Acer Aspire TimelineX AS3830TG-6431 Notebook Intel Core i5 2410M(2.30GHz) 13.3" 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 500GB HDD 5400rpm NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M

Pros: Fast, light, good medium weight video card, good batty life, Nvidia Optimus, fairly light weight. Not too much to complain about. Many complained about the keyboard and construction. While it does not have the rigidity of a mac unibody, it does well against my larger hands. Keyboard is sufficient, keys large enough. Over all it has stood up well in my usage.

Cons: Only three usb ports, not terrible but I always found myself looking for a fourth. Screen is not something I am enthusiastic. Suffers from a poor vertical viewing angle performance, colors and contrast washing out quickly off center of the viewing angle. Colors are good, some times a bit muted, but otherwise good. Screen is bright and dims well.

Pros: fast, responsive keyboard, reasonable mouse pad, sharp display, thin and light, nifty looks, Cuda for scientists, runs at 800 MHz most of the time - so it is relatively cool.

Cons: Running Ubuntu 11.04, there is no sound. This is an already reported bug but as of 8/30/2011 no one has been assigned to fix it afaik. Powersmart is not available on Linux, so the battery provides for only three hours. NVidia Optimus does not work, and the workaround (bumblebee) is still a kluge with poor documentation. Screen brightness is at the maximum and cannot be adjusted. The battery is built-in and cannot be easly swapped.

Other Thoughts: I expect that the sound problem will eventually be fixed. I'm not optimistic about seeing a seamless solution to the Powersmart/Optimus problem. Still, I can usually find a power outlet. For Linux users there are probably better laptops out there for the price.

Pros: -Seriously powerful components for this size laptop
-Runs a lot of very new games at high settings
-Thin and light
-Trackpad has a great texture, as does the whole case (Aluminum)
-USB 3.0
-Dirt-frikkin-cheap.
-8hr battery life is real (as long as you don't have that 540m running!)

Cons: ***AWFUL*** screen, that's what keeps it from 5 stars and if I'm being honest could very well push it down to 3 if i weren't feeling so generous. It is the worst quality LCD screen I have seen since the 90s. Worst.
-5400rpm hdd is slow (but good for battery life)
-Spongy keyboard
-No Expresscard!!!
-No eSATA!!!
-Built-in battery WHY?!?!?!

Other Thoughts: The colour is tasteful, I usually like to get a black laptop and was worried it may turn out to be a ridiculous looking laptop, but it turns out it's a pretty nice hue.

You're gonna need ThrottleStop if you use Windows and want full performance for gaming. A lot of laptops are like this. Once you do, the i5 and 540m will take you to the promised land, gaming on a 13" for under $700? Sweet!

Whenever you're not gaming, please use Linux. Windows is the worst thing there is in this world. This laptop works great with Debian :)

Pros: $700. Small. Can play games. Fast. Awesome battery life.

It's awesome for the price when you compare it to what else is out there. It's one of the more high end mobile gaming cards and it plays everything I want. Great boot times and crazy light compared to what I am used to.

Cons: Nothing I did not expect from a 13 inch laptop. The keyboard flex I read about is not even noticeable for me.

Other Thoughts: It's not a desktop replacement as I think some people want it to be. it is an "ultra portable". I went from an XPS 16 to this laptop. It's so much lighter and very fast. I upgraded to an SSD and 8GB of Ram the day I got it.

Pros: Graphics - Can run all current titles with adequate graphics settings; will be able to run future titles on low/med settings. Runs Starcraft 2 @ 1080p on my external monitor with med/high settings.

Very Portable - For a laptop that can run games and is affordable it doesnt get any more portable than this. The screen is still big enough to play games on comfortably.

Ports - USB 3 and HDMI/VGA help future proof this laptop allowing you to use the latest generation of peripherals and know that you will be able to connect this laptop to screens/projectors for the foreseeable future.

