Review As the name might suggest, Acer’s TravelMate family of notebooks are aimed at the mobile users, with an eye on business bods after something a little more stylish than the standard issue grey slab. A new addition to the range is the Timeline X TM8481T with just a couple of variants at present.

Road runner: Acer's TravelMate Timeline X TM8481T

The version I’m looking at here is the memorably monikered 2463G32nkk which is powered by an Intel Core i5 CPU. If you want a bit more grunt then there is the 2634G32nkk which is Intel Core i7 powered and around £150 more expensive.

The Intel 1.6GHz Core i5-2467M on the review model is backed by a rather miserly 3GB of DDR3 RAM – the motherboard supports up to 8GB – a 320GB hard drive and 64-bit Windows 7 Professional. It’s certainly no speed demon but it manages to do the everyday office apps without too much complaining though a bit more memory certainly wouldn’t go amiss.

Integrated graphics, powers the VGA and HDMI outputs when needed

Using Intel’s GMA HD3000 graphics core means that there isn’t any serious game playing potential and certainly DX11 games are out of the window anyway, as the graphics hardware doesn’t support it. It does, however make a good fist of 1080p playback but with mobility in mind, the Acer Travelmate Timeline TM8481T doesn’t come with a built in Blu-ray or any form of optical drive for that matter.

Acer has performed a neat trick with the 1366 x 768-pixel display, as the 14in panel takes up the same amount of room as a 13in screen thanks to the thinness of the bezel. Its matt finish is ideal for challenging environments, as it reduces any reflections coming from overhead lighting.

Next page: Staying power