It’s hard to believe that a 15.6-inch system could be considered highly portable, but that’s what Acer has done with the Aspire Timeline 5810T-4657. This mainstream notebook is only an inch thick and weighs less than six pounds, yet Acer manages to cram in an optical drive. While the 5810T’s hardware is underpowered compared to other notebooks in this price range, it’s more than capable of most everyday tasks, and its six-hour battery life and $548 price (at Wal-Mart) make it one of the most attractive notebooks for its size.
Design
The 5810T is, essentially, a larger version of the 3810T. With a footprint of 14.9 x 10.2 inches, and tapering from 1.2 to 1.0 inches, it’s essentially the same size as the MSI X600. However, unlike MSI, Acer managed to integrate a DVD drive. Weighing 5.4 pounds, the 5810T is certainly one of the lighter 15.6-inch notebooks, but it’s still half a pound heavier than the X600.
Like the 3810T, the Timeline 5810T’s matte gray, fingerprint-proof plastic lid is similar to the company’s business-oriented TravelMate series. The chassis has a solid feel that belies its low price.
Above and to the right of the keyboard are three touch controls for Wi-Fi, Acer Backup, and Acer’s Eco Utility, the latter of which can only be activated when the notebook is running on battery power. To the right of that is a hard drive activity indicator and an eject button for the DVD drive. Rather than remaining a solid color, the Wi-Fi indicator light blinks amber when data is being transmitted; after a while, it becomes a minor annoyance.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The deck on the 5810T is wide enough to accommodate a full number pad, and does not have to compromise the size of other keys. The keys themselves are a little slick; our fingers occasionally slid off of them when typing at a rapid pace. However, the keyboard was firm, and the responsive keys had a good amount of travel.
Below the keyboard, the touchpad has the same color and texture as the palm rests, and had low friction. The touchpad, which uses a Synaptics controller, also supports multitouch gestures, which worked well when zooming in and out of Web pages and photos. While there is only a single mouse button, it had a nice, crisp action.
Display and Sound
The 15.6-inch glossy display on the Timeline 5810T was pleasantly bright. Horizontal viewing angles were wide enough for people to sit on either side of the notebook, but the image degraded when we tilted the screen back. While its resolution of 1366 x 768 is a little on the low side for a 15.6-inch screen (the 3810T has the same resolution), considering this notebook costs less than $600, it’s an acceptable compromise. When watching a 720p video (Super Speedway), colors were vivid and action was smooth. When playing a DVD (Gladiator) we saw very little noise in darker scenes.
It was while watching this video that we first noticed how impressive the 5810T’s speakers are. They’re not only fairly loud, but highly accurate: we noticed sounds that we hadn’t before, such as the squeal of a race car’s tires as it rounded the corners of the track. Also, we had a greater sense of the sound surrounding us as noises passed from one speaker to the other. When listening to Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration” on Pandora, middle and high tones were crisp and undistorted; like most notebooks, though, the bass was a bit weak.
Ports and Webcam
Acer makes good use of the ample chassis, packing three USB ports, VGA, HDMI, and headphone and mic ports on the left, and an additional USB port, Ethernet, and an optical drive on the right. A 5-in-1 memory card reader is tucked under the front lip.
A 1.3-megapixel webcam above the display produced decent video when chatting with a colleague over Skype. Images were only slightly grainy, but the webcam’s software couldn’t compensate for the florescent lighting in our office, which gave everything a green hue. Still, the embedded microphone picked up our voice well.