Speakers - Nobody expects perfect crisp studio quality audio from a laptop but I can assure you that you will be able to watch movies, listen to music, and hear clearly in loud areas at high volume without distortion. The speakers sound very clear and have decent fidelity and volume.

Multi touch mouse - Didnt think I would be into it but it really helps with regular internet browsing and casual use

Cons: Cooling - Honestly I personally have not had a problem keeping the laptop cool but that because its sitting on my desk on a cooling pad. Also I bring the cooling pad with me when I take it other places.

Its totally possible to use this laptop casually without requiring cooling thou it might get slightly hot while on your lap.

Other Thoughts: Other reviewers have stated the case seems flimsy and flexible but I do not find that to be an issue. The laptop is solid enough for regular use.

non removable battery - I dont necessarily consider this a con but I do intend on replacing/upgrading the battery at some point in the future and I hope that a replacement batter would become available. I dont mind having to open the case up and dis assemble it to replace the batter but it would be nice if that wasnt the case.

I dont need no built in optical drive gosh darnet!

Pros: yeah, good specs for the money

Cons: the quality sucks! don't buy this due to a lot of flex around keyboard
the design is very bad, i hate the battery indicator which glows very bright and is annoying at night!
CPU Throttling-- don't even think about gaming on this laptop! because it will start lag! people have been recommending to use Throttlestop, but hey do you want to take the risk of malfunctioning your nice little intel processor!?
bad quality- plastic chassis!
can't remove the battery!

Other Thoughts: if you can take the risk -- you try it but i guarantee you that you would not like it although its got good specs!

Pros: Powerful Nvidia GPU 96 CUDA Cores (or Stream Processors
2.9ghz TB Core i5 Sandy-bridge (seamless switching between GPU's)
Great size & weight for power
Good sized chiclet keyboard. (What's everyone's fascination with whether the keyboard flexes a bit when you push hard on it??)
Screen is nice & bright with the LED back-lighting
Touch-pad is the best multi-touch I've seen on a PC
Sturdy build & good looks (I'm not usually an Acer fan)
Dedicated button (top right of keyboard) for disabling Nvidia GPU
Easy to remove bloatware (if that's a pro ^_^ )
USB 3.0, VGA, HDMI

Cons: I'm having trouble thinking of Cons without looking OCD...

Wouldn't mind a higher screen resolution (although I would be getting a'lil squinty)

Other Thoughts: Don't forget- no DVD drive (but it's a dying media storage format anyways)

Random, but I like how the power cord is very long and has a right-angle connector

No laptop outside of dedicated gaming companies is designed for gaming, so don't think it will (or complain when the laptop complains).

In the end, I am super-happy.

Pros: This laptop has all the cutting edge things I was looking for. 7+ Hours -check, Multi Core CPU-check, Lightweight with decent screensize-check, Gaming graphic card-check, HDMI,USB3.0 WIFI-N-check. I upgraded the hard drive to the Samsung 120 SSD and 8GB Ram and getting 7.6 and 7.3 in the Windows Experience rating. This gets a 6.9 on the CPU, 5.7 and 6.7 for integrated and dedicated graphics. I am able to run Crysis 2 and 30+ frames on medium and Starcraft 2 30+ frames on high. It will get a little hot and there is the obvious throttling problem but the simple fix is get a good laptop cooler, its that simple. Acer probably could have done a better job on cooling but it would have made the laptop heavier, thicker and more expensive. The CPU turbo boost to 2.9 GHZ works great as does the dedicated video card switching. It does it automatically but you can set certain games to manual in the Nvidia control panel. Laptop is very easy to upgrade, one screw opens entire back.

Cons: Since this laptop is almost perfect there a few cons. First is the non removable battery. Over a year I expect the battery to wear down and I like to be able to have extra batteries or extended batteries for long trips. Second biggest flaw is the screen. It is a very thin LED screen but it has horrible viewing angles if you want to have multiple people watch a movie or watch anything, luckily it has an hdmi port and external VGA. Bloatware was a pain so I recommend get a SSD hard drive and reinstall windows. Drivers all on acers site. Photoshop CS5.1 loads in two seconds windows 7 loads in 10 seconds. Keyboard does flex but not a big deal unless your using a hammer to type. Quality for the price range is expected but if Acer spent an extra $100-$200 for higher quality construction it would have helped this vastly.

Other Thoughts: In conclusion this is almost perfect. If Acer spent an extra $200-$300 on the cooling, screen and construction material and made the battery removeable this would be a dream machine and still under $1000. That would solve the throttling, keyboard and display problems instantly. This would be a better value then Sony or Apple and able to compete against Asus in performance. To be honest there isn't any system out there so far that has a graphics card as powerful with a 7+ battery and under 14" display that is as thin and light as this laptop. The people griping about the lack of CD drive, it's simple get a usb external. I would rather get the extra battery life and less weight and thinner profile laptop Screen is able to bend back farther then most laptops. It has speaker bar above the keyboard unlike my last HP which puts it below touch pad. I have to conclude even with the flaws I would recommend this because of the pricing and performance hence the four stars out of five.

Pros: Having owned this now just about a month, I'm read to comment.

First, to the reviewer who gave it a 1 because of no optical. Really? Read much? Anyways most ultraport's come w/o one when a GPU is installed. I've only used my external optical once to create a BD and thats it.

Second, I bought this knowing about the thottling issue. I have to say it isn't terrbile, especially with Throttlestop installed. That being said, I wouldn't recomend this laptop to my grandmother to play Crysis on. The solo fan, thin profile, big processor and GPU make for a hot mess. When playing any newer game with graphics turned up, it gets hot and it gets hot quick, causing the throttledown. Throttlestop helps, and turned the grpahics down a bit helps even more. I wouldn't buy this to game on.

Third, its quick, its cheap, its light, and gets 7+ hours on a charge. I added a 128GB SSD & 8GB RAM and it flys. All for significantly less than a basic MBP(13" doesnt even offer a GPU)

Cons: First, Throttling is definately an issue, but its controllable. Just don't buy this expecting an Alienware gaming-only rig.

Second, bloatware is rampant. This is to be expected on a $600(after xBox rebate) laptop with the hardware of a $1000+ setup.

Third, keyboard flex I GUESS, its so minimal, I don't even notice it unless I'm reading other reviews about it and then typing a review thinking of the negative review I just read about keyboard flex. The rest of the time is spent enjoying the smooth and crisp keys.

Fourth, The screen. It isn't the worst I've seen, I had an Asus 1215B before this that was much worse. The viewing angle on this is minimal and the screen is glossy, but again, for $600 I expect it and isn't something I would consider to be a deal breaker. Yeah it would be nice to get a Vaio S Series with huge resolution and premium screen, but its 3x the cost.

Lastly, that I didn't have more than 1000 characters to write more in the "Pros" textbox

Other Thoughts: Overall, it is a good computer with a powerful processor with lots of potential. I wouldn't buy it for gaming, but I do lots of 3D modeling and graphics work and this is built for it. The screen could be better, but for the price:performance ratio, it can't be beat. Pay double for a MBP without a GPU or Triple for a Vaio S decked out with all the bells and whistles, or pay $750, get the free xbox, sell it and have a sub-$600 ultra portable that is perfect for school, work or both.

Pros: - Decent build quality.
- Decent graphics to play most high-end games out there.
- Having 1x 3.0 usb is a plus.

Cons: Call me dumb but I bought these without realizing this THING doesn't even have an optical drive? ARE YOU SERIOUSLY OMGBBQ KIDDING ME?? yea sure nice specs for the price blah blah blah. Where's my dvd-rw at? No where to be found. BYE. Returned.

Other Thoughts: I can't believe people giving this thing anything above 2 stars. My old laptop I bought 10 years ago came with a dvd-rw ok? Yea decent specs for the price, not.