Acer announced a slew of new laptops at this year’s Global Press Conference next@Acer. Among the laptops launched for creative professionals is the Windows 10 Pro notebook, the TravelMate P6. Acer has engineered this 14-inch, affordable business laptop to be durable, secure and powerful, sporting a long battery life.Â
Here’s our hands-on review of this year’s TravelMate P6 which may not be the fanciest laptop in the market but does tick most boxes for business professionals.
Design: Light and sturdy
The TravelMate P6 is a light, portable and sturdy laptop, specifically intended for frequent business travellers.Â
Its overall look and feel is fairly nondescript. The chassis is made of magnesium-aluminum alloy and comes with considerable flex in the screen.Â
It is lightweight, weighing 2.2 pounds and 0.6 inches thick, and has a sturdy spill-resistant backlit keyboard.Â
The P6 comes with a 14″ 16:10 IPS display, 1920 x 1200 resolution and 400 nit brightness. Its screen is good enough for everyday work and the display works fine with bright and vibrant colours. The power button contains a fingerprint sensor, which worked quite well.Â
Its multi-touch capable ClickPad provides plenty of space for gesture controls. The trackpad has little to no drag or stuttering and the clicks feel nice, a clear improvement on previous models.
The TravelMate has a four-microphone array, a webcam and a physical privacy shutter. The speakers are top-mounted and feature DTS audio.Â
Although there is nothing to boast about the audio and video quality, the microphone and camera work perfectly for mobile professionals looking to video conference on the go.
Despite being designed for a more price-conscious demographic, the TravelMate P6 does not compromise on its selection of ports.
Along the left side of the Acer TravelMate P6, you’ll find two USB-C/Thunderbolt ports, an HDMI port, USB 3.0 port and LED indicators. It also sports one microSD reader, one combination audio jack, one Ethernet port, one DC-In jack for Acer’s adapter, one lock slot and an optional SmartCard reader. Â
Performance: Enough to last the usual workday
The TravelMate doesn’t offer an Ice Lake processor. Instead, it is powered with the 11th Gen Intel Core i7 vPro processors, up to 32 GB DDR4x memory and a 1 TB PCIe Gen3 x4 SSD using NVMe technology.Â
Wireless connectivity includes the latest 802.11ax Wi-Fi standard (Wi-Fi 6), as well as Bluetooth 5.0.
The TravelMate offers good battery life and will easily last a normal workday with an easy nine hour average of continuous use.Â
This laptop provides enough computing power for office applications and we did not face any performance issues.
The P6 has in-built security features and comes with a fingerprint reader and IR webcam. Its built-in User Sensing technology detects if someone is in front of the computer to either wake up or lock up the notebook.Â
An integrated Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 chip and Intel Active Management Technology from the Intel vPro platform facilitate secure authentication and safeguard your data.Â
It also includes some business-specific features including a TPM 2.0 chip and Acer’s ProShield security software.
The verdict
Acer TravelMate P6 is a lightweight laptop with most of the features that business travelers need. Where it stands out is its excellent port selection for such a thin-and-light laptop, enough to keep business users happy.Â
It is a laptop designed for professionals on the go, and fills this requirement just fine. Our review unit was a pre-production device and once the finished product is out, we are sure it would be worth a look for businesses that need a lightweight yet full-featured laptop.Â
Rating: 3.5/5
The Acer TravelMate P6 will be available in EMEA in September starting at AED 4,316
