Acer TravelMate TMP645-MG-9419 Pro Reviews

The Acer TravelMate TMP645-MG-9419 is an excellent high-performance business ultrabook that emphasizes raw power over mass appeal.

For individual business users, this laptop offers a nice blend of modern features and solid performance. It's not stylish, but its input ergonomics are very good.

Acer's TravelMate P645-MG-9419 Ultrabook is a very functional, portable, and well-build business notebook. The up-to-date Haswell hardware offers good performance, the battery lasts through an entire workday, and the price seems quite reasonable. The Full-HD display panel is bright, colors look good, and text is easy to read. The dedicated Radeon GPU improves 3D performance and should make those who are inclined to play games once in a while quite happy. The TP645 does run fairly hot when under heavy load though, so a laptop cooling pad might not be a bad idea for CPU- and GPU-intensive tasks. Our one major issue with the TP645 concerns its keyboard. While it is certainly up to consumer Ultrabook standards, it is not nearly as refined as the high-quality keyboards offered on many ThinkPads, Latitudes, or EliteBooks. Low price notwithstanding, demanding business customers are going to have a hard time with this obvious shortcoming. Acer does many things right with the P645. If the keyboard could be improved, the Ultrabook could be a very viable alternative to the the business offerings from the stalwarts Dell, Lenovo, and HP, while costing hundreds of Dollars less.

Acer’s new TravelMate does many things right. The chassis is well built and functional, the hardware is extremely quick, the battery seemingly lasts forever and the MSRP is reasonable. All of these factors should add up to the best business Ultrabook available today. There’s just one problem; the keyboard. Its quality pales even when compared to consumer notebooks, and the back-light is so poorly implemented that it borders on useless. Fumbling the keyboard would normally be a minor issue, but it’s a notable oversight for a professional notebook, and one that some buyers won’t be able to forgive. If you can get over that issue however, this Acer is superior to Lenovo’s ThinkPad T440s in the critical areas of performance, portability and value. HP’s EliteBooks don’t stand as chance, simply because they’re ludicrously expensive by comparison. You’d have to spend hundreds more on either the Lenovo or the HP to snag similar hardware. Only the Apple MacBook Pro 13 with Retina is a better choice for business travelers, but the TravelMate’s more serious aesthetics, larger hard drive and Radeon graphics may make it stand out for certain buyers. Anyone with a mind for value should give Acer’s latest TravelMate a chance. They likely won’t be disappointed.