Customer Reviews

Acer Aspire AS7740-5142 17.3-Inch HD Display Laptop (Blue)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Very good value and solid construction for a plastic case. The 2.13mhz dual Core i3 processor runs very cool, quiet and sips power. H.264 encoding went very quickly compared to my old duo pro. Since the display demands a large case, the keyboard includes a 10-key pad which comes in handy. There is a button that disables the touchpad, which is handy when you are using the mouse. Disc drive plays blu ray and burns DVDs, neat-o.

I just have a few minor gripes that the low price tag makes me happy to overlook. One is that I wish it had 1920x1080 resolution with a screen this size. Unfortunately this is the highest res of any current Acer laptop. Another gripe is that the BIOS does not let you unable some useless buttons such as a button to turn on/off wifi and a bright LED display that indicates whether the power is on or off.

The bottom line is that this computer is a steal for this price.

The first thing that attracted me to this product was it's price. It is indeed a great price for the specs! However, there are many things that specs don't capture, and unfortunately a lot of them are negative.

The first thing that I noticed when I started using this laptop is occasional freezes. It only freezes for a few seconds and everything resumes as normal so it's really more of an annoyance than anything. When I play Warcraft III, I ran into real problems. It freezes for a few seconds at random intervals, making the game completely unplayable. I suspect these problems are due to video card drivers, as the video card with the Core i3 is pretty new. I tried to search for answers online but couldn't find anything. I tried newer games and it works fine, so it was something specific with Warcraft III. I don't imagine too many people buying a newer computer to play an older game like Warcraft III so this problem isn't reported.

Another thing that attracted me to this laptop was the Blu-Ray playback capability. I noticed occasional freeze here as well during Blu-Ray playback. The movie was watchable, but the freezes were annoying.

The trackpad on this machine is horrible. It doesn't track very well and sometimes I can feel the delays. The advertised multi touch gestures do not work very well. They work...sometimes...but not when or how I want. The vertical scrolling didn't even seem to work at all. I would press and slide up and down, and nothing would happen. After a while, I figured out how to get it to work. Basically, I have to decide which direction I want to scroll, start with at the middle and slide it in the direction that I want all the way to the edge and hold it. This was the only way I could get the scrolling to work. With every other trackpad that I've used, I've always been able to slide my finger up and down, and have it scroll accordingly and instantly. To compare, the dell mini 10 trackpad was the first non-mac trackpad that features multi touch that I've used, and it works just like a mac. Although it's not perfect, it is still somewhat useable. The trackpad on this laptop is by far the worst I've ever seen.

I couldn't imagine anyone releasing such a bad product so I was suspecting that maybe this product was defective so I exchanged it for the same one. Amazon was great about this. They sent me a new one with two day shipping at no charge!

Upon receiving the replacement, the first thing I tried was to play Warcraft 3, and unfortunately, I ran into the exact same problem. At this point, I thought I'd give technical support a try. I doubt that they'd be able to help because my tech level is pretty high and I always troubleshoot and fix my own problems, but I thought I'd give it a try anyways. I submitted the problem description via Acer's website, and the response I got was along the lines of "restore the machine, reset the machine". I've actually tried restoring the machine before as well as even reinstalling Windows 7 from scratch. This is a brand new machine and they're telling me to "restore it", or "reset it". So I then replied telling them that I've tried those things, and I've never heard from them since. The case was closed...

At this point, I had to decide if I could deal with these problems or pay more for a different laptop. During this time I had found a workaround for the Warcraft 3 problem. I found that if I play a Blu-Ray or a movie while I'm playing Warcraft 3, it doesn't freeze. So my solution is to stick in a Blu-Ray, play it, and mute it, and play my game while the Blu-Ray is playable. It actually has to be playing, because pausing it won't work. As for the Blu-Ray freeze, it's annoying, but it is watchable, and is it worth paying more for another laptop that can play Blu-Ray? At the time, I couldn't find anything with the same specs for anything less than 50% more than this laptop. As for the trackpad, I'm planning to use this machine as a desktop replacement, so I'll be hooking up a regular mouse to it most of the time anyway. I decided to keep it.

Fortunately a few weeks later, Intel release a new driver that fixed the Warcraft 3 problem. I imagine anything video related will hopefully be fixed by Intel driver updates, as this is a relatively new chipset. I noticed another problem when using video acceleration to play an HD movie that I had. At some points I noticed some artifacts. However, if I use VLC to play the video (which doesn't use hardware acceleration), I don't get those artifacts and fortunately, the CPU is powerful enough to play 1080p videos without hardware acceleration.

