Not so the three USB 2.0 ports, VGA, analogue 3.5mm audio I/O and SD Card slot, all of which are exactly what you'd expect to find on a netbook, as is the low-res 0.3Mp webcam. But the Ethernet port is Gigabit and the wireless is 802.11n. There's no optical drive, of course.
A netbook-style port array on this side...
Closed, the 1810TZ is a little over an inch (30mm) thick at its thickest point - where the battery is, basically - but it falls to around 22mm so it doesn't feel chunky when you're carrying it around. The lid adds some thickness, but we'd rather have the 1810TZ's 6mm-thick lid to protect the screen that some of the thin, bendy tops we've seen on some machines.
That thickness, along with the construction of the base, gives the 1810TZ a solid, well-made feel. It's nice looking too. The glossy lid offsets the matte black body. opening it reveals the matte black keyboard surrounded by a sober, businesslike gunmetal grey area and wrist rest.
Acer has eschewed fashionable chiclet keyboards, but the 1810TZ's keys aren't the old-style slope-at-the-edges type either. The keys are like those you find on a chiclet board but are larger and thus far less spaced out. There's barely any flex in the keyboard - though it's not as rock-solid as some - and it's pleasant to type on. If we had a complaint, it would be that it's quick close to the front: the wrist rest area and trackpad are narrow.
...though there's HDMI on the left
While the trackpad is bigger than those on some netbooks, it's by no means notebook sized. However, we like the fact that it runs smooth and flush with the rest of the wrist-rest area. It also does multi-touch, with pinch-to-zoom, two-finger image rotation and - what we really like - two-finger scrolling. The buttons have a nice, easy action too.
COMMENTS
What about linux?
I don't suppose you'd care to slap Ubuntu on it (and your other test machines) as a dual-boot and tell us what doesn't work out of the box?
I like the look of this, but if it can't do the linux thing, it's staying on the shelf...
@Steve Pemberton
A quick look at the spec reveals... 1.4kg / 3lbs.
first impressions
Just got my 1810TZ . Overall very nice--solid build quality, as suggested by the review. A few things the review didn't note: The USB ports are very tight. The sound has some background hiss, as expected for built-in sound. No hum or other frequencies (a problem I've encountered on other notebooks). There is a recovery partition on the hard disk. I made recovery discs (with an external DVD burner), then wanted to free up the space from the recovery partition, so I repartitioned the disk, and reinstalled from the recovery discs. This worked with no problems, though it did take it 1.5 hours (no human intervention required though).
Nice
Looks like a nice little machine. I would certainly consider one when I upgrade my current Acer Aspire 2920 (12.1" notebook, in fact reviewed on here a year or two back).
I just wish a few more manufacturers would start doing machines like this rather than over sized netbooks as not everyone wants to lug around a 15" or 17" machine (I certainly wouldn't want to lug a 17" machine around due to the weight), and sometimes we need a little bit more CPU power than an Atom can give.
Shame Acer didn't drop an ION chipset in this little machine though.
Rob
vs Asus Ul30A
I was looking at getting the same laptop, but with a bigger 13.3" screen, the 3810TZ.
Asus are bringing out their UL30A1 which is core duo, with other models such as UL30A2 etc. They work out a bit more expensive, but the battery life is considerably better, up to 11 hours.
The UL20A also seems a good deal. The 2 year international warranty compared to Acer's 1 year may also be a winner. Nothing on amazon UK as of yet, so I'm sitting tight for now. I think it's better to buy this after Christmas if at all possible once Asus' pricing has been confirmed.
