
Intel HD Graphics 128MB
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 3.0
Gigabit LAN
HDMI port
5-in-1 card reader
3 x USB 2.0 ports
Windows 7 Home Premium
Li-Ion 6-cell battery @ 5800 mAh
3.1lbs
Price: $699.99 (see Amazon listing here) or around Php31,800

Acer Aspire TimelineX AS1830T-3721
Core i3 330UM @ 1.2GHz (no Turbo Boost)
3GB DDR3 RAM (max 8GB)
320GB SATA HDD
Intel HD Graphics 128MB
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 3.0
Gigabit LAN
HDMI port
5-in-1 card reader
3 x USB 2.0 ports
Windows 7 Home Premium
Li-Ion 6-cell battery @ 5800 mAh
3.1lbs
Price: $599.99 (see Amazon listing here) or around Php26,400.

So it was a tight choice between the two — with a $100 difference, you get an extra 120GB storage, 1GB more RAM and Turbo Boost with he Core i5. Not bad at all. The price point is just about right and I’m guessing that once they are available locally, the prices will be somewhere around Php38k to Php45k between the two.

The only other concern is the battery life. I’ve been using the Timeline 1810tz for about 6 months now and I’m impressed with the battery life which is between 4.5 to 6 hours, depending on the power settings.

The CPU of the 1810tz (Pentium SU4100 1.3GHz dual core) is rated at just 10watts while the Core i5 430UM is rated at 18 watts. So, in terms of battery life, I am worried that the TimelineX will have a little less battery life even if Acer claims it still has the same 8 hours (optimal) as the rest of the models in the Timeline series.

From experience, the closest specs I’ve tried was a Core i5 470UM (1.33GHz, Turbo Boost 1.87GHz) system from that Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 13 I reviewed earlier. And guess what, I was only getting around 3.75 hours on the 5800mAh battery there. Four hours of battery life might not cut it for me as I’m more used to 5 to 6 especially when I’m on the road.

I still ended up buying the Core i5 model, just for review purposes here but if I’m not satisfied with the battery life, I think it will just go to the “for sale” bin and I’ll go back to the old laptop.