In use, the 1810TZ performed reasonably well. It's no powerhouse, but it feels nippier than a netbook. It had no trouble giving us a full-screen run through the blast-fest that is Quake Live, so while the GMA 4500MHD wouldn't be the hardcore gamer's choice, it's fine for more casual play and certainly a big improvement on netbooks' GMA 950.
Compact gaming machine? Kind of...
But its 3DMark06 score of 529 puts it well behind the 1303 that the Nvidia Ion-equipped Samsung N510 netbook - the two machines have the same screen resolution and size, don't forget. The Acer had no trouble running our sample 1080p MP4 video full-screen.
Our PCMark Vantage numbers - taken using the 64-bit version of the app since the 1810TZ comes with 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium - show it to almost match the performance of the Samsung X450. It's slightly behind the X450, largely thanks to the smaller on-chip cache. But then the X450 is around £200 more expensive.
However, the N510 netbook is about £70 cheaper and you get faster graphics. But you get a much weaker CPU. We ran PCMark05's CPU, Memory and HDD tests to give us numbers with which to compare the 1810TZ's performance with netbooks. It scored 3205 on the CPU test - double any 1.6GHz or 1.66GHz Atom-based netbook we've tested. Its lead on the Memory and HDD tests wasn't so pronounced, but still clear: 3107 to a netbook average of 2328 and 4868 to 4421, respectively.
Complaints? The 1810TZ's speakers are rather tinny and the oft-used fan can get a tad distracting. The fan works, though - the laptop's base got warm but certainly not hot.
Verdict
The Aspire 1810TZ mini notebook delivers Atom-smashing performance in a package that's no less portable than a typical 10in netbook. And with a significant battery life boost into the bargain. But while it's cheap for an ultra-portable, you do pay a wee bit extra for netbook-plus technology. ®
Acer Aspire 1810TZ
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.
