The 3830TG has a very modern, yet not-too-flashy look.  The blue, silver and black color scheme Acer calls "ice blue" is currently the only one available.  The plastic surface of most of the case has a good look to it, but the pointy corners really could have been rounded off a bit more.  The matte surfaces of the laptop feel quite nice while keeping dust and finger print marks from collecting all over the place.  Unfortunately we can't say the same for the high-gloss aluminum display lid.

The case overall demonstrates decent quality although the left side of the keyboard and palm rest have a disconcerting spongy feel to them.  You'd think the DVD drive were located under here—but no, the runt of the TimelineX litter has no optical drive whatsoever.  The case is simply of poor quality toward the left side of the base unit.  The display lid hinges are located at the sides and hold the lid firmly in place, which hardly bobs back and forth after you adjust its tilt.  You can open up the laptop with one hand, the base unit lifting up just a bit when you do so.  The display lid tilts back all the way to an astounding 155º, at which point the display lid bumps up against the hinges.

The matte black base plate consists of a large hatch (leading to the hardware) covered with lots of exhaust vents.  The hatch is attached with only one screw, so access to the hardware is only a few turns of a screwdriver away.  Under it you'll find 2 RAM slots good for a max. of 8 GB DDR3-RAM, the 2.5" hard drive, part of the cooling system and some empty space for a UMTS module or SIM card slot.

The 3830TG comes in the compact 13.3" form factor, that is, the screen measures 33 cm diagonally, with an aspect ration of 16:9 and a glossy screen (glare-type).  The native resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels is typical for screens of this size.  The display is produced by manufacturer AUO (model no. B133XW03) and does not support interpolated resolutions (non-native resolutions).   There are two video outputs: VGA and HDMI which can transfer a signal to an external monitor/TV in up to a 1920 x 1080-pixel resolution. 

The LED-backlit screen has a maximum brightness of 193 cd/m², ranking in very typical.  The one praiseworthy aspect of the display would be how evenly lit the screen is—the brightness distribution value comes to 91%. The average screen brightness of 185.3 cd/m² isn't too bad.  Displays of significantly higher quality are, however, currently only found in premium-grade notebooks starting at around 1200 Euro.

The poor picture contrast of 162:1 and the elevated black level of 1.15 cd/m² are known weak points of inexpensive TN panels.  Especially when viewing photos or watching a movie, a higher contrast ratio would be nice.   A lower black level would provide for deeper, more saturated blacks.  In the case of the TimelineX 3830TG, blacks appear to have a distinct gray tone.  Even though this subnotebook is most likely more appealing for personal rather than professional use, the "Display" section wouldn't be complete without a discussion of the color space that can be displayed on the screen.  The color spectrum of the 3830TG's screen doesn't nearly cover our reference sRGB color space, placing it among the ranks of inexpensive consumer laptop screens.

Acer doesn't venture to install the same hardware in the compact 3830TG as in the larger models of the TimelineX series.  The processor in place in the particular model we reviewed is the dual-core Intel Core i5-2410M with a base clock rate of 2.3 GHz, that can jump up to as much as 2.9 GHz once Turbo Boost becomes automatically activated under high CPU stress.   Also, Hyper Threading is supported, allowing the CPU to processes up to four threads simultaneously.  Another configuration of the 3830TG comes with the speedier Intel Core i7-2620M, running at a base clock rate of 2.7 GHz (Turbo Boost: 3.3 GHz).

The compact 3830TG actually has two graphics cards.  The integrated Intel GMA HD 3000 graphics card takes over for the more powerful dedicated Nvidia GeForce GT 540M mid-grade GPU using Nvidia's Optimus technology. The GT 540M supports both DirectX 11 and Shader Model 5.0. and has 2048 MB DDR3-VRAM, making it quite a powerful graphics card capable of smoothly running most recent games.

Before we get to testing out specific games on the 3830TG, a potentially far-reaching problem should be noted: like with the Acer Aspire TimelineX 4830TG, the CPU clock rate drops to 1196 MHz after a short period of time when playing games or doing other resource-demanding tasks on the 3830TG.  The very first benchmarks we performed, however, yielded the results we'd expect from a CPU like this—since the CPU was still running at the advertised clock rate of 2.3 GHz.

