I've been using the AS3810T-6415 notebook for about a month now and have no complaints. Battery life was the primary reason I purchased this as I need it for class all day. The battery life ranges from 7-8.5 hours, depending on programs being used, screen brightness and wifi. Battery life may also be affected due to the faster processor, but the trade-off is well worth it. I did end up purchasing the Core 2 Duo SU9400 model just for the extra processing power if I need it. As far as performance goes, Firefox is snappy, 720p video files play smooth, hulu and netflix are smooth as well. Even when I'm running many programs simultaneously, the notebook never runs hot, which isn't the case in other notebooks I own. The LED screen is nice and bright. The speakers are weak so its best if you use a pair of good headphones. This notebook is built pretty solid, including the keyboard which is an island key style. When compared to other portables, the 3810T is a great value (especially when compared to overpriced sony and apple machines). Not only does this notebook perform well, it is also an attractive choice (have gotten many looks and inquiries). Overall, for a college student, this is a perfect choice.

Pros:

- Thin, Light, Stylish

- Battery Life

- HDMI, Bluetooth

- Keyboard

- Build Quality

Cons:

- No Optical Drive (not really a con for me, maybe for others)

- Glossy Screen

- touch pad button is a little stiff

- speakers

- crapware

- no Vista Business option (this cost it a star)

My 6 year old Dell D600 finally died and I needed something small and light weight to use at client sites and when on the road. I have a Shuttle XPC for home/office use (video & audio editing & encoding, software & database development, etc.) and will be using the notebook primarily for email, web, word processing.

After researching options and playing around with different machines at local big box stores. I decided that:

- netbooks were to small for me (screen and keyboard)

- netbooks lacked the power/performance I needed/wanted

- ultra portables notebooks from Sony, Dell, Lenovo, etc. were nice and powerful, but very expensive

- Mac Book Pro 13 was compelling at the the just over $1000 price point. (I considered it for about 15 minutes knowing I could load Windows on it, but ultimately couldn't overcome my anti-Apple bias. Maybe next time around.)

- I could live without a DVD drive

- A solid 4-5 hours of battery life would be great

Based on this I narrowed my search down to the Acer Timelines, MSI X340, Toshiba Satellite U505 series.

The MSI was nice and thin and sported a Core 2 Solo, 3GB RAM, and 320GB HD, but felt cheaply made compared to the Acer and Toshiba.

The Toshiba was well equipped and I liked the fact that I could go to Toshiba Direct and configure a machine to my exact specifications. In the end the bulkiness of the Toshiba caused me to rule it out. The Acer is more stylish and lighter.

While evaluating the 3810T I also compared it to the 4810T, which has a DVD drive and 14" screen and is otherwise the same as the 3810T ($899) except for the processor (Core 2 Solo SU3500) and $699 price tag. If the 4810T had the same Core 2 Duo(SU9400)CPU as the 3810T I would have gone with the 14" and paid up to $1000 for the honor.

During my unscientific performance test in the store, I could see a distinct difference in how the machines performed similar tasks. Both run Vista Home Premium (64 Bit), have 4GB of DD3 RAM and 5400RPM HDs, leaving me to conclude that the processor was what made the 3810T a snappier performer. I knew over the long run the sluggish performance would bother me more than screen size or lack of DVD.

The processor selection ultimately influenced my decision more than any other factor. While the Core 2 Duo in the 3810T is less powerful than the options from Toshiba, I was willing to trade some processing power for battery life.

The lack of a DVD drive may be a negative for some, but was not a deal breaker for me. I rarely use DVDs or CDs and think that these drives are going the way of the floppy. I much prefer having the smaller form factor and lighter weight over a DVD drive.

That brings me to the most pleasant and unexpected surprise of the 3810T, the HDMI port. I hooked the machine up to my 42" Vizio, opened WMC, logged into Netflix and started watching movies. My expectations for video quality were low. I was very impressed with how the 3810T handled video playback and thus the machine will also see duty as a movie player in the living room.

Lastly, the battery life on this machine is great. I don't know if it will give e 8 hours, but I have been able to make it through a workday with out having to re-charge and battery life to spare.

So far the only negatives comments I have about the 3810T are the glossy screen, touch pad button and inability to get a machine preloaded with Vista Business.

The screen is fine indoors, as long as there is not a lot of back light, but can be difficult to see when outdoors. The lack of Vista Business has not become a problem yet, but if I have a client situation where I have to connect to their network, I will either upgrade or create a dual boot with XP Pro (probably the latter).

The 3810T may not be ideal as a primary machine, unless your requirements are limited to web, email, word processing and limited multi-media. But as a secondary machine to cover basic tasks and ease of mobility, I think the 3810T is a nice combination of form factor, style, performance and value. It looks good, is easy to carry around, has good keyboard and screen real estate and can run all day at a sub $1000 price point.

I recently purchased the Acer Timeline 3810T with the Core 2 Duo processor and I must say that it is by far one of the best purchases I have ever made.

First, the laptop's construction is incredibly good for the sub-$1000 price and the 3.5lbs weight. The case is an attractive gun metal gray and feels really solid. If you've used the business-class Dells then this is very similar in color and feel. The best part is that you get this really solid computer and it is surprisingly light considering how sturdy it feels. The keyboard is really nice also, the keys are smooth and have a very light sound with good feedback and good spacing. I have been typing on it regularly without any problems. There are also 3 touch-sensitive buttons at the top for turning wi-fi on/off, starting the backup program, and turning the eco-mode on/off.

