Acer Aspire AS5740G-6979: Budget Priced but Great Gaming
by Dustin Sklavos on April 2, 2010 7:39 PM ESTAt the end of the day, the major point to make about the Acer Aspire 5740-6979 is the one we've made repeatedly throughout the course of this review: this thing's available for just $749. The mobile gamer on a budget would be hard-pressed to find a better combination of specifications anywhere else. Other manufacturers are packing much less powerful GPUs in their notebooks in this price range, