Acer TimelineU M5-481TG-6814 14" Ultrabook

Pros: Great hardware, discrete graphics on an ultabook (!!).

Nice, sexy looking, lightweight and sturdy case.

Cons: Doesn't work well out of the box. As some reviews noted, this computer will be quite sluggish, freeze up and behave generally well below what this hardware should deliver. But do not despair! All you have to do is google a service manual for disassembly instructions, purchase a fast SSD from Newegg/Amzn (I recommend the Samsung 840) - just make sure it's low-profile 7mm. Throw away the 20gig mSATA SSD, save the original hard drive for external storage, install your OS of choice from scratch (gets rid of Intel's stupid rapid start tech and extraneous Acer apps) and voila - you have an awesomely fast machine that boots in seconds and launches apps in an instant!

Pros: -Nice screen looking dead on
-Very powerful GPU, great for CAD projects for school (Catia) and the little gaming I do
-Nice keyboard
-Great battery
-DVD drive
-EXTREMELY LIGHT, amazes me how they crammed all this in the form factor
-Relatively good looking
-Resolution doesn't bother me
-Backlit keyboard
-Webcam even though I don't use it, friends haven't complained about the mic
-Got a great price and shipped quickly, UPS was great as well!

Cons: -Sluggish, I just can't understand why either because the hardware is pretty good.
-Trackpad is absolute rubbish, I can't stand it and whenever I let someone use my computer, they mention it
-Gets worriedly warm, I keep it on a stand with fans
even when I'm just browsing because I'm worried it will overheat
-Randomly freezes up
-At times it refuses to shutdown, hibernate, sleep
-Dents really easily, nothing like seeing a nice big dent every morning when I open up my laptop
-Viewing angles are really bad from the sides as well as the glare, I try to use my laptop between classes and I'm blinded by the screen or I just can't see it because they opted for glass
-Not really a con, but in an attempt to fix some of the issues/avoid sending it back to Newegg for an inferior product, I put in more RAM (didn't help much) and I cut my finger pretty bad on the casing. Minor and known because it's metal, but just be careful when taking it apart.

All in all, this was the first product I've purchased from Acer and it's probably the last.

Other Thoughts: I won't order from this company again. I contacted them because I was concerned that there was an issue with the laptop because it was so unbelievably slow, randomly froze, wouldn't shut down at times, got extremely warm, etc, and I requested a refund so I could buy a more reliable product (I was thinking Thinkpad). First they flat out said no, then I pleaded with them and told them that I'm a full time student and really need something reliable (and quickly, I have a lot of weekly assignments that take hours that are done online) and they said they'd offer me store credit. Sure that is nice of them, but I'd prefer a refund, as I feel a.) most of their inventory has become overpriced or the selection is poor and b.) I'd rather order from another big online retailer that's named after a river, as they HAVE a good return policy and a better selection.

Lesson learned, I won't order from them again, and any friends or family that asks where to get hardware, I tell them to avoid Newegg. I'd understand if I frequently returned items, but I've made one return in the 4 or so years, and spent THOUSANDS of dollars of my money, I order hardware/etc for my mother's business here, and friends have been sent here. They've given myself and family trouble in the past about returns and I'm tired of it. I sell electronics on the Bay of e and I've taken hefty losses myself, but it's business and you have to accept it. Shame on them.

Pros: High performance parts, backlit keyboard, nVidia discrete graphics, upgradeable (see other thoughts), excellent Dolby sound, bright clear display, no latch to slow opening laptop, optical disk drive

Cons: Only two USB ports, located awkwardly in back; power button location also awkward; weak wifi card (see other thoughts); screen resolution not the highest, but at this price it's fine

Other Thoughts: This is a speed demon with a buttery user experience, since I bought from Newegg and upgraded: Win8 pro, 10GB RAM - Kingston KVR16S11/8 for the upgradeable RAM chip; Samsung 840 series 7mm 250GB SSD; Mushkin 120GB mSata.

