Are you ready to reach out and touch your notebook? Acer wants you to do just that with its Aspire 5738PG, a 15.6-inch laptop that utilizes Windows 7’s touchscreen support to let you navigate Web pages, zoom into photos, and dabble in multimedia when you place your fingers on the screen. But the system is no one-trick pony; Acer has packed in a fast Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a capable ATI graphics card, and Dolby audio for a relatively low $799. The touch interface feels half baked and glitchy at times, but if you’re looking for an all-around performer with touch as a bonus, the 5738PG is a good choice.
Design
Measuring 15.1 x 9.9 x 1.0 inches and weighing 6.1 pounds, the 5738PG is a tad bulkier and heavier than the 5.6-pound, 14.6 x 9.8 x 1.5-inch Gateway NV, as well as the 5.6-pound, 14.6 x 9.8 x 1.2-inch Sony VAIO NW. The system sports Acer’s classy Gemstone design, which incorporates a dark blue lid (attracting a light amount of fingerprints and smudges), a charcoal gray base (featuring a granulated dot pattern), and black accents throughout.
To the upper-left of the keyboard are easily accessible on/off buttons for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, an illuminated power button, and the Acer Backup Manager button (which lets users create automatic backup profiles). Adjacent to those are status indicator lights, and to the far right you’ll find dedicated volume keys, along with a user-definable shortcut button. A microphone is positioned dead in the middle.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The wide base affords a roomy and comfortable keyboard with firm, chiclet-style keys that made it easy to tap out documents, e-mails, and URLs. We appreciated the large Shift keys and full number pad. Using the touchpad, we could two-finger swipe through photos, and use pinch gestures to zoom in/out of images. The mouse buttons were quite mushy, and didn’t offer much in the way of feedback. A button to the right of the touchpad allows you to disable it when pressed, and a biometric fingerprint reader is nestled between the mouse buttons to keep data away from prying eyes.
Display and Audio
The high-definition 15.6-inch, 1366 x 768-pixel display provided sharp visuals when we loaded up our DVD of The Matrix. Darks scenes and clothing had plenty of richness without being overbearing, but the screen’s glossy coating kicks back heavy reflections.
The Dolby Home Theater speakers (positioned north of the keyboard) served up very clean and loud sound. While listening to Curtis Mayfield’s “Wild and Free,” we marveled at the crispness of the horns and the separation from the high and low-end sounds that were delivered by the Virtual SurroundSound technology. The bass wasn’t as robust as Acer’s own machines that feature CineBass (such as the Acer Aspire 8920G), but the 5738PG certainly sounds better than other notebooks in this price range.
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