Gaming, high-def video, Blu-ray, power-draw
| Laptop - 720p clip rendering (Terminator Salvation) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Acer Timeline 3810T | MSI X-Slim X600 | Dell Zino HD |
| 17 | 14.52 | 12.7 |
| Laptop - 720p YouTube clip (Earth HD) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Acer Timeline 3810T | MSI X-Slim X600 | Dell Zino HD |
| 20.6 | 22.16 | 25.8 |
And as this is a high-end model of the Zino HD, it has no problems in playing high-definition content.
Outfitted with a Blu-ray drive, image quality, via HDMI, from a disc spinning '300', is sharp and on a par with a standalone Sony BDP-S350 player. The downside is that the Hitachi optical drive continually makes a whirring sound when playing the film - one that can be heard from 10 feet away. Compounding the problem on a wooden stand, the 3.5in mechanical drive's accesses and subsequent vibration can be heard on an occasional basis - kind of like a Sky+ HD box.
| Laptop - Far Cry 2 - low quality - 800x600 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Acer Timeline 3810T | MSI X-Slim X600 | Dell Zino HD |
| 8.42 | 54.45 | 44.56 |
Here's where a dedicated graphics card is telling. Low-resolution performance is lacking when compared to the same GPU in the MSI laptop, however.
| Laptop - Far Cry 2 - high quailty - 1,366x768 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Acer Timeline 3810T | MSI X-Slim X600 | Dell Zino HD |
| 0.01 | 15.19 | 16.11 |
Crank up the load to 1,366x768 HQ and the frame-rates even out. The Mobility Radeon HD 4330 can't cut the mustard at this setting: the benchmark is choppy.
Power
Idling in Windows at 35W, rising to 47W when playing a Blu-ray film and then increasing further to 58W for Far Cry 2, power-draw is comparable to laptops with a similar specification. The base Zino HD model would pull less, of course, as it does without the discrete graphics card.