The multitouch trackpad is even worse. The palm rest is a tad too narrow to be comfortable, and the trackpad is only as deep as the palm rest is. In practical terms the trackpad and the palm rest are one entity, with the touchpad distinguished only by two slightly raised strips on either side of it. Two small, discrete buttons sit beneath it, right on the edge of the laptop. Often as I tried to move the mouse pointer, I would discover that I was futilely moving my finger around on the nontrackpad part of the palm rest; at other times, I would attempt to press one of the buttons and end up poking myself in the lap.

The glossy, 11.6-inch screen has a native resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels, typical for its class. The display quality is pretty good, but it's not bright enough for comfortable use outside (especially in direct sunlight), colors tend to look a little washed out, and the picture degrades rapidly when you view the screen off-axis. The glossiness tends to throw back a lot of reflections, too.

Video playback on the TimelineX is reasonably good, but the absence of a discrete graphics card means that graphics-intensive video games are unplayable. The integrated graphics system handles high-definition fairly well, however; so if you're just planning on streaming a few Hulu episodes or playing back clips shot with an HD camcorder, this laptop will do the trick.

The Acer's audio is much louder and deeper than the sound you'd get from a typical netbook. Because the stereo speakers are situated on the bottom of the computer, just under the wrist rest, perching the ultraportable on your lap significantly muffles the sound. The speakers, though good for a laptop of this size, could use more bass. Still, they're loud enough to let you watch a film or participate in a video chat without feeling aggrieved.

The TimelineX runs Windows 7 Home Premium, and comes with Microsoft and McAfee trialware, CyberLink Power DVD 9 (despite the absence of an optical drive), and a suite of Acer software (including Crystal Eye Webcam, eRecovery Management, and Backup Manager).