Acer TravelMate 8481T-6873: Remarkable Road Warrior
by Dustin Sklavos on December 11, 2011 2:22 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Intel
- Toshiba
- TravelMate
Application and Futuremark Performance
If you're not a maniac like me and you can live with the keyboard, you're going to find there's a lot to love about the Acer TravelMate 8481T under the hood. The SSD isn't the absolute fastest, but it's still going to be an improvement over a mechanical hard drive. What does bother me is that the TravelMate clearly has space for both a mechanical drive and an SSD, but it doesn't sport both. That feels like the way things ought to go in the future, but the lack of uptake in the marketplace continues to surprise me.
Performance is alright and the AData SSD provides a notable boost in the Storage score over the other notebooks, but it's pretty clear that it's hanging out in the bargain basement, slower than even the rudimentary SSD in the Toshiba Portege system.
PCMark Vantage is kind to the TravelMate, but this is also a good place to point out how fast the SSD isn't: the Dell XPS 14z's faster processor is enough to put it ahead of the TravelMate (as well as Toshiba's Portege Z830), despite having to deal with mechanical storage. Normally the SSD-equipped notebooks stack up neatly at the top of the chart, but that just isn't the case here.
Our application tests tell a different story. These tests are great because they focus pretty much entirely on the processor performance, and here we can see that while Intel's low voltage processors are certainly fast, they still can't compete with the lower end of their mainstream notebook chips. Still, they pretty handily beat AMD's best and brightest mobile chip, and offer reasonable enough performance on their own. The TravelMate 8481T can definitely be used for processor intensive work in a pinch, though you'll see later that it's not going to be ideal for Photoshop or other color-sensitive work.
It's no surprise to see Intel's integrated graphics pile up at the bottom of the 3DMark charts. These notebooks just aren't adequate for mobile gaming beyond older games like Unreal Tournament 2004. To satisfy my own personal curiosity, though, I went ahead and downloaded Magic: the Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 to see how it would run on Intel's IGP. If you're a total nerd like I am, you'll be pleased to note that Intel's HD 3000 graphics are actually good enough to handle this game at native resolution (low settings) fairly smoothly. Good to know!
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
52 Comments
View All Comments
StormyParis - Sunday, December 11, 2011 - link
your rant just does not say why ? Layout ? feedback ? imprecise ? ... ?StormyParis - Sunday, December 11, 2011 - link
that's "you hate the".. sorry, too early.snuuggles - Sunday, December 11, 2011 - link
Yeah I agree. I just re-read the review and there are absolutely no details. It's hard to tell if this is just personal preference or if there is something mechanically wrong with itFor example, the asus ux31 has very very still action and short travel, so if you touch type and don't HAMMER the keys, you are going to miss letters. I averaged at least 2 per sentence hen I tested it out. These were besides the errors you normally make while typing, and it was fairly consistent and repeatable. In addition, several keys had spots on them where you could fully depress them and they wouldn't register. Worst was the bottom left of the enter key. That's right, the most frequently hit part if the enter key was unresponsive when fully clicked. This was demonstratible even when. It typing. I could click and hold it down on the bottom left all day with no I response
Anyways, justin, can you follow up with a few specific issues you found with this keyboard in particular? If its simply this style of keyboard you hate... We should know that
snuuggles - Sunday, December 11, 2011 - link
Gha, "stiff" not still action. Hate hate hate using my iPhone to typeJarredWalton - Sunday, December 11, 2011 - link
Added a bit of clarification on the keyboard. There's a lack of travel, the action is mushy, the flat texture is undesirable, and the keys themselves feel extremely cheap. Over the long haul, Acer keyboards don't hold up well is my experience, especially if you have any kids that might start picking at them. Hope that helps.snuuggles - Sunday, December 11, 2011 - link
Thank Jarred. If you have a chance, let us know if you've tried the UX31. I'm just curious if you're critique of this style of keyboard withstands the assualt of the supposed "high-quality" keybaord the Asus stuck in there.If I have to come down one way or another, I think I'm starting to lean towards mushy vs stiff action. At least personally, I'm able to type fairly ok with a mushy keyboard, but the UX31? woof, that thing was impossible to type on.
PS. I must apologise again for some of my error-laden previous posts. As I said, they were made on my iphone with auto-mangle on. Speaking of utterly useless... :)
JarredWalton - Sunday, December 11, 2011 - link
I know you hate the UX31 keyboard, but I wonder if you didn't just have a bad unit. I've had a laptop or two over the years where certain keys simply didn't register half the time (space bars often being the major one where I've had issues). The UX31 keys don't feel stiff to me, but they do have very little travel. One thing that the UX31 keyboard does have that's better IMO than the Acer "floating island" keys is that you're much less likely to have keys come off (get pulled off) or wear out.snuuggles - Sunday, December 11, 2011 - link
You may be right--it would be inexplicable to have reviewers experience what I experienced and continue to give it passing marks.I really wish I could find a local place that carries it so I can try another one. Everything else about it was pretty great. Oh wait, I think the trackpad was pretty bad too--can't really remember, but I think it was too sensitive? Guess it paled in comparison to the Keyboard issues I had.
Dustin Sklavos - Sunday, December 11, 2011 - link
Everything Jarred said below.Also, it's Dustin, not Justin. That's a serious pet peeve of mine.
JarredWalton - Monday, December 12, 2011 - link
It's okay, Rusty, we still love you! ;-)