Acer Acer's TMP238 business laptop is the first in the country to be dismantled and upgraded. In-depth horizontal evaluation
Preface
TMP238 is Acer's latest business laptop. Since its ultrabooks S3 and S7, Acer's domestic ultra-thin laptops have actually fallen to the TravelMate P2 series. superior. TMP238 only went on sale in December 2015. It seems that it is still JD's first release + exclusive. Even Acer's own official website cannot find information about TMP238, but fortunately, the relevant driver downloads have been released. Otherwise, it will be blind if you change to SSD later. Now...
purchasing ideas
Althoughwas often recommended to friends because of the overall thinner appearance and higher cost performance of Acer notebooks, the choice of TMP238 can be regarded as a coincidence - the work notebook in hand was suddenly sacrificed the night before a business trip to give a demonstration to a large client. Fortunately, the leader of the group brought a Sufi Po, so it didn't cause a big disaster. Apply for a new workbook with a budget between 4K and 6K. Although I occasionally play DOTA2, for the convenience of business trips, portability and long battery life are still my top considerations. Therefore, the factors to consider when choosing are:
1, battery life of more than 5 hours;
2, resolution of 1920x1080 or above;
3, as thin and light as possible;
4, fifth-generation or sixth-generation I5 or above CPU;
5, it is better if it has GT940 or above independent graphics;
6, 8G or above memory or SSD. The last two points of
can be compromised. After all, thinness and lightness, battery life and performance cannot be achieved at the same time, and memory and SSD can also be added by yourself. The selection process of
is roughly as follows. The general types are divided into three categories:
1, tablet or special-shaped notebook: However, in order to successfully complete text work on the bed or on the lap, a hinge keyboard is a necessary condition for selection. In this way, a large number of leather case keyboard tablets represented by Surface have been gloriously sacrificed. There are two more exciting ones included in the scope, one is ThinkPad's Helix, and the other is Acer's Switch 12. Helix is indeed the first choice, but the domestic price...and configuration are unacceptable. Switch 12 only has the 5Y10a processor version and 128G SSD, and the performance is still too much. After all, as a productivity tool, I don’t want to be overwhelmed when processing hundreds of MB of Word and Visio.
2, thin and light notebooks and ultrabooks: these have the most choices. From a business perspective, the ThinkPad Memory and a super-reduced beggar’s version with only one battery... Lenovo’s style of selling domestic products at high prices to subsidize the US emperor in Hong Kong is really unacceptable. The new IdeaPad 700s is really amazing. The price is less than 5K and the carbon fiber shell looks very good. But it is just this carbon fiber shell. After looking at the disassembly pictures, the inside is unbelievably simple. It is just a motherboard + a huge one. Battery... SONY carbon fiber ultra-thin notebooks are not strong enough, causing the motherboard to deform and become unstable. This 700s does not have the support of a roll cage, so it is not much better. Although the problem has not been exposed when it was first launched, as a workbook, I still don’t take this risk. DELL's new XPS13 is also a favorite, with ultra-narrow bezels and compact size. Unfortunately, the starting price of 6K8 is slightly beyond the budget.
3, thin and light notebook with independent graphics: TMP248 is Acer's 14-inch business notebook. It has an I5-6200 CPU and GT940 for less than 5K, and the price/performance ratio is good. The 14-inch model of HP's
ENVY has an I5-6200 CPU plus a GTX950 graphics card and a backlit keyboard. The price is about 1K more expensive, and it is also a pretty good choice. However, you have to make a trade-off between size and battery life.
TMP238 is a newly launched Acer notebook, and there is no review. Even the old TMP236 does not have disassembly pictures and detailed reviews... I recommended TMP236 to a friend half a year ago. I was impressed by its design and have a good understanding of the mold. I have also disassembled the phone, and the internal workmanship is acceptable. I just didn't expect Acer to be so niche in China. You must know that it is the brand with the largest market share in the European market. Therefore, I decided to do this in-depth review of TMP238.
unboxing
The Acer TMP238 packaging box is the same as the notebook, very slim. The structural strength of the inner and outer double box nesting is good. JD delivery is fast and good as always, just open the package...
The package contains a computer, a power supply, and a few pieces of paper, that's all.The power adapter is small enough, and it would be perfect if it could add a USB output.
