Oct 20 2010, 04:08 AM, updated 15y ago
My totally bias review
Spec:
i5-460M
13.3-inch display with a resolution of 1366×768 pixels,
Switchable ATi Radeon HD 5650 graphics
4GB of DDR3 RAM
750GB of hard drive
Atheros Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n (Can do 300mbit/s)
Bluetooth 3.0
3 x USB 2.0 ports
100/100/1000 Lan
Multi card reader
6-cell battery
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Battery life:
No wifi, light usage: 8 hours
Wifi, light browsing: 6 hours
Gaming: 2 hours max
Display:
I got an LG display! It looks nicer than my old XPS1330, Asus U35 and Latitude 13!
CPU/GPU Performance:
The core i-5 460M running @ 2.53GHz and turbo boost @ 2.8GHz is fast enough for running a few OS in Vmware concurrently without a sweat. I feel further swiftness as compared to my XPS1330's T9300 which also running @2.5GHz. The ATI 5650 is REALLY powerful. I was running Street Fighter 4 @1366x768 max setting (with no AA), I got more than 9000 score, rank A. Running Starwars TFU running at 1360x768 with High Detail, the fan is not even at high speed. Running Starcraft 2 High setting @1366x768 has no lag at all (in fact, it's really smooth) even with 8 protoss carrier attacking.
My 3dmark06 score is 7562 and did not improve much after a fresh OS and Catalyst 10.8.
Keyboard:
If there is 1 thing I don't like about this notebook is the keyboard. The key is not firmly sit on they notebook. It's like you can move they key sideway a little with your finger. I like firm and steady keyboard. And I also hate the small directional key.
Portability:
At 1.8 kilos or (3.9 lbs), it is portable enough for me. It's slightly smaller and lighter than my XPS1330. When I put U35 and 3820TG side by side, 3820TG looks slimmer.
However, it is not as light and slim as Latitude 13. If only Dell can pack this much power in Latitude 13.Heat management:
This is what I like most about this notebook. Normal wifi browsing (flash, whatever) after an hour, CPU is around 40-48 Celsius. GPU is 45 Celsius. Gaming and under heavy load for a few hours, CPU max @87, GPU max @82. I can see temperature rapidly going down once game stop. The 2 fans working really really well.
Loudness:
This notebook is dead silence. During normal office usage, in my small room, I could hardly hear anything even when I am using it. The fan never produce any sound in normal browsing. It kicks in once or twice when I start installing Starwars TFU, copying GB data from USB and installing Starcraft 2 all at once.
You should be able to hear both fans working during gaming, but it is still way more quiet than any notebook I have known.
About the speaker, it is really soft, but I don't use internal speaker often.
Conclusion:
I am a picky person when it comes to notebook. I have a few things I really want from a portable notebook:
1. Powerful enough to play recent game
2. Small and light enough (13" and below)
3. Good battery life for work and gaming
Acer 3820TG meets all those requirements, and being really quiet and cool are added bonus. So, I took all the effort to get this specific model from Singapore. I did extensive checking on the unit (build quality, battery, keyboard flex, dead pixel, temperature, audio jack, hdmi, vga, network, hardisk etc) before I starting to remove all the sticker.
And if some of you still wondering between Asus and Acer, I'd say this Acer 3820TG 'feel' and 'look' better in term of quality compare to another Asus U35 which I just brought for my staff.
This post has been edited by cowithgun: Oct 20 2010, 10:19 PM
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. fyi, the ram can only run at 533MHz due to processor limitation (PC3-10600 max speed is 667MHz).
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