Acer AS4830T-6642 Guide
Acer AS4830T-6642 – I bought this laptop for a few reasons: 1. To replace my aging Acer TM 4220 (5 years old and still trucking!) 2. Because I’m transferring to Texas A&M this August and will need a portable laptop to bring to class 3. It comes with a free Xbox (I’ll explain why this is important below). I received the laptop in a well-packaged and undamaged state. My first impressions were of the relatively clean lines and styling, including the blue/silver color motif that works well. Upon opening the laptop the, I noticed that the screen bevel is not all that sturdy–it’s not bad, but there is some flex, and as such you should not try to open the screen from a single corner. The next thing is the keyboard. It is a chicklet key design, which I’ve hated on other laptops (Toshiba), but is very good on this laptop. The key spacing and sturdiness are good to great and overall I like it. The track pad is good, but has a bit too much friction at first (it’s not rough, but is not glass-smooth). After a few days use, it is good to go as far as tactile feel and functions very well. Setup was a breeze and I had the laptop going in a short time. Next, I uninstalled several bloatware programs, which I advise that you do also as it speeds up the machine a bit. Some of the Acer programs are useful, so I left those installed. Performance with the Intel i5-2410m is very good and I have not yet encountered a task that bogs it down–I doubt that I will considering I’m not doing any intensive computing. Windows 7 had a boatload of updates to install and the unit handled them in a timely fashion. If there’s one thing that’s a bit sub-par in this unit, it is the hard drive. It functions perfectly and is a good capacity, but it is a bit slow (though right in line with other 5400RPM drives) and is likely the Achilles Heal of this unit. I am considering installing an SSD, which would bring this unit into high-end speed territory. After getting everything set up how I wanted it, I tested battery life, which performs as advertised. Yes, that’s right–this thing gets 8-10 hrs battery life on power saver mode with mild to moderate browsing and word processing, etc. I love it! Now, this laptop was about $700, but it comes with a free Xbox. I don’t need an Xbox, so I sold it for slightly less than MSRP, thus bringing the net cost of this laptop to about $550. $550!? YES! My brother recently bought a Apple Macbook Pro with very similar specs for about $1200, and this Acer goes toe-to-toe with it for less than 1/2 price (net). Granted, the Apple’s body and fit and finish are a bit nicer, but not $600 nicer!! The price-to-performance ratio of this Acer is absolutely outstanding! I have no regrets about purchasing this TimelineX and I bet you won’t either! I’ve had great results from Acer in the past and this unit does not disappoint so far!
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