Acer TravelMate P4 laptop review: Understatement is for the bosses

The communication module is an M.2-2230 card on the mainboard. The Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX211 also includes support for Bluetooth 5.3. According to the manufacturer, the chip should be particularly powerful in dense WLAN surroundings with dozens of routers and hundreds of connected devices, for example by offering reduced latencies. Bluetooth 5.3 supports low energy audio signals. The TravelMate passes our test (with surrounding Wi-Fi noises deactivated) with flying colors, playing in the top league. As required for a business laptop, the TravelMate also includes a wired Ethernet connection. The Realtek Gigabit NIC has a typical fold-out port. 

The fingerprint reader is integrated into the power key, with the Kensington Lock in close proximity. 

The TravelMate strikes a very good figure in the subject of maintenance and upgrades. In case the cooling ribs of the heat pipe are dirty, there is an opening for blowing in pressurized air. The bottom cover can be removed quickly and easily using a small Torx screwdriver. After removing the screws, the cover can be lifted without using any other tools. You then get access to two RAM slots, one of which is occupied with 8 GB. The battery is screwed in, and the SSD is in a slot as an M.2-2280 module. The is no second M.2 SSD slot. 

Acer uses a chiclet rubber dome keyboard that can be illuminated in two steps. It now offers a good distance between the keys. Their crisp pressure point in combination with the tight key stroke creates a pleasant typing experience, and the keyboard doesn't have any give in any place. While typing isn't completely silent, it comes close. The keys have a discretely matted surface that allows sliding the fingers. The F and J keys are marked for touch typists as usual. The keys don't include a secondary level assignment for the number block that isn't there anymore. Even though the up/down keys are smaller, they are still easily usable. A positive point is the Fn assignment of the arrow keys with Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn.

While some might not like the inclusion of the on/off button at the top right of the keyboard, the manufacturer made an effort to prevent accidental triggering: The button has a special frame and almost no stroke, so you have to press hard to trigger it. 

The ClickPad measures 14.5 cm (~5.7 in) in the diagonal and is placed exactly in the center. We never felt that we had to deactivate it while typing, although you can still do this using an Fn key. The stroke is short, and we can really only press on the bottom half of the area since it would take too much force above. The clicking noise is unobtrusive, since it is quiet and dull. Due to the short stroke, the pressure point doesn't feel clear enough. All multitouch gestures are supported. The pad surface is smoother than the surrounding palm rests, also allowing fingers to find their way by touch only. 

An additional calibration isn't worthwhile, since the DeltaE of the Grayscale is only reduced from 2.3 to 0.8. While this is still an improvement, most of the time our eyes are unable to perceive any difference from the original with deviations below 3.0. The ColorChecker DeltaE is reduced marginally from 5.5 to 5.0, which is far from the magical 3.0. This panel is not suited for professional image processing, as is shown by the Calman color calibration tool.   

In daily operation, the largest weakness lies in the low maximum brightness of 253 cd/m² (center). This is sufficient indoors, but in summer on the balcony or in the park, it will make working more difficult. The reduction of the maximum brightness to 213 cd/m² (center) in battery operation isn't helping here either. We notice some clouding in the bottom left and right corners, but only with a black image. 

Looking at the display from the side, it gets significantly darker - but this has nothing to do with a privacy measure preventing others from looking at your screen. The writing is still clearly readable, though. 

The R15 constant load test evaluates how the SoC behaves under continuous maximum load. Is it able to constantly maintain high points in the benchmark? The answer is no, since the Intel Core i5-1335U starts at a below-average level and then remains there. While the peak performance of this SoC could reach 1,547 points, the TravelMate only reaches 1,238 points. The i5-1345U sibling SoC starts higher at 1,541 points but then slides down to 1,310 points on average. In conclusion, the Acer laptop doesn't reach the full potential of the chip, and the performance of the P cores remains unused.

Why is that? 4.6 GHz, the maximum of the two P cores isn't even reached at the beginning of the benchmark, with the log viewer showing 4.3 GHz only in the first two runs. The average of the P cores in the loop lies at 3.58 GHz. The E cores run at 3.3 GHz also only at the beginning, before their average drops down to 2.45 GHz.

Acer has adjusted to temperature limits to get lower surface temperatures here, and as soon as 90 ºC (194 ºF) are only barely touched, the speed is throttled significantly. In the SoC power consumption, we can clearly see 55 watts (briefly) and 28 watts (long term) as markers.

But this doesn't make the Acer TravelMate P4 a bad office laptop. On the other hand, those who need the best possible peak and constant performance for their applications will be better served with a Dell Latitude 7440 or Lenovo ThinkPad E14 G5.