Acer announced its new TravelMate X349 business laptop around July last year
and now, you can buy it in India. Although it’s targeted at business
users, the X349 comes across as a good Windows alternative to Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Air, which continues to be a hot favourite for many.
Today,
we’ll be taking a look at the TravelMate X349-G2-M, which packs in
Intel’s Kaby Lake CPU. Priced at around Rs. 65,000 (plus taxes), can it
offer better value when compared to the likes of Lenovo’s ThinkPad 13? We take a look.
Acer TravelMate X349-G2-M design and build
The
first thing that catches your attention is the aluminium body. The
slate grey colour might seem a bit drab and it certainly feels very
business-like, but on the plus side, it’s easy to keep clean and doesn’t
attract many fingerprints. The entire chassis and the lid uses
aluminium so there’s ample protection all round. The fit and finish of
the chassis is very good and the edges are slightly rounded so they
don’t feel too sharp. The laptop measures 17.95mm in thickness and
weighs a comfortable 1.55kg.
The
14-inch display display offers plenty of screen real estate for working
on spreadsheets or simply browsing the Web. Our unit had a HD
resolution (768x1366) but Acer also offers one with a full-HD IPS panel.
The HD panel doesn’t have very good vertical viewing angles and there’s
visible jaggedness in text and edges of icons. You can tilt the display
back 180 degrees if required and the hinge provides good torsion at any
angle. We didn’t find any annoying wobble issue with the the display
too, however, in extreme cases, the display will slide backwards with
prolonged shakes. The aluminium lid also prevents and pixel distortion
when you apply pressure from the back.
The
Acer TravelMate X349-G2-M features a good set of physical connectivity
options. On the left, we have a power connector, full-sized HDMI port,
USB 3.0, and a USB Type-C (3.1, Gen1) port along with power and charging
LED lights. On the right, we have a SD card reader, headphone and
microphone combo socket, USB 2.0 port, and a Kensington lock. The Type-C
port here has support for video-too and is compatible with Acer’s
optional dock. However, we were hoping to get the newer Gen2 standard of
Type-C which supports double the bandwidth.
The
palm rest area is spacious and so is the trackpad, which doesn’t really
get in the way while typing. The chiclet keyboard is well spaced out
and the travel of the keys don’t feel to spongy. The keyboard area is
carved out of the same aluminium block as the palm rest so there’s no
issue of flex here. Some of keys could have been designed or placed
better. For instance, it’s easy to hit the power button by mistake since
it’s placed in the same cluster as the rest of the keys and the size of
the Up/ Down direction keys could have been bigger. There’s a single
level of backlighting, which is even for all keys. Acer has also thrown
in a fingerprint sensor which is useful for Windows Hello
authentication. There are downward firing speakers placed below the
laptop.
Acer TravelMate X349-G2-M specifications
Specifications
are customisable and our unit came with an Intel Core i5-7200U which is
a dual-core CPU with HyperThreading, 8GB of dual-channel DDR4 RAM,
integrated HD Graphics 620 GPU, and a 512GB SSD from Liteon. Other
features include a HD webcam which is ‘Skype for business’ certified,
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 802.11ac with MIMO antennas and security features like a
TPM 2.0 module, Acer Prosheild, and Acer Office Manager.
We
had Windows 10 Pro 64-bit pre-installed on our unit with little to no
apps from Acer or third-party companies. However, the retail unit should
have typical Acer applications that we’ve seen on previous models like
Acer Control Center, True Harmony audio enhancement, Comfyview display
tweaking utility and perhaps trial programs like McAfee LiveSafe and
Office 365.
Acer TravelMate X349-G2-M performance
For
work and general usage, the Acer TravelMate X349-G2-M performs very
well. Boot times are quick and we rarely noticed any lag when switching
between applications or launching new ones. The SSD has good read and
write speeds as we recorded a drive score of 512MB/s in SiSoft Sandra
2016. In PCMark 8, we got scores of 3576, 4268, and 3345 points in the
Home, Creative, and Work benchmark suites, which are good for a ‘U’
series CPU. The laptop gets a bit warm underneath but nothing too
alarming. Plus, since the intake and exhaust vents are placed near the
hinge, you don’t have to deal with hot air or worry about blocking the
vents when using it on your lap. We also liked the fact that it runs
quiet for the most part.
Work
apps aside, the X349-G2-M can double up as a decent multimedia laptop
too. It handles 4K videos with ease and the speakers do get quite loud
without the risk of sounding tinny. Gaming is possible too as long as
you stick to games from the Windows Store or some older 3D games. We
tried Modern Combat 5: Blackout, which works well with good control
mapping for the keyboard and mouse.
The
trackpad is one of the better ones here as tracking is smooth and
Windows 10 gestures work without requiring much effort. The viewing
angles of the HD display aren’t great and we recommend springing for the
full-HD panel if available. Brightness levels is good though and the
matte texture of the screen keeps reflections away. We didn’t quite like
the quality of HD webcam too as the picture looks quite noise even
outdoors, in natural light.
The
battery lasted us for 2 hours and 23 minutes in the Battery Eater Pro
benchmark. With regular usage, backlight for the keys turned on, and a
bit of gaming, we were able to get around six hours of runtime before
the power saver mode kicked in. This is not bad considering the slim
nature of the laptop and if you’re more frugal with your usage then it
will easily last you an entire work day.
Verdict
The Acer TravelMate X349-G2-M is a good option for those looking at a portable Windows laptop without compromising too much on display size and performance. We would have liked a better quality webcam, wider viewing angles for the display and some of the keys could have been designed or placed better. Barring these issues, you get a good set of physical connectivity options, decent amount of power to run most tasks, a comfortable keyboard and trackpad, and good battery life.
The Acer TravelMate X349-G2-M is a good option for those looking at a portable Windows laptop without compromising too much on display size and performance. We would have liked a better quality webcam, wider viewing angles for the display and some of the keys could have been designed or placed better. Barring these issues, you get a good set of physical connectivity options, decent amount of power to run most tasks, a comfortable keyboard and trackpad, and good battery life.
However,
there a small catch when it comes to actually getting your hands on one
of these. Since this is designed for commercial use, it’s not available
off the shelves from your typical online and offline retail chains.
However, Acer tells us that its authorised partners and resellers should
be able to arrange one for you or you could contact Acer directly in order to purchase it.
The
model we reviewed is priced at Rs. 65,000 (plus taxes) but the
TravelMate X series starts at roughly Rs. 36,000 (plus taxes) for which,
you get a 6th Generation (Skylake) Intel Core i3 CPU, 4GB of RAM, 128GB
SSD and Linux. The Kaby Lake CPU models can be identified with the ‘G2’
in the name. If you don’t want to go through all this hassle then we
recommend waiting for a week or so as Acer will be putting
the TravelMate X series on Flipkart very soon.
Price : Rs. 65,000 (plus tax)
Pros
- Aluminium build
- Decent all-round performance
- Comfortable keyboard
- Good battery life
- USB Type-C and fingerprint sensor present
Cons
- Display has weak viewing angles
- Not easy to get a hold off
- Awkward placement of power and arrow keys
- Webcam quality could be better
Ratings (Out of 5)
- Design: 4
- Display: 3
- Performance: 3.5
- Software: 4
- Value for Money: 4
- Overall: 4
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