Acer TravelMate 8571 review

Acer presents the TravelMate 8571, the business model for its Timeline range. The Acer Timeline range now caters for all tastes – for 500 euro ($723) the smallest and cheapest 1810T with its battery-saving Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500 processor, then the Aspire 3810T, 4810T and 5810T models with their 13, 14, and 15-inch screens respectively. These sell for 600 euro – 900 euro, or $867 – $1300. At this point the TravelMate range enters the arena, with the Acer TravelMate 8571-944G32Mn priced at 900 euro, or $1300.

Let’s take a look at some Acer TravelMate 8571 pictures:

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The Acer TravelMate 8571 is equipped with a 15.6-inch 1366 x 768 HD display and an Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400, although smaller TravelMates are available with smaller displays and Core 2 Solo SU3500 processors.

Acer has plumped for simplicity with the compact 378 x 255 x 30 mm case, and its colours are limited to a mixture of matt black and gray. It’s quite a heavy machine at 2.3 kg. The Acer TravelMate 8571 has some sharp angles, but thanks to its thinness maintains its elegant appearance. Stability is also good, with almost no distortion produced by heavy lid pressure.

The Core 2 Duo SU9400 processor emphasizes low power consumption over performance to give over 8 hours’ battery life, and the hefty 4GB of energy-saving DDR3 RAM contribute to extending battery life (though only 3GB are available to the 32-bit Vista system).

The screen is somewhat dull although in office mode the deficiency is hardly noticeable. You might notice it whilst watching films but the matte display almost makes up for the lack of vibrancy. Very few reflections means good indoor and outdoor use.

Again, Acer has taken a minimalist approach to socket provision. On the left we find an RJ-45 Gigabit LAN, a docking port, a VGA-out, two USB 2.0 ports, and two audio connections (mic in and head out). A 5-in-1 card-reader is alone on the front, and two more USB 2.0 ports sit on the right side. Wireless is provided with 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1.

We felt the port configuration hampered use as peripheral cables obstructed the notebook. We also thought USB 3.0 was due for inclusion, and the lack of HDMI is a serious omission.

The Acer TravelMate 8571 has a webcam with 640 x 480 @ 30fps, and two built-in mics for superior sound recording. A fingerprint scanner beneath the touchpad provides security, and an “Anti-shock Protection System” protects the hard drive. WinDVD 8 comes pre-installed, and Back-UP Manager helps keep data safe.

The notebook’s speakers are not for enthusiasts – bass is faint and extremes of high or low notes are not rendered with high fidelity, but for a mobile business machine they are acceptable.

The keyboard is marvellously sturdy. The pressure of the keys was good and they produce a satisfying click. The keys are a good size, too.

The touchpad is also excellent, with good glide and a smooth surface. The TravelMate 8571 includes three function buttons above the keyboard, one for WLAN, one for backing up, and a third to switch into power-saving mode.

For those diehard XP-lovers a downgrade to XP Professional is included on the Recovery Partition.

The TravelMate 8571 gave four hours’ battery life with continuous movie looping, but low to medium use in Power Saving Mode delivered a superlative 9 hours 21 min.

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The processor used in the Acer TravelMate 8571 is considerably faster than the single-core Intel Solo SU3500 used in other Timeline models. For average office workloads this is a fine machine, both at and away from your desk. For more performance benchmarks please check notebookcheck.

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