Disassembly for the upgrade needs a lot of care. I found an service manual and scoured internet forums and other reviews both at Newegg and elsewhere, and bought some plastic pry tools so as not to damage the case. The ZIF connectors need special attention also.

I'm using the M5-481TG to write this review after a successful, satisfying upgrade process.

As to weak wifi mentioned elsewhere, mine was also suffering until I configured my uVerse 2Wire router to rescan wireless channel availability. It switched from channel 1 to 9 and wifi has worked well since.

Pros: -ultra fast for a ultrabook, very responsive
-gaming is phenomenal, it can play most games on high, like far cry 3 , need for speed and dmc
-great for editing programs like after effects and cinema 4d
-battery life is a good 8 hours and gaming is a good hour or two
-i actually like the screen and the mousepad

Cons: -the reason why i gave it s egg down is because of the shipping newegg provided, it took them 2 weeks for them to ship it. i was mad but luckily newegg handle it even though i was on a rant and also gave back 50$ for the inconvienece.
-the fan is very bad, computer over heats. i had to buy a cooler master and its good but it still gets the job done

Other Thoughts: ive heard many problems about upgrading the ram, ssd and the memory. also i cant use my ssd. it displays under device managment but i cant use it... if someone can help my i will be very gratful.

Pros: Light, great battery life, feels solid, quiet and cool to the touch, dedicated graphics, etc. All these have been mentioned in other reviews.

This is, overall, an amazing value for the price. If anyone at Acer is reading these reviews, please keep making this line of laptops. Just fix the negatives (touchpad, bloat, screen) and you'll have a product line people keep coming back to and recommend to their friends.

Cons: Bloatware. This is the main reason I removed an egg. Even if you try a fresh install with the recovery partition, it forces you to install the bloatware again. Prepare to make/borrow a Windows 7 disc and install a stock copy without Acer's "help".

Mouse Pad is not great, and maybe not even good. You can get it to be 80-90% of feeling good, but it's still too sensitive for some things and too stubborn for others. For the price I paid, not worth losing an egg on its own.

Upgrading RAM (or anything) is a bit of a pain. Somewhat understandable on a machine this small/thin.

Other Thoughts: Quirks I've Found:

1) The mouse options won't remember doubleclick speed. I had to make a script to fix it at every reboot so I don't have to manually.

2) Screen doesn't stay off at first. 4 minutes after the screen dims and shuts off to conserve power, the dvd tray flashes and it comes back on. Happens once and then it's fine until a reboot. Weird.

3) 10 minutes into sleep mode the laptop goes into a deeper sleep despite disabling hybrid sleep and hibernation wherever I could. Instead of taking 1-2 seconds to resume, it takes 8-10. No idea what's causing it.

4) Replacing RAM wasn't bad and other reviews have detailed it well. They did not mention that the battery won't be recognized until some (maybe all) of the screws are back in place. I assume this is to keep repairers from electrocuting themselves. Freaked me out at first trying to test the RAM without fully reassembling.

Pros: Eye pleasing.
Illuminated Keyboard.
GT640M LE with GDDR5 is essentially a lower clocked GTX660m.
Lightweight for a laptop (thought it is heavier than most ultrabooks)
Video card allows me to game at medium to high settings in games. (Dota 2, Borderlands 2, Path of Exile).

Cons: First thing I noticed while using this laptop is that the touchpad sucks. It's okay to track with, but the button you click it with is noticeably loud. Also, there is only one button so the right click is handled by the driver software which is often finicky. It's passable for basic use.

Most games are playable (40fps+) maxed out at the native resolution of this laptop IF the heat didn't force the CPU and GPU to throttle. This laptop has so much potential performance in it that is ruined by the very poorly designed cooling system. The CPU and GPU share a copper heatsink that leads to an exhaust fan at the back of the laptop. However, the GPU is down the line from the CPU so any heat the the CPU outputs passes onto the video card. Very stupid.

Other Thoughts: I applied some Arctic Silver 5 to the GPU and CPU. My GPU temps instantly dropped about 20C. However, my CPU temps did not change. I will reapply sometime within the coming week and see if I get better results.

