Design
The AS5742-6811 uses the same chassis as the design of the Acer Aspire AS5742-6475 ($ 599.99 list, 4 stars), texture matte black finish does a good job of fingerprints, but does not want the overall design is very clear research. A polished silver Acer logo on the lid is the only touch of flash to be found in this model. At 4.9 pounds the AS5742-6811 is lighter than most 15 inch laptops, including HP dv6-6013cl (5.6 pounds), Samsung RV511-A01 ($ 599.99 list, 4 stars) (5.2 lb) , and the gateway NV50A02u (list $ 449.99, 4 stars) (5 pounds).
The 15.6-inch screen has a resolution of 1366 x 768, which is about standard for a budget laptop class. The screen is bright and offers bright colors, but there are hints of changing color as seen in a side angle. Full-size keyboard has large island-style keys, and there is a dedicated number pad on the right. There are a lot of space between each key, providing a comfortable typing experience, but has the potential to collect dust and crumbs. The touchpad has a smooth and sensitive, while the mouse buttons, which are integrated into a single bar, easily engaged and emits an audible click when pressed. There are no dedicated buttons media here, a power button and two LEDs (Wi-Fi and hard drive) sitting alone at the top of the stack.
Features
The characteristics are typical of a budget laptop. You get three USB 2.0 ports, VGA, HDMI, headphone and microphone, an Ethernet port, a 1.3 megapixel webcam and a multi-format card. 802.11n wireless networking built in, but this model is not compatible with Intel WiDi (Wireless Display) or high-speed WiMAX capabilities like the Samsung RV511-A01 only. Neither one eSATA port. The AS5742-6811 comes with a multi-loading DVD tray and a spacious 640 GB hard drive with Windows 7 Home Premium and some Acer applications, including a webcam utility and backup software. Besides the usual bloatware Ebay and Netflix, you get Cyberlink PowerDVD Suite and a trial version of McAfee Internet Security.
Specifications
Type
General purpose, value,
Processor Name
Intel Core i5-480M
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Processor speed
2.67 GHz
RAM
6 GB
Weight
4.9 pounds
Screen Size
15.6 inches
Screen Size Type
widescreen
Graphic card
Intel HD Graphics
Storage capacity (tested)
640 GB
Network Options
802.11n
Primary Optical Drive
Double Layer DVD + /-RW
Performance
Acer Aspire AS5742-6811 uses a processor 2.67GHz Intel Core i5 480m in tandem with 6GB of RAM. Even if the CPU is not based on the most recent (Sandy Bridge), the technology is more efficient than Intel Core i3 in most notebooks in this price range, and offers very good productivity. For example, AS5742-6811 PCMark Vantage score of 6161 was about 600 points higher than the HP Pavilion dv6-6013cl, and more than 1,000 points more than the Lenovo G560-0679AKU (599 $ list, 3.5 stars). And 'jumped the AMD-based Dell Inspiron M501R-1748MRB (list $ 649.99, 3 stars) (4534), clearly out of the water. Also impressive multimedia performance, AS5742-6811 hand brake (2:37), Cinebench R11.5 (2.36), and Photoshop CS5 (4:41), the results have led to a class across the board.
As usual, the budget this notebook, AS5742-6811 does not provide a faster graphics performance. Integrated Intel Graphics HD (i5), the solution is sufficient for watching movies on DVD and web video streaming, but its 3DMark06 score is 2044 (1024 x 768) so as not to handle more graphics-intensive DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 game titles. HP dv6-6013cl, taking advantage of the new bridge on-die GPU Sandy, has done a much better result 4116.
The AS5742-6811 is 48WH battery gave us a nice long track. It lasted 5 hours 7 minutes on the MobileMark 2007 test battery, which is close to what we saw in Acer 5742-6475 (5:01) and HP 6013cl-DM6 (5:17), and a little longer than The Dell Inspiron M501R-1748MRB (3:17).
With the Acer Aspire AS5742-6811 does not have to sacrifice performance to save money to register. Of course, it will not be as robust as many features and wireless capabilities make the HP Pavilion dv6-6013cl (which is WiDi2 and WiMAX) and AS5742-6811 uses the first generation of the Core Technology, while the HP touts bridge dv6-6013cl Sandy upper platform. Apart from that, when it comes to computing power of the Acer Aspire AS5742-6811 provides for the dollar in greatbang budget laptop.
