Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M5-481TG-6814 Pro Reviews

Yes, it's heavier than the average ultrabook, but if you're looking for an excellent value in a full-featured thin laptop, the Acer Timeline U M5 is hard to beat.

Acer has bundled the M5 481TG-6814 with a decent selection of software, along with a generous helping of trialware. The good stuff includes Acer’s Clear.fi utility, a slick multimedia player that lets you browse and play your music, photo, and video files and even share them to social networks. You also get Acer’s backup and recovery utilities, the Acer CrystalEye basic Webcam utility, and the Acer Theft Shield tool that can alert you if your notebook is moved away from a specific Wi-Fi range (such as a public Wi-Fi hotspot).As for third-party software, the M5 481TG-6814 comes with CyberLink’s MediaEspresso program, a media converter that lets you drag in media files and convert them to formats compatible with your mobile phone, portable media player, a game console or handheld, or for online destinations like flickr and YouTube. For more traditional multimedia chores, like creating photo and video discs, you get NTI Media Maker 9. Acer preloads the ad-supported “lite” version of Microsoft Office (Microsoft Office Starter 2010); the full version is also on the hard drive should you device to buy a license.

For the money, the Acer Aspire M5 is a fantastic deal. At $780, it delivers some of the best graphics performance you'll find in this price range, or among Ultrabooks, in general. It's thinner than many mainstream 14-inch laptops, even though it still makes room for an optical drive. Unlike other ultraportables, too, you'll find a generous selection of ports (Ethernet, HDMI, USB 3.0), and the keyboard and trackpad are fairly comfortable. And because the price is so tempting, we suspect the people considering this (students, etc.) will be willing to forgive its minor flaws, like its mediocre screen and scratchy, plastic bottom. If you've been looking for a solid, all-purpose machine and either can't afford a $1,100 Ultrabook or need something with more horsepower, you won't do much better than this.

The downsides of the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M5-481TG-6814 are outweighed by its nimble performance in both everyday computing and visually intense gaming applications—and it's an excellent value.