As I continued to use this laptop I discovered more flaws. While using Skype, I got a lot of complaints about my voice going in and out and sometimes they can't even hear me at all. After a lot of troubleshooting, I found out the default settings that is supposed to cancel noise and feedback cause this problem. However, when I disable these settings, they can hardly hear me. I think it's because the fan is so loud and the mic is so close to it that it can't record anything beyond the noise of the fan. The noise cancellation I guess was designed for that, but turning it on makes my voice goes in and out, which isn't usable either. Finally, I could speak to my friends through Skype by attaching a separate headset, AND disabling those settings. So much for the built-in mic... I've had other laptops with built-in mics, and I've never had this problem with any of them.

I also noticed that the speakers are really weak as well. I can't really hear what I'm watching while I'm eating even with the volume maxed out. Workaround for this...use a headset...

So yeah, I've learned to cope with all of the flaws of this laptop with the workarounds. I just want to warn everyone about it before they go through the same experience thinking that this is a great price for the specs like I did.

BTW, my recent experiences with Dell Tech support have been good. If tech support is important to you, stay away from Acer!

I also replaced the hard drive in this laptop with an SSD for performance and although it was easy enough, I could not find any resources anywhere on how to do it. I'm actually in the process of making a video to help people out in this area. Acer doesn't have any service manuals and I couldn't find anything online either. Dell on the other hand has service manuals and a lot of other resources online either through their own website or forums.

Fast, reliable, beautiful, it's all that and more. I use it every day for writing as well as graphics. It does the job flawlessly!! Highly recommend this product. I debated and debated going with a more 'well-known' and costlier HP model, similar in specs, but ultimately decided to save the $150 and get the Acer. Sooooo glad I did, as a friend ended up purchasing the HP because of brand name. They've had to call technical support several times. I love this machine.

This was purchased to replace a broken Dell Latitude of advanced years. Quite a revelation for the family.

I'd like to add a disclaimer here - I use a laptop for work, which is provided by my employers, and all I have used at work in recent years are Thinkpads. Right now I have an HP EliteBook 8530w. It has a 1920x1200 display. That's right - a laptop with a 1920x1200 native resolution display. The point I am trying to make is that I am used to quality, but I am going to try and be objective. Keep in mind that consumer laptops all seem to be very different animals to business laptops. They are built to a price whereas I don't care how much my office laptop cost, so bear with me if I do some comparison and - like I said - try to stay objective.

The title says great bang for buck and I stand by that. A Core i3 processor, 4Gb of RAM, BluRay to mention some key selling points. Performance is perfectly adequate for the light use it sees at home so far.

I will try it out as a BluRay player on the TV at some point, but if it fails at that task I won't be too concerned as long as it reads the disks adequately. I have a media player already, I just need the media in an appropriate format...

The keyboard isn't awesome. I don't expect to be touch typing with it, and if you are comparing it to Thinkpads it definitely falls short. Again however, if you are in college and typing a lot, with enough use you might get used to it. Twenty to thirty dollars will get you a pretty good keyboard that you can plug in. Heck, for seventy bucks you can get the latest version of the IBM Model M keyboard. Mmmmm...

I haven't stressed the graphics subsystem, and the only way I expect to would be if I hook it up to the TV as I already mentioned. Frankly, with integrated graphics I hope that nobody is expecting a gaming monster. On the other hand, I suspect that the graphics market is a little bit self important anyway. There wouldn't be any point in manufacturing a game and then limiting its user base to *only* the people who can afford a five hundred dollar adapter, would there?

The display on the Acer is 1600x900. As you might expect from my earlier comments, I have seen *much* better, but only on vastly more expensive systems. For what I paid, it is pretty darn nice. The only thing I don't like is the glossy display. I could live without that.

On the subject of glossy, that pretty much describes the entire thing. If fingerprints bug you, invest in some alcohol wipes because you are going to be busy.

Windows 7 is great, and 64 bit too. My only big gotcha so far was installing the 64 bit version of Java, then not understanding why the missus couldn't play "Text Twist". Internet Explorer is a 32 bit application if you want to know, so you have to install the 32 bit version of Java. Doh!

Only had it for three days. Froze....wouldn't boot. Had to send in for repair.....After two weeks it's still gone.

If you want BIG screen Blu-ray portability...this IS IT! I love Windows 7 too (sooo much better than Vista!!!) & the attractive blue color. It was exactly what I was looking for & was just released as well (Gotta enjoy having the latest gadgets while you can, right?!). You WON'T go wrong on this MONSTROUS value for the dollar...I promise! BIG Kudos to Acer!!!