Acer Aspire 4810T 14-inch HD LED Laptop (Intel Pentium ULV SU4100, 3GB RAM, 250GB HDD, Windows 7 Home Premium, 8+ Hour Battery Life, 1.9 kg)

I read many reviews and decided to buy this laptop to my wife that was looking for an updated, light, no-noise computer for audio editing, presentations and writing.
I found a reconditioned unit at less than 400£ and ordered it (Curry). I received it at my work the day after. This is a unit with 250GB HDD and 3GB RAM.

At a first glance the laptop look great, light, with a nice monitor (this was a 4810T353G model, with a "solo" core intel cpu). However, after playing with it for a while my wife was very disappointed because the unit was crawling time by time, apparently freezing and incredibly slow over the internet.

After finding a lot of comlaints about this model over the internet by googling for "ACER 4810T too slow" I was almost sending it back when I tried to twick a little bit and... guess what? First, I found that these unit, sold with Vista Home, can be updated to Windows 7 for free, by going to the ACER website (and paying for 12.75£ shipping) or picking the update at a seller shop (for free, but not available, I guess, for reconditioned units). This may be advertised in original units, but it was not in my reconditioned one, so, be advised. I'm currently waiting for the update - I'm sure after updating the operating system it will become even faster.

However, while waiting I checked the system and I think I found the reason it was freezing and so ridicously slow.

The point is that the system is set by the manufacturer for the craziest power saving options EVEN when attached to the power cord. So, if you righ-click on the "power" icon on the tray (right-below corner of the screen), then click on "power option", select "Change plan setting" below "Cyber power setting" and than on "Change advanced power setting", you can change most of the setup to something reasonable.

The option that seems to actually create the slow performances looks like the hard disk that is set by default to be turned off after 1 min by default in battery mode, and 2 mins in power mode!! By setting it to "never" or to a much more reasonable 15 or 30 mins, most of the crashes have already gone.

The second twick is to turn the "Wireless Adapter Settings - Power Saving mode" to "Maximum Power Saving". This seems to boost the laptop performances by a factor 10 sometime (I checked downloading time side by side with my old dell inspiron 9400).

The new HDD setup will not actually affect the time it lasts on battery, as most of the benchmark test are run during intensive, continuous operations, while the wireless one will actually drain more current from the batteries. However, play with the "Power Option" as you like to find the right balance and you will find this unit is exceptional, light, well done and also give you access to the much better Windows 7 for free.

After reading more and more review I would say this unit it is by far worth the money. For 400£ my wife has a system that is perfect for her use. The only reason of slight comploaint is the keyboard that is too glassy and those flat keys doesn't give a nice grip but for a nice feeling.

Hope this may help!

paolo

I bought the Acer Aspire 4810T laptop and AM OVER THE MOON with it. I spent a lot of time (weeks and weeks) speaking to people, looking at laptops in the stores and surfing the web.

I read mountains of reviews on-line and what I found was that laptops I was interested in didn't have such great reviews!! I got very close to buying an HP Notebook but, an article I read suggested I go into the store and listen to the noise coming out of these laptops, not only HP machines but all the others too, Sony, the lot!; and, check the heat too and I did just that. I had already been to PC World at least 4 times and, not having a PC World in my own home town, this was a bit of a bore but, I just had to get this purchase right.

So, I went to PC world and checked out ALL laptops on the shelves. ALL of them were very hot and very noisy..... bar one...... the Aspire Acer 4810T ~ I was delighted. I even called a sales guy over and showed him my findings. He was very interested in taking a look and checking all these laptops out with me. So, needless to say, I ended up buying the Acer Aspire 4810T from PC World; and, I am delighted with it. It's a shame I had to work so hard to find out such a simple thing but, my hard work paid off.

I am absolutely delighted with my laptop. Another great benefit from this computer is the longer length of battery life. It boasts it will keep running for 9 hours well.... it might not quite run for 9 hours (unless you just turn it on and leave it alone, then it will..!!) but, I took it on a flight from London to San Francisco this July and, it kept me amused for as long as I wanted..... some 6+ hours. I was working on preparing e-mails I wanted to send once I arrived in SFO and I worked on some Word documents. I also played games and, it lasted over 6 hours, I stopped before it did!!!! So, for anyone who needs a computer to keep going for many hours on its own battery, this is your guy.

It also hooks up easily wirelessly, no effort at all.

I can't sing the praises of this little laptop enough. It's light and portable, it has a good sized clear screen. I personally find the keyboard fine, although I hear some people think the keys are too flat and smooth, I find them fine. It's quiet and, above all it doesn't get hot!! It's a great Laptop.