Acer TravelMate 8481G

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Acer’s TravelMate 8481g came in a little over-size for our 2011 ultraportable laptop roundup, with its 14-inch display. However, I let it slip through as its weight (1.5kg) matches many of the 11.6-inch models on test, and despite the screen size its volume is actually less than that of the 11.6-inch Sony VAIO Y, MSI U270, and HP Pavilion dm1. Why? Because at just 22mm, the TravelMate is the thinnest non-Apple product in the roundup.

In fact, the TravelMate is rather close to our 11.6-inch MacBook Air in spec. It runs on the same Intel Core i5 2467M processor, includes 4GB RAM, and uses a 120GB SSD for storage (vs. the MacBook Air’s 128GB). The main point of difference is in the graphics: though the 2467M processor offers the Intel HD Graphics 3000 engine on-chip, Acer has also thrown in the Nvidia GeForce GT 520M with 1GB of dedicated video memory.

The addition of discrete graphics gives the TravelMate DirectX 11 support, which the Air and other Intel HD Graphics-based systems lack. It also provides the best graphical performance in this roundup, with up to 300% higher scores (100% higher in most tests). At the ‘extreme’ settings we use for our GPU benchmarks (the same we use to test top-end gaming rigs), frame-rates didn’t really enter the ‘playable’ realm, but you could certainly run many modern games at conservative settings with no issues at all.

As mentioned in our Air review, the TravelMate’s use of discrete graphics has one interesting side-effect: it disables the video transcoding features of Intel’s Sandy Bridge platform, biasing our all-around PCMark 7 test heavily toward the MacBook Air. In all other areas, the two perform near-identically. This may mean that the Acer is less than ideal if you intend to do large amounts of video editing, or conversion for smartphone or tablet viewing. Apart from that, the TravelMate’s DX11 support and higher graphical performance more than make up for it.

The Acer has the second-worst battery such as Acer BTP-43D1 Battery, Acer TravelMate 220 Battery, Acer BTP-58A1 Battery, acer BTP-60A1 Battery, Acer TravelMate 240 Battery, Acer BTP-52EW Battery, Acer BTP-63D1 Battery, Acer BTP-42C1 Battery, acer BTP-44A3 Battery, Acer BTP-550P Battery life in the roundup of just 2 hours 57 minutes (vs. 2 hours 17 for the MacBook Air running Windows 7 with the same workload). Unusually given its slim design, the slim battery is user-removable – there’s nothing (but cost) to stop you carrying a spare or two.

Acer’s TravelMate 8481g shows that you don’t have to sacrifice screen size, processing power, graphical capabilities or even the convenience of a removable battery to get something extremely lightweight and compact. If portability is your one major goal, or you need video editing performance more than GPU-power, the MacBook Air is still your best bet. Otherwise, the TravelMate is an extremely attractive option.