Acer Aspire AS3830TG-6431

The Acer Aspire AS3830TG-6431 takes a utilitarian approach to ultraportable design. It may not be as pretty as the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch ($1,299 direct, 4 stars) and Samsung Series 9 ($1,650 list, 4 stars), but what it crams inside will have geeks gushing. The Intel Core i5 processor and Nvidia graphics are a fast and furious combination, yet they don't negatively impact battery life. Granted, this laptop is heavier and thicker than some, but given its $750 street price, this ultraportable is a serious contender.

Design
The AS3830TG-6431 isn't intended for design snobs who crave the thin and luxurious looks of the Series 9 and MacBook Air, but it's also not cheaply made. The lid and palm rest are draped in aluminum, a material ultraportables can't afford to leave out these days. It isn't as solidly made as the Series 9, MacBook Air, and Lenovo ThinkPad X1 ($1,399 direct, 3.5 stars), but you wouldn't expect that from a laptop that costs half as much. The AS3830TG's one flaw is its heft. At 4.1 pounds, it weighs almost a pound more than the 3.2-pound Toshiba Portege R835-P50X ($850 list, 4 stars), an ultraportable that has a built-in DVD burner. At least the AS3830TG's compact dimensions (12.6 by 9 by 0.75 inches, HWD) might alleviate some of that burden.

The 13.3-inch widescreen is one of the few aspects of the AS3830TG-6431 where the lower price is evident. It's comparable to the one found on the R835-P50X: mildly bright, with decent viewing angles, but nothing eye-catching. The display's 1,366-by-768 resolution is boilerplate as well, but expected. If you know how to appreciate a higher screen resolution, the Air 13-inch (1,440 by 900) and Sony VAIO VPC-Z214GX (1,600 by 900) can provide that. Acer didn't overthink the keyboard; it uses average-size chiclet keys that will ably serve any typist. The only thing that stuck out about the keyboard is the slightly oversized Enter key, which looks like it's latched on to the backslash key. The keyboards on the X1 and the R835-P50X are better engineered, however. The mouse buttons are undersized and smaller than I anticipated, although they weren't as resistant as the pair on the Z214GX.

Features
The AS3830TG would be a force to reckon with if it included an optical drive but, like the Air 13-inch and the Series 9, it omits one. But it has all of the other essential features, including three USB ports (one of which is implanted with USB 3.0 technology), Ethernet, VGA, and HDMI. A multiformat card slot is located in the front bezel, and a 1.3-megapixel webcam is situated above the screen. The 500GB (5,400rpm) hard drive isn't exceedingly generous, as the R835-P50X comes with a 640GB one. The laptop also lacks avant-garde wireless technologies like Wireless Display 2 (WiDi 2.0) and WiMAX, which can be had with the R835-P50X and ThinkPad X1. On the other hand, the speaker system is a pleasant surprise; sound on most ultraportables is an afterthought, but it was fully immersive while listening to music and watching HD videos on the AS3830TG.

Performance
A standard-voltage processor is another reason why the AS3830TG is no slouch. The 2.3GHz Intel Core i5-2410M is the same found in the R835-P50X and is in line with the Core i5-2520M CPU in the ThinkPad X1. It's significantly faster than the low-voltage processors found in the Air 13-inch and Series 9, and performance tests attest to this. The AS3830TG's CineBench R11.5 score of 2.57 and Photoshop CS5 time of 4 minutes 20 seconds blew away what we saw from the Series 9 (1.36 and 5:53) and Air 13-inch (1.1 and 10:50). The Acer kept up nicely with the R835-P50X and ThinkPad X1 in our Handbrake video transcoding test with a time of 1:55. While many of its peers relied on Intel for graphics-related tasks, the AS3830TG stood out by including an Nvidia GeForce GT 540M graphics chip. Its 3DMark 06 (9,255) and Lost Planet 2 (38.9 frames per second) scores were indicative of a portable gaming laptop and blew past the integrated solutions found in the R835-P50X and ThinkPad X1. It also leverages Nvidia's Optimus graphics switching technology, which had a huge impact on battery life.

Unlike the R835-P50X, the AS3830TG has a non-removable battery that's a lot bigger than Acer would have used in a latch system. The 68Wh battery is very similar to the one found in the R835-P50X (66Wh), yet the AS3830TG's 8 hour 18 minute time in our MobileMark 2007 battery-rundown test exceeds its rival's by more than an hour (7:01). Even with their lower-voltage processors, the Series 9 (6:04) and Air 13-inch (5:35) couldn't touch the AS3830TG in this area.

It's been an obsession lately: companies sacrificing performance jacking up prices on ultraportables to construct the thinnest bodies for their design-obsessed customer base. The Acer Aspire AS3830TG-6431 makes sure that its low price is the first thing customers see, and then knocks them off their feet with very fast parts and splendid battery life, though its four-pound frame isn't ideal for an ultraportable. The Toshiba Portege R835-P50X is still the ultraportable to beat, but Acer's little gem isn't too far behind.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Acer Aspire AS3830TG-6431 with several other laptops side by side.

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