Acer Timeline to make its mark on the business sector says Tarsus PM

20 November 2009

Tarsus Technologies has announced the arrival of the Acer TravelMate 8471 and 8571 range of notebooks, bringing thin/light form factors and eight hours of battery life to business executives who spend the majority of their time jetting from one meeting to another.

"When the Acer Timeline design was released in April, the market went mad for it," explains Othelo Vieira, Acer product manager at Tarsus.

"At the time, we had full faith that these products would prove to be most useful in the business sector," he adds, "and now that the changeover has happened, we're convinced that these notebooks will be in high demand over the coming months."

Vieira says the 8471 and 8571 - differentiated only by the size of flat-panel they ship with (14-inch and 15-inch respectively) - build on the same high performance, thin, light and power-conscious components used in the original Timeline.

"As such, they are available with a choice of Intel Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Solo processors, support dual DDR3 memory channels, feature embedded graphics, a full range of networking technologies (Draft-N Wireless LAN, Ethernet LAN, Bluetooth and UMTS/HSDPA Wireless WAN) and up to 500GB of conventional storage," Vieira explains.

Other refinements such as an eight-speed DVD reader/writer, a multi-in-one memory card reader, a videoconferencing-capable web-cam and high-definition audio round out the hardware spread.

"However, making the platform more applicable to the business sector, Acer has also incorporated features such as EasyLaunch keys (allowing fast access to data backup functionality and communications tools), Enhanced Disk Anti-Shock Protection (protecting data in the case of a notebook being dropped or jarred) and a fingerprint-scanning solution (which adds an extra factor of authentication to system access)," he says.

"Additionally, the 8471 and 8571 also come with Acer software solutions that provide protection from data loss (Acer Backup Manager), provide additional system security (Acer Bio-Protection), provide quick recovery times from a system crash (Acer eRecovery Management) and allow for vast improvements in battery life (Acer PowerSmart Manager)," he adds.

"Bundle all of this together in a package that weighs between 1.98kg (TravelMate 8471 with a six-cell battery) and 2.3kg (TravelMate 8571 with a six-cell battery) and gives eight hours of battery life and it's clear that these new notebooks are hot property," Vieira says.

"We are confident that the positive response we've received from the market this far will continue and that this product range will fare extremely well over the coming months," he concludes.