Acer’s Timeline Ultra M5: Ivy Bridge Ultrabooks with Kepler GPUs

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• Omoronovo - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link

  As much as I hate this resolution - especially on panels larger than 13.3 - I have to say that a 1366x768 native panel with a 640M is a really good pairing for those of us wanting to casually game on something that doesn't weigh a ton.
  
  If the panel was higher resolution, maybe 1600x900 or 1920x1080, most people would agree that the 640M would be pretty anemic in all but the most basic applications (video, 2d acceleration, but no games).
  
  I certainly prefer the combination of well-paired panels and dGPU's to high res panels and integrated gpu, since if you need a higher resolution panel (for work etc), there's always the HDMI port.

• aliasfox - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link

  I'd complain less about the resolution if we could assume static contrast ratios of at least 500:1, >50% NTSC color gamut (let alone Adobe RGB), and viewing angles wide/tall enough not to give you a headache when you're glancing around the screen - I've seen screens with VA poor enough that there was distinct color shift from the center of the display (dead on) to the edge (a few degrees off angle).
  
  At that point, the screen may be less usable than a high res screen would be, but at least it would be reasonably pleasant to use...

• harrellb - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link

  I have been pointing out the problem with lower screen resolutions to every manufacturer that will listen. I guess the manufacturers started lowering the resolution when the displays went widescreen. But they are fairly useless for real work especially if you are using Remote Desktop or Log Me In in a non full screen mode to do work on multiple machines at once.
  
  The other show stopper to me is the lack of dedicated End, Home, PgUp, and PgDown keys. I use them constantly while editing code. The new Asus ultrabook with the 1080p screen or the Dell XPS 15z would be perfect if it weren't for those keys being crammed on top of the arrow keys and needing a function key press to activate.
  
  I just keep checking out each new ultrabook or thin laptop that hits the market to see if it fits the bill and so far none have except the Sony Vaio Z and it has a $1599 starting price.
  
  I feel confident someone will get it right for the power business user eventually at a reasonable price. I just hope it is before my current laptop dies.

• twhittet - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link

  Assuming the Vizio keyboard doesn't work for you either? Guess I haven't looked at key placement of it yet, but I'm pretty pumped to have some resolution choices that don't cost me over $1000.

• germinop - Monday, August 6, 2012 - link

  Well , there seem to be a few more models costing under 1000 with fairly good specs listed at http://www.squidoo.com/ivy-bridge-ultrabook

• MrSpadge - Thursday, June 21, 2012 - link

  I especially hate it when I see 15" laptops with wide unused space to the left and right of the keyboard, yet these important keys are missing.

• magreen - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link

  so glad people are finally starting to band together about 1366x768 being an unusable resolution for people trying to get actual work done.
  
  I hope Apple's new 2880 Retina display kickstarts the vanilla laptop makers into providing higher res screens.

• retrospooty - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link

  it already has... Acer is just a pokey late bloomer. Toshiba, Asus and a bunch of others have models with 13 inch screens at 1600x900 and 1920x1080

• kjboughton - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link

  14" display @ 1366x768....FAIL. Not interested in the least.

• rrohbeck - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link

  Are they using the crap fans that fail after a year in these higher priced laptops too? I might be interested in one but only if it has a fan that lasts.