The B side and C side are all black, giving it the feel of a business laptop. The bezel of the B-side screen is quite impressive, while the C-side is very simple, with a power button, a full-size keyboard, a touchpad with hidden buttons, and a Core I7 label on the sticker.
turned on the computer for the first time. Yes, it turned on. Sure enough, it entered the configuration interface, and then... it was disassembled...
disassembled and upgraded
. Nowadays, the disassembly of ultrabooks is basically the rhythm of opening the entire D side... the back Class 12 screws, pay attention to the middle one, which is covered by a sticker.
hair dryer! It is easy to uncover after blowing heat... After removing all the screws, use two pieces of waste card to slowly lift it up from the edge. Be careful not to use brute force, as the buckle will not break and the machine will be dismantled without damage.
TMP238 takes the first dismantled internal photos of the entire machine in the country! Apart from the two memory sticks and the hard drive, there is basically no room for upgrades. However, it is not necessary to use the modern DDR3L 1600 used in
Intel 7265NGW AC wireless network card, speed good! At present, most laptop network cards still do not support the AC protocol. The theoretical speed of the 802.11N protocol is 300M bps, but the actual speed is difficult to reach 10MB/s. Those who have a NAS at home or those with optical fibers above 50Mbps will understand the importance of wireless network card speed. Another thing worth integrating with
is that the Bluetooth of this network card is also very good! Because Bluetooth and wireless are usually 2.4G signals of a network card sharing a set of antennas, the interference is quite serious if the interference is not handled well, especially Taiwan's RealTek... On the copycat tablet, the Bluetooth mouse freezes for this reason. Turn on Bluetooth It will even directly affect the speed of the wireless network. There is no good solution for this using RealTek chips. The 9.7Wh lithium-ion battery pack of the Intel wireless network card
upgrade accessory package: I removed the memory and SSD of the dead notebook. Try to choose the memory with consistent parameters to match the dual channel. The bonus to the core display is still obvious. The upgrade strip used is Micron's 4G 8-granule strip. The blue frame is the final installed accessory, and the hard drive in the red frame is the 500GB Toshiba hard drive left over from the collection. By the way, this hard drive is really noisy...
upgrade completed! There are two details to note: 1. To ensure safety after opening the cover, first unplug the battery power cord! 2. There are two buttons marked SW2 and SW3 in the upper left corner of the memory module. SW2 is the button for power-off reset according to the mark on the bottom case. After the installation of
is completed, there is no box cover, but there is no response when pressing the power button? Then I realized that this SW3 is used for cover opening detection. If the back cover is not closed, it cannot be turned on. This is a design we have seen on Acer's finished desktop computers. In other words, Acer is likely to know whether you have opened the case...
In-depth horizontal evaluation
Appearance
The appearance of Acer TMP238 is quite thin and business-oriented.
overall thickness: from top to bottom: ThinkPad X200 3CM, TMP238 2CM, Xeras 4830TG 3CM.
Comparison picture on the right side, overall thickness: from top to bottom: ThinkPad X200 3CM, TMP238 2CM, Shirui 4830TG 3CM. Expand and compare
left interface: Is the network card connector considered an Acer feature? Because the edge is thin, the baffle is made movable to take into account both volume and compatibility. The interface configuration is much more reasonable than the previous generation TMP236. Today's thin and light notebooks have various interfaces, and only a few are made into MINI...
left interface: USB3.0 with shutdown charging function, and Type-C, which is only available on mobile phones now. It seems that Type-C has the potential to dominate the world.
right interface: USB 2.0x2+ headphone + SD card
The SD card reader is painfully made into a half plug-in interface. Although it is convenient for plugging and unplugging, it makes it impossible to expand the machine by inserting an SD card.
Here is a comparison of the interfaces of the previous generation TMP236. All the interfaces of TMP236 are on the right side, which not only causes the interface to be tight, but also the only two USB interfaces are too close together, which can easily affect each other. In this regard, the new TMP238 has a qualitative improvement.
found an Acer Shirui 4830TG that was built four years ago. The design of the metal speaker bar on the C side is very stylish, and the keyboard is still the chocolate duckweed keyboard of today. The feel is indeed different from the ThinkPad's classic keyboard, which is why so many people spend twice as much money to buy a ThinkPad. The adapter of
TMP238 is indeed small. From top to bottom are the 85W adapter of the old 4830TG, the ThinkPad 65W adapter, and the TMP238 45W adapter. But, can the 220V cable delivered... be less thick... Also, what's up with the toothpick-thin charging port? Compared with the ThinkPad's square port and the magnetic suction port of Surface and MacBook, it is too backward and can be easily damaged if it is impacted.
