Acer TravelMate 8481T-6873: Remarkable Road Warrior
by Dustin Sklavos on December 11, 2011 2:22 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Intel
- Toshiba
- TravelMate
Battery Life
Where Acer's TravelMate 8481T really excels is in its running time off the mains. Acer gets good mileage out of that substantial 8-cell battery and makes the extra bump pay off.
While the relative battery life isn't the greatest, it's certainly more than enough. Remember that the TravelMate is boasting a larger screen and faster processor than the Toshiba Z830. There's probably still work that could be done here to improve battery life (and Sony makes a convincing argument for the Vaio SB in places), but it won't disappoint.
Heat
Acer's TravelMate 8481T also runs reasonably cool and quiet to boot; even under load the fan's inobtrusive, and at idle the notebook is almost totally silent. The only problem with the fan is the same problem notebooks this small and thin often have: whine. Under load I can see the pitch bothering somebody, but it's no worse than Toshiba's Portege Z830 was and I'm not sure what kind of magic anyone buying a notebook this small is really expecting.
Thankfully it runs pretty frosty, as we've come to expect from Intel's low voltage Sandy Bridge chips. The left palm rest warms up a bit, but that's honestly the worst I've seen from the TravelMate and it's very mild compared to some of the other notebooks we've tested.
Display
Unfortunately Acer cheaped out in one other place. While I'm not apt to be quite as critical of poor displays on notebooks that are clearly designed to be portable word processors (the screen on my Lenovo ThinkPad X100e is absolutely horrible), I still really wish manufacturers would at least try to produce a notebook screen in quantity that doesn't completely suck.
Truthfully I'm not sure what's going on with the Delta-E of the TravelMate 8481T's panel, but whatever it is, it isn't good, and when the screen loads the calibration there's a very noticeable color shift. White and black levels are also some of the worst we've seen, and contrast is absolutely terrible.
Viewing angles really aren't big winners either, and for this one there's not much in the way of a sweet spot. Like I said before, it's fine for word processing and some internet browsing, but lousy for anything color sensitive. You may be better off buying a ThinkPad X220 with the IPS panel before going with the TravelMate 8481T if color is important to you.
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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! ;-)