What do you think of Acer Travelmate?

[jaydee]

Hey Guys,

Looking to buy a laptop in the next few days, it needs to be 15-17" with a good screen, Haswell, at least i5 ("U" or "M" doesn't matter) and preferably with a displayport for less than $800. This is a "portable desktop", so battery life and weight don't matter much, integrated GPU is fine also. HDD doesn't really matter, I'll add an SSD to it later. What seems to be killing me is the displayport, I can really only find the Lenovo Thinkpads and HP Elitebooks that have them, but they're way out of my price range.

In my looking around I came across this:
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/Tr...tebook-I5-4200U-500GB-4GB-15.6in/3154637.aspx

I've seen this at a few different sites ranging from $710-780

I don't know much about the Travelmate line, and I don't see many reviews for Haswell models. It doesn't have displayport, but it meets my other criteria and being a "business line" I suppose it should hold up better than the Aspire/ENVY/Pavilion/Inspiron/etc types. Does anyone have experience? Is there a better deal out there?

 

[lakedude]

Our family has 4 Acer laptops and I'm responsible for a couple more. They are fine. I wouldn't let the Acer name scare you. They seem to have the latest tech first...

I'm a bit confused at your needs. You say you want display port but they laptop you linked does not have display port??

You say you want an i5 Haz but why? Battery life? Processing power?

Something like this would be cheaper and has display port:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834312897

 

[jaydee]

Its a matter of trade offs. The Lenovo you linked while it does have DP, it has a 1366 x 768 TN panel...


The Travelmate has a 1080p IPS. The main reason for wanting Haswell is that it can push a 1440p external monitor via HDMI. I plan on having his laptop for a long time and I would like to buy a 1440p monitor within a year.


I could go Ivy Bridge, but it would HAVE to have DP. If I go Haswell DP is nice but not mandatory.

 

[lakedude]

I've been looking and have not been able to find the exact combination you are looking for. If you just wanted a 1080p IPS panel you could pick something up for under $600. Combining that with Haswell and a display port kicks it up around $1000. I did find a similar ASUS if you don't care for the Acer brand but it lacks an optical drive...

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-Q501LA-BB.../dp/B00FRSXJKI

Still looking...

Are you sure Haswell can support your screen res with HDMI? I read you need display port or maybe at least dual link...

 

[jaydee]

I appreciate your time. I was hoping to buy by now, but maybe I'll hold off. We can get by with just the desktop for awhile longer I guess. I'd rather wait for the right one, than buy something now that I'll regret. The Haswell Intel 4400/4600/5000+ are capable of displaying up to 4k via HDMI. I just don't want to be in a position a year from now, where a 1440p monitor with a displayport and/or high-res capable HDMI port comes on sale for $400 and I buy, then I can't connect my laptop to it, and only run it with the desktop. Also I have a 1080p 20" HP monitor that is DP only, it would be really nice to connect the laptop to it if I wanted to, though it wouldn't be all the time.

I can spec out on the Lenovo website, a Thinkpad L540 with i5-4200M, 1080p screen, mDP for $815 before tax. It hits the bare essentials for just a little more than I want to spend. Ideally, I'd like to hit the upgrades for W8 Pro (for WMC) but that puts me at $860 before tax. The Acer TM has virtually the same config w/W8 Pro for as low as $715, just doesn't have the DP...