The Acer subnotebook comes with a 750 GB hard drive from Western Digital (Scorpio Blue). Due to its SATA II connection and rotational speed of 5400 RPM, you shouldn't expect extraordinary transfer rates.  At a maximum of 92.7 MB/s in the CrystalDiskMark benchmark, the HDD in place here does manage to outdo entry-level hard drives with a 160GB, 250GB or 320GB storage capacity, however.  For a boost in performance, we'd suggest upgrading to a Solid State Hybrid drive (SSH) or going for the gusto with a speedy pure Solid State Drive (SSD) either of which can easily be swapped in after purchase.

System Noise

Aside from the hard drive, only a single fan is responsible for the noise produced by the 3830TG.  Under typical office use, we measured 30 to 35.8 dB(A), on the lower end of which the fan remains inactive.  But once the fan gets going during even low-intensity office work, it's rather noticeable.  The slow-spinning hard drive only accounts for 30.5 dB(A), subtly humming in the background.  We did not observe any clicking or clacking coming from the hard drive at any point.  Under heavy use, the noise level rises to an clearly audible 40.2 dB(A).  The good thing is, after closing out some resource-demanding programs and relieving the hardware of its stress, the fan quickly slows down and with it drops the noise level.

Temperature

You can have a look at Acer's new cooling system by taking off the hatch on the base plate.  Working with the fan, the copper heat pipes should provide for some good cooling.  In idle mode, the case surfaces reach a relatively cool maximum of 29ºC, giving off a lukewarm feel.  Under heavy use, the temperatures rise to fairly uncomfortable levels.  We measured a maximum of 40.2ºC on top and 43.0º along the bottom of the base unit, which feels rather hot and can become uncomfortable to hold on your lap after a while.

Speakers

For your listening pleasure, there are two stereo speakers located just above the keyboard.  The audio quality is poor and emphasizes the highs too much.  The bass is present but too subtle.  Especially when listening to music is the mediocre sound quality particularly noticeable, although much worse speakers have been known to be found in comparable notebooks.  On top of that, the max. volume is not too high, but for it the audio doesn't sound distorted when the volume's cranked all the way up.  The better way to go is just to use the headphone jack or HDMI output to hook up external speakers.

The 3830TG impresses with it's relatively long battery life.  The 6-cell battery has a 66-Wh capacity, making it above average for subnotebooks.  The downside is that it's not removable (all new Timeline laptops).

Using the tool Battery Eater we measured the battery life in several scenarios.  We started off with the Classic Test, that is: the system under heavy use, wifi on, and screen brightness all the way up.  The dedicated Nvidia GeForce GT 540M—active during this test—contributes a good deal to draining the battery.  After a relatively short 2 hours 33 minutes the battery is dead, making the 3830TG's shortest battery life pretty average for a subnotebook.
At the other extreme we have the Reader’s Test.  With minimum screen brightness and wifi off, we simulated the reading of a text document.  Thanks to the energy-saver in the processor and the integrated GPU (GT540M deactivated), the battery life comes to a whopping 12 hours 7 minutes.
Since this battery life does not reflect everyday use, we also performed the "Internet Browsing via Wifi" test.  At 8 hours 14 minutes, you can get a whole day's worth of work done and then some (depending on the intensity of the tasks at hand).

The Acer Aspire TimelineX 3830TG-2414G75nbb confirms the impression given to us by the other two new laptops of the same series we've reviewed.  The keyboard, touchpad and classy ice-blue design make the laptop pretty appealing, but the case quality could use some improvement.   Moreover, the positioning of the ports isn't too convenient and the glossy 13.3" screen irritatingly reflects its surroundings quite a bit.

With its powerful hardware within a compact case for an attractive price of 799 Euro, Acer would otherwise have brought a very competitive subnotebook onto the market if it weren't for the CPU throttling under heavy use (gaming).  The laptop's severely reduced performance in this case might just be a deal-breaker for many.  Acer has not yet come out with an update to solve the problem.
In idle mode and under light use, the laptop stays nice and cool but the temperatures soon reach critical levels under heavy use.  On another note, the 6-cell non-removable battery keeps the subnotebook running for a relatively long time.

All in all, Acer offers a rather attractive package that we can't recommend in all good conscience however because of the currently unsolved CPU-throttling issue.  Other manufacturers offer similar subnotebooks that are more well rounded.  The Acer Aspire TimelineX 3820TG of the previous generation—despite its older hardware—makes an overall better impression and is less expensive to boot.