The battery life is really the reason I bought this. As a law student who lugged a 7+lbs Dell to and from school weight was really important. When I saw that this would allow me to function all day at school surfing the web and typing in Word and OneNote without having to plug it in I knew I'd never have to carry a huge power adapter with me again. And it really does work as well as advertised, sometimes better. In balanced power mode with screen brightness at a high level I can get 7 hours out of it. With the computer in eco-mode, which still gives you good performance and a bright screen I can get 8+ hours from the battery with regular light use. If I start playing music or videos the battery will go down to 4+ hours. What surprised me was that during a typical day I could get 9+ hours out of the battery because even though it's on, I'm not necessary doing anything with it (like when I'm listening to the lecture and not typing or surfing the battery life benefits). Factor in the battery savings from putting it to Sleep or Hibernate and you're talking about true all-day computing.

Now, for performance, I opted for the Core 2 Duo because I feared that the Solo and Pentium would simply be bogged down by Vista with Office and IE running all the time. I can tell you that the display model of the Core 2 Solo at Staples did show quite a bit of lag in everyday tasks. The Core 2 Duo however works great. I have a Quad Core desktop also and this performs my daily tasks, including multi-tasking, just as fast. If you're looking to do some heavy file transfers, video coding, or anything that is really processor intensive then you may want to look elsewhere. But I have been able to surf in IE with multiple tabs open while using OneNote and Outlook and Messenger all at once without a hitch. And I have also had no problems with HD video performance on YouTube, Hulu, or Netflix. This isn't designed to be a desktop replacement, but it's close. Bloatware was fairly minimal, the few Acer programs can be useful for backups and the webcam and they don't seem to bog the system down at all. I uninstalled a ton of Acer games that came with it, but that was about it. Overall, I would feel comfortable recommending this to just about anyone. I have a 50+Gb music library and 30+Gb pictures with maybe another 20+Gb in videos and I have had no problems working with any of them. Keep in mind that you're also getting 64-bit Vista with a free upgrade to 64-bit Windows 7 which will use the 4Gb of RAM very well and should allow this system to perform very well. If you wanted to keep this system for more than a couple years then when RAM prices come down you could add another 4Gb and get a couple more years out of it.

The two complaints I've heard the most are from the speakers and the mouse button. The speakers are somewhat terrible, I can't stand to listen to certain songs on them becaue they're so bad, but the sound quality through a good pair of headphones is fantastic. Basically, the speakers will suffice and are certainly nowhere near a deal-breaker. They are plenty loud, which is another complaint I heard. I just wouldn't expect to hear them in the next room. As for the mouse button it is a little difficult to push. I find myself occassionally trying to push too close to the center of the rocker and not getting any response until I move closer to either end. However, if you're like me and prefer to just tap the pad then it'll work just fine. I doubt even a power-user would notice after awhile. The trackpad's touch features are very nice as well. The swipes and scrolling work perfect for me. Zooming is a little difficult because the pad is kind of small so you only move in small increments, but it works.

This is a well-built, solid performing, thin and light laptop that actually allows you to work all day without having to plug it in...and it's $900 MSRP (also look up Acer Timeline on Bing and save $47 when you buy from JR Computer World with Bing Cashback). You could easily spend $2,000 on another system and get the same performance without the weight, construction, or battery life. It's the best deal out there right now and for the performance junkies who want to do a little gaming I hear there's a model coming with switchable discrete graphics. If you've never tried an Acer (like me), this is a good time to start.

Pros:

- Performance

- Battery life

- Runs cool

- Weight, size

- Wireless N and gigabit Ethernet

Much better performance than I expected with the 1.4 GHz Duo running Windows Vista. Can't wait for the Windows 7 update though. Battery has easily lasted 7+ hours before a recharge. Exhaust air is hot sometimes, but the bottom stays comfortably cool on your lap. Very sleek and lightweight for this price and performance. 4 GB of RAM and 500 GB hard drive is ridiculous for this size, and blows Apple away at this price (not to mention the user-replaceable battery, memory and hard drive). Camera looked great during Skype sessions. HDMI and VGA ports are nice (haven't tried them yet though). I don't even mind the toggle mouse button, since I usually just tap the touchpad. And the gestures, though limited, have come in handy so far.

Cons:

- No optical drive

- Weak speakers

- Ethernet port

Sometimes the lack of an optical drive is a pain, but Daemon Tools and a bootable thumb-drive will help you avoid getting an external USB DVD drive. The speakers will only work in a totally quiet room, but that's what head phones are for, and that's not why you're buying an ultra-portable anyways. I wish the Ethernet port was upside-down to let you disconnect the cable without picking up the PC (like every other laptop these days). Also, maybe this is just a pet peeve with me, but why can't manufacturer's manage to design a laptop that you can open with one hand? Every one of Apple's laptops meet this criteria, but I have yet to find a PC that accomplishes this simple feat.

Summary:

Overall this is easily the best laptop I have owned. I haven't tried any games yet, but web surfing, office aps, video conferencing, etc. seem much snappier than my last machine (XP, 2.4GHz Pentium). The weight, size, and performance easily make up for the lack of optical drive and lame speakers. This is the perfect laptop for anyone who has to carry around a PC everyday or on business trips. Lightweight and compact, but with everything you have come to expect from a full-featured laptop (great performance, spacious display, comfortable keyboard, easy to use touchpad).