I also got the Cooler Master NotePal X-slim. Which has a large cooling fan located in the center of the pad. This did not help temperatures at all since the exhaust fan is on the back right of the laptop. I would recommend the Cooler Master NotePal U1 or higher; they come with modular fans so that you can choose what part of the laptop to cool.

Pros: graphics card(runs Dota 2 and TF2 Great 30fps on fraps), cpu, 4gb memory is a bit low but do-able(probably upgrade it in summer) screen looks nice although average, build quality (aluminum finish is quite nice), keyboard is tactile spacing is nice (i find the enter/return key to be a bit awkward), speakers are loud and sound somewhat nice 3.5/5 basis of average, back-lit keyboard, track pad is large and easy

Cons: fan is loud... average screen, bloatware, the touch response is awkward (pinch to zoom, clicking/double clicking) scrolling is nice though the track pad just seems a little off

Other Thoughts: Runs between 60-71 Celsius
average use about 65

Pros: I'm a programmer and web designer and all I can say is the pros are just about everything! Fast, light and good graffics card. It's not a gaming laptop but it can handle most games very well. If you want a gaming laptop you'll end up spending a whole lot more.

Cons: The only things I didn't like about this laptop is the ports being in the back and the screen is good but not great (but I guess for the price it's better than a lot of ultra books in this price range).

Pros: Light, sleek, and quiet. Beautiful finish on the case. Does everything I need it to do without flinching (gaming, coding, etc etc etc). It does run very hot out of the box (see Cons comments) but this can be easily mitigated with the right cooling solution. I love the permanent style keyboard, the keys are spaced out exactly like a full size one, and the backlit keys are a very nice touch in low-light conditions.

Cons: Runs VERY hot w/stock cooling under a load, 75C+ via SpeedFan readings. Playing semi-recent games (Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance, EVE, WoW, Total War 2, etc) on medium settings always trips a forced non-graceful thermal shutdown by the CPU.

I purchased a Cooler Master NotePal U1 Laptop Cooling Pad which keeps it at a frosty 40C when playing games on maxed out settings. This may be a big turn off for some people, but I don't mind having to keep it perched on a cooling pad.

I'm not a huge fan of the Dolby speakers either. There isn't anything technically wrong with them, I just prefer a bit more low-end (bass) for my speakers than what these provide. Using the Dolby software does help somewhat.

Other Thoughts: I also ordered an upgraded 8GB RAM stick on NewEgg at the same time I ordered the laptop (Kingston 8GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 Laptop Memory Model KVR16S11/8). Installation was extremely simple, even non-techies can unscrew a few fasteners and swap the installed RAM. 10GB of recognized RAM makes everyone happy.

I also completely formatted and re-partitioned the hybrid SSD right out of the box. There was a ton of bloatware that I just didn't feel like dealing with. This isn't included in the Cons section because there are plenty of people out there who don't mind, or even want, some of the included utilities. I wouldn't suggest doing this if you are an average user however, as a lot of the drivers (Like Intel Rapid Start Tech) won't work so well if you don't re-partition everything correctly.

Also, I'm planning on purchasing a "real" SSD in the future to swap out this hybrid drive. These hybrid drives are only good for loading from a hibernation state/etc. Otherwise they are just like a regular old mechanical HDD.

Bottom line: This is NOT a laptop for someone who just wants to pull it out of the box, turn it on, and go. If you are a techie or just like to tinker, you'll have yourself a screaming fast laptop with a little work.

Pros: -Weight is acceptable
-Slim
-Good audio sound for a laptop.
-UV keyboard lights
-style
-Portability / Gaming ultra-book with CD-Rom drive is a plus.

Cons: - Cd-ROM doesn't get detected sometimes, will have to keep restarting or shutting down.
-Touch pad is doing the same thing.
-Touch pad clicks starting to get annoying, right click menu keeps popping up
-power button placement
-can run games at high settings but overheats, but that's understandable, ultra book isn't meant for gaming but can be; just need a laptop fan.

Other Thoughts: Other than that. It's a great ultra-book for the price and specs.