Ultrabooks are mostly about the trade - off . Usually need to ditch some details to Cram everything into such a small package , so components such as optical drives and hard drives spinning spacious tend to fall by the wayside . Not so with the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M5 - 481TG - 6814 . Who packs an amazing range of features in a slim , attractive chassis and is an exceptionally talented sing no more to work . Factor in a price tag below that of other systems in its class , and the Aspire M5 is an easy choice for those who are looking for a powerful ultrabook , but do not want to burn a hole in their pocket .
Design and Features
The Aspire M5 measures 0.79 by 14.43 by 5.10 inches ( HWD ) , and at 4.16 pounds it on the heavy side for an ultrabook , though slim profile reduces any unnecessary bulk . That said , it would weigh more than other systems in its class , including 4.08 - pound Dell Inspiron 14z ( Summer 2012 ) . The Aspire M5 chassis is decked out in a particularly elegant brushed - aluminum finish , but the black plastic underside feel pretty cheap by comparison and detracts the overall polished Aesthetic . Fortunately, the Aspire M5 compensates for shortcomings by features not usually seen in Ultrabooks packing , such as a built - in tray - load DVD burner , besides the Inspiron 14z , the system has a optical drive in this category are few and far between .
The 14 - inch display has a maximum resolution of 1366 by 768 , which , although not as crisp as the Editors ' Choice - winning Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD - DB71 , is good enough for 720p video . But its attractively bright and shiny finish is marred by the decision to inexplicably allocate Acer 14 inches of viewing area on 14.6 - inch screen , resulting in a distracting black bars around the edges of the display 's . Credit to Acer , the display is advertised as 14 inches , so it will not come as a total surprise , but it is hard to imagine why Acer did not opt to cover only the black part with a slightly larger bezel .
The top row of the Aspire M5 's chiclet - style backlit keyboard featuring shortcut for toggling Wi - Fi , switching between display , controlling the volume of system , disable the touchpad , and turn off the display : right side sports buttons for media playback keyboard . Typing is easy , and we noticed no flexing during testing . The palm rest is generously sized and also offers plenty of real estate side , although it may occasionally brush the touchpad with your thumb . The touchpad itself is responsive , and provides a good amount of tactile feedback for two finger scrolling and pinch - zooming . The buttons of the left - and right- click on the touchpad is integrated , not separate buttons : it looks good , but it has resulted in my clicking on the wrong button on more than one occasion .
The Aspire M5 built - in speakers are pretty strong , and although the bass is a bit flat , movies and music alike easily hear small-to medium - size rooms . Of course , you're shaking on the floor , but by the standards of the Aspire M5 Ultrabooks pumps out decent volume level .
Apart from the optical drive on the left side of the system and the multiformat card reader ( SDHC / SDXC / SD / MMC ) and headphone jack on the right side , most of the action in the Aspire M5 is located at the rear of the system . There , you'll find two USB 3.0 ports , an Ethernet port , and a full - size HDMI port . The last is particularly useful , allowing you to hook up the system with a larger display without having to faff about any dongles . You will , however , need to use an HDMI cord : Unlike Zenbook Prime UX32VD - DB71 , Lenovo IdeaPad U310 , and HP Envy 4 - 1043cl , not featuring Intel Wireless Display Aspire M5 technology ( WiDi ) , so beaming wireless audio and videos on a larger screen is not an option.
A 500GB 5400 rpm hard drive and a 20GB flash cache to seek M5 provide both decent storage capacity and a fast boot time . The 20GB solid - state drive ( SSD ) is invisible to the user , works in the background during repetitive tasks and when you wake up the system from sleep mode . The 500GB hard drive has plenty of room for storage of data , although it is filled with a decent amount of preloaded software . As is often the case , the program Different from useful ( Microsoft Office Starter 2010 ) to total bloatware ( Bing Bar and desktop links to Netflix , eBay , and Skype ) , with a few sprinkles of proprietary software ( Acer ePower , Backup Manager , Billing Manager USB , etc. ) and test version ( 30 - day trial of Norton Online Backup NTI Media Maker and 9 ) . That said , the included software turns forgivable because it ultimately contributing to the affordable price tag Aspire M5 's .
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