Acer Aspire AS7736Z-4809 Laptop – 17.3″ HD+ Widescreen / Intel Pentium Dual Core T4300 / 4GB Memory / 320GB HD / 8X DVD-Super Multi / Webcam / Windows 7 Home Premium

3 comments

1. 

   Sudarshan Karkada on December 11, 2009 at 4:02 pm

   I bought this computer yesterday evening and used it less than 2 hours so far. I am very happy with the product – may be Windows 7 gets much of the credit.

   I have two other laptop computers, one is a 8 year old VAIO and another is a 4 year old Toshiba. So, I am not up-to-date with laptops and you may find some of the things that impressed me are not really new cool features.

   1 – Wireless worked without having to do anything. Windows 7 detected our SSID, prompted for WEP key, and just connected.
   
   2 – There is a push button next to the touchpad to enable/disable the touchpad. When you are going to type a lot of text, just disable the touchpad.
   
   3 – The system prompted me to create the recovery disks. It said I needed 3 DVD disks and I had just 3. First recovery disk created fine, second one failed complaining disk errors, so I gave my 3rd blank disk and it successfully created the 2nd recovery disk. I have to buy more disks to create the third recovery disk. I wasn’t using top quality disks, so I am willing to give the benefit of doubt to the computer.
   
   4 – Webcam worked OK – I only took one snapshot.
   
   5 – Hard disk was partitioned into two drives. None of the computers I bought so far had done that. I always do that myself and I was happy to see that they saved me about half an hour work.
   
   6 – Power adapter brick is surprisingly small – power inlet is on the left side (towards back), and the cable tip is in L shape which is very convenient. Some manufacturers (HP?) make the tip straight and it takes up additional space and causes unnecessary stress on the cable.
   
   7 – I didn’t find any part of the computer to be finger print attracting.
   
   8 – It looked like the battery was charged completely in one hour – the charging light turned from red to blue and the try icon showed full charge.

   Overall, I think the computer is designed and built well. I will update the review as I find new things.

2. 

   NYT on December 11, 2009 at 4:10 pm

   We use this computer for work, and it operates extremely fast. The screen is really clear and the product is just generally a great value for a windows 7 computer /w 4gb ram and an intel processor.

3. 

   Brad on December 11, 2009 at 4:13 pm

   Bought this for just under $500 on sale, and am happy with it. Keep in mind it’s not a gaming computer, the graphics card is low end and while it has some ability, it’s not going to run new games. There’s no “Nvidia control panel” here, or options to improve performance or tailor graphics settings outside of games. It did run older games just fine such as Warcraft III and Star Wars Battlefront I maxed out, but even Battlefront pushed it to it’s limits. Those games looked very nice and you can certainly play your RPG, Strategy and 4+ year old games with no problems.

   The laptop’s value comes into play via the 17″ widescreen monitor, which is glossy and colorfully bright, the Dolby surround sound, more than adequate stereo speakers, HDMI-out, and all the other typical options in a mid-range laptop (3 USB 2.0 ports, card reader slot, 320GB hard drive, Windows 7, 4 GB of memory).

   It’s a big laptop, but sturdy and well-built like most Acer products I’ve owned, it’s also quite sharp and sleek looking. So if you’re looking for privacy in public areas, not the best option. I will have to see if it’s reasonable to open on a plane, for instance. But having a nice music/video machine for hotel stays, vacations, road trips and even classes, is nice, despite it’s width (it’s thin, but wide).

   The keyboard is comfortable, large and quiet, although the raised keys lend themselves to crumbs and dirt getting inside. The trackpad is adequate, but not the best I’ve used, like most Acers. I don’t use two finger scroll nor the scrollbar option on the right-hand side of the pad, and prefer a USB cordless mouse any ways.

   The HDMI-output is a huge plus, hooking up easily to my large screen Plasma TV and 5.1 THX sound system via an HDMI switcher box I had laying around.

   There’s no Blu-Ray drive or true HD capabilities here, but it will play high res videos back effortlessly, and the included Pentium T4300 processor keeps the price down, while allowing for very fast performance in Windows and with audio/video playback.

   It’s a good value for all you get, just don’t expect to play demanding games on it, but it is like owning a portable entertainment system with fast, easy to access Wi-Fi capabilities, and the speed and stability of Windows 7. It also boots up quickly, runs quietly (even the DVD drive) and again is just an all-around great value.