2008 was the year of the netbook; 2009 is the year of the 'affordable' ultra-portable laptop. It seems self-evident now, but netbooks showed Intel, AMD and other manufacturers that there was a sincere demand for affordable, portable laptops. Netbooks fall short of fulfilling that demand, but this year has seen a number of products aim to fill the gap. Acer has been at the forefront with its Aspire Timeline and TravelMate Timeline ranges: notable successes being the Aspire 4810T and the TravelMate 8371. Its latest effort, the Aspire Timeline 1810TZ, looks to set the bar even higher.
We'll say it straight now: the 1810TZ is about as close as we've ever come to giving a laptop (netbooks not included) a 10/10. Why it doesn't receive such an accolade will be revealed in the course of the review, but suffice to say the margins are extremely slim. What's important is that, rather like what the Samsung NC10 did for netbooks, the 1810TZ distils exactly what an affordable, ultra-portable laptop ought to be. Ironically our first point of reference for how to get it wrong is another Samsung product, the recently reviewed X120.
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