Acer TravelMate P259-MG-71UU Notebook rövid értékelés

A conservative look is normally standard for laptops that are used in a professional environment. This is also true for the TravelMate. Acer relies on a completely black casing made mostly of plastic. Only the base unit's upper side is made of one piece of metal (brushed aluminum). The lid's back and the base tray are structured with a line pattern. A maintenance hatch on the laptop's bottom allows accessing the hard drive, SSD, and both working memory banks (both filled). The battery cannot be removed.

The laptop does not show any major shortcomings in build. A slight transition of materials can be felt at the display bezel's upper edge. The gaps are regular. The base unit does not present any weaknesses in terms of stiffness. The lid is also largely within an acceptable range here. Image distortions are visible mostly in the screen's center when pressure is applied on the lid's back. The hinges keep the lid firmly in position but rock after being adjusted. A bit of jerking is necessary to open the lid with one hand.

The size difference between the TravelMate and its rivals is not big. HP's ProBook 450 G4 can boast with the lowest weight. It weighs roughly 300 grams less than Acer's laptop.

The TravelMate offers the standard variety of interfaces. Two of the three type-A USB ports support the USB 3.0 standard. Beyond that, a USB type-C port (USB 3.1 Gen.1) is present. Monitors can be connected via two video sockets (HDMI, VGA). The interface distribution is unfavorable as they are all on the level of the wrist rest.

The memory-card reader in the TravelMate is situated in the midfield. Transmitting 250 JPG image files (approx. 5 MB each) is performed at a speed of 68.1 MB/s. The readers in the competitors achieve similar rates. Only the memory-card reader in Dell's Latitude 15 3570 lags clearly behind. We test the memory-card reader with a reference card (Toshiba Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II).

A Wi-Fi module that carries a chip by Intel (Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265) is inside Acer's laptop. In addition to the 802.11 a/b/g/h/n standards, it also supports the fast ac standard. The transmission rates that we measured under ideal conditions (no other Wi-Fi devices in the vicinity, short distance between the router and server PC) were very good. The router-to-laptop connection was also always stable. A Gigabit Ethernet chip from Realtek's RTL8168/8111 family is responsible for cabled network connections, and it did an impeccable job.

The TravelMate cannot offer many security features. A Trusted Platform Module (2.0) is onboard, which is the only hardware-based security feature. A fingerprint scanner, for example, is not installed. Acer's ProShield security software is preloaded.

Praiseworthily, Acer includes a three-year warranty on the TravelMate - including a pick-up service. That distinguishes the company from its competitors. For example, HP's ProBook 450 G4 is only furnished with a one-year warranty. The TravelMate's warranty period can be extended to five years for approximately 150 Euros (~$158).

Acer's TravelMate P249-MG is a 15.6-inch, entry-level business laptop. It has enough computing power for all common application fields. Business-typical features, such as docking port, fingerprint scanner or LTE modem, are neither present nor optionally available. Our review sample costs around 1000 Euros (~$1058) and represents the top model of the lineup. Other configurations exist. The prices start at 750 Euros (~$793). Models without a dedicated graphics card (TravelMate P259-M) are also available. Their prices start at 520 Euros (~$550).

With the GeForce 940MX graphics unit, a GPU from the mid-range has moved into the TravelMate. The GPU finds support in 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory. The memory is much faster than the otherwise often used DDR3 memory. Consequently, the TravelMate scores much better in the 3DMark benchmarks than GeForce 940 MX laptops that rely on DDR3 memory.

Two versions of the GDDR5 940MX graphics unit exist. Tools like GPU-Z can be used to find out which version is inside the TravelMate. Version A carries the internal name GM107-B and is a scion of the GTX-850M and GTX-860M graphics cores. Version A is found inside the TravelMate. Version B (GM108) is based on the GeForce 940M graphics core. Version A (863 MHz) clocks at a lower speed than version B (1189 MHz), but it can more than compensate for this with its higher Shader count (512 vs. 384) and consequently the graphics memory's higher speed (1253 vs. 1000 MHz). Thus, the TravelMate sports the higher-performance version of the GeForce 940MX graphics unit.

The CPU-GPU combination in the TravelMate renders most computer games smoothly in the HD resolution (1366x768 pixels) using medium quality settings. Games that only have low hardware requirements allow for more. Only a few performance-drive games, such as Deus Ex Mankind Divided and Ashes of the Singularity are not playable. A look at our comparison chart shows that the TravelMate - as expected - delivers higher frame rates than laptops furnished with a DDR3 GeForce 940MX graphics unit (Lenovo ThinkPad E470) or a version B GDDR5 GeForce 940MX graphics unit (Dell Inspiron 17 7778).

The stereo speakers are situated in the front area of the TravelMate's underside. They produce a decent sound that audibly lacks bass. It is possible to listen to them for prolonged periods. However, using external speakers or headphones is recommendable for a better sound experience.

Frequency diagram in comparison (checkboxes above can be turned on/off)

Power Consumption

The power consumption does not exhibit any irregularities. We measured a maximum idle consumption of 10.6 watts. The power consumption climbed up to 51.9 watts during the stress test - a normal rate for the hardware platform installed here. The requirement ranged at around 40 watts in gaming routine. The power supply has a nominal output of 65 watts.

The TravelMate achieved a runtime of 4:40 hours in our Wi-Fi test. We simulate the load needed for opening websites via a script. The "Balanced" profile is enabled, the energy-saving features are disabled, and the screen's brightness is set to approximately 150 cd/m². The laptop shut down after just 4:05 hours in our video test. Here, we loop the short movie Big Buck Bunny (H.264 encoding, 1920x1080 pixels). The radio modules and energy-savings features are disabled and the screen's brightness is dimmed to 150 cd/m².

Windows 7 Professional is preloaded on the TravelMate in delivery state. We performed the runtime test using this operating system. Subsequently, we installed Windows 10 and reran the Wi-Fi and video tests. The TravelMate gained roughly 25 minutes of runtime in Windows 10 (Wi-Fi: 5:05 h; video: 4:30 h).

The TravelMate cannot really be called a member of the mobile devices category. The battery life is too mediocre for this. A device can first be called mobile when it achieves a minimum runtime of well over 6 hours in our Wi-Fi and video tests. Buyers looking for an enduring device will be better served with HP's ProBook 450 G4 or Dell's Latitude 15 3570.