Performance and functions
As a notebook that is mainly thin and light, I will not do too much evaluation on the I7-6500U. You can take a look at the CPU performance ladder table. Complaining about Master Xia Lu, it’s so entertaining. The tablet score of Z8200 is actually 5K points? My notebook CPU I7-2620M scored only 6K, and my desktop E3-1230V2’s score was less than 8K, which made me think that tablets are now more expensive. After I bought it and ran it with professional software, I found that the multi-core performance was 13 times worse! Sincere entertainment master...
I bought the I7 because the graphics card is still better than the I5, and can basically reach half the performance of the GT940, so that even Photoshop and CAD can be taken care of. Intel's recent generations of CPUs have not improved much in performance, mainly due to adjustments in power consumption, especially the reduction of power consumption under low load. The battery time of
is related to the load. The usage time of 8 hours at low load and 5 hours at high load can still be achieved. If the charging time is used while charging, although Windows indicates that it can be fully charged in about 2 hours, the actual charging time is close to 4 hours. It may be that the 45W adapter slows down the charging efficiency.
Because I replaced the Win10 Ultimate system installed by myself on the SSD, fortunately, the official website provides a full set of drivers and power management software Acer Power Management and Acer Quick Access. The former is similar to a software that checks power consumption on a mobile phone and can shut down large power consumers. The latter is a management software with additional functions. It currently mainly provides two functions: screen blue light reduction and USB charging control.
In fact, the screen blue light control key is a manual yellow screen... The higher the level, the yellower the screen... Well, fortunately, I can accept a warm-toned screen. The matte screen of TMP238 has a really good display effect, which is good for long-term reading. Comfortable, it reminds me of Haier’s earlier eye-catching screen. Compared with the colorful mirror screen, a comfortable screen is better for office work.
Summary
Acer TMP238 is a new model in 2016. The overall design still has its own characteristics. The weight of 1.6KG, the thickness of 2CM, and the battery life of about 6H are all quite satisfactory. Compared with the previous generation TMP236, the interface configuration is more reasonable, and the screen display The effect benefits from the 1080P resolution IPS matte screen, which is significantly improved! Reducing blue light is a small innovation in software, but the actual effect is worthy of recognition.
is priced around 5K. The latest generation CPU of I7-6500, complete interface configuration, and excellent screen still have outstanding cost performance among business thin and light notebooks. Unfortunately, SSD models are slightly more expensive. Currently, self-configuring an SSD and adding memory is the best solution. Areas that need to be improved in
:
1, keyboard feel, keyboard backlight, the up, down, left, and right keys on the keyboard together with PgUP and PgDn are absolutely a failure, and it is easy to cause accidental presses.
2, the charging interface is too thin! Too unstable! It is recommended to study the current magnetic structure or Lenovo’s USB square integrated charging interface.
3. If you want to replace the SSD, at least don’t use Toshiba’s hard drive. When you remove the external drive, the noise is really loud compared to WD and Seagate. Fan control is not bad.There is no sound at all when using ordinary documents and web pages! Of course, the premise is that the Toshiba hard drive is replaced...
4, products have begun to be sold, and the information cannot be found on the official website. It is really wrong... the face recognition software must also be available for download! Advantages of
:
1, the screen is very good! Compared with the whitish and dull 1366x768 TN screen used by Acer before, this IPS screen LP133WF2 produced by LG is a superior product among notebooks. With the blue light control software, it is very comfortable to use for a long time!
2, the size, weight, and configuration are well balanced, with no outstanding features or obvious weaknesses. In addition to the price, the price/performance ratio is pretty good.
3, the interface is rich and reasonable, which is the biggest improvement compared to the previous generation. As a business laptop, the only thing it needs is the HDMI to VGA interface, which can handle almost all applications.
4. The design aesthetic is good, with scattered A and C sides, and the indicator lights can still be read clearly even if the cover is closed. The all-black and simple style is more in line with the positioning of a business "travel partner".
PS: After writing the review of
, I discovered that Acer’s notebooks have launched a new round of 1000-100 sales promotion in JD, which has been reduced by a full 500... The price is 4999, which makes the price/performance ratio even more outstanding. For the sake of the first national test, will Acer at least return the price difference to me? !
Finally, do you know what the word "碁" in Acer means? Anyone who reads "basic" is uneducated: P
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