The laptop
With so much relatively expensive Intel technology packed into the Timeline 5810T, Acer has opted for a rather cheap-looking chassis.
Based on the lower end of Acer's range, the no-nonsense appearance belies what's inside. On first glance, one could mistake it for a five-year-old laptop.
The matte finish, which is brushed aluminium, is punctured by the Acer logo. It might look boring and cheap, but there are no rattles or squeaks as you pick it up.
Weighing in at only 2.4kg for a laptop with a 15.6in screen, the 5810T is clearly lighter than it looks, helped by the thin form factor.
The sloping front houses a multi-card reader and vents. At less than 30mm in height the laptop also appears to be wider than the quoted 380mm.
Move around one-quarter and the VGA output is almost as thick as the chassis. Three USB2.0, HDMI, and audio round off this side.
There's a large vent for spewing out heat produced by the chipset and CPU but it's redundant for the most part, as the 5810T's practically silent in power-saving mode and fairly quiet when running processing-intensive applications.
Sound quality is average for a mid-priced laptop, being rather bass-light when a bit of gravity is called for.
The also-slim DVD drive writes to the usual formats. Interestingly, it's opened and closed via a button the top, near the keyboard.
Modern laptops tend to ship with an ExpressCard slot as standard, and it's conspicuous by its absence here. Other connectivity goodies such as eSATA and FireWire are also missing, to keep costs down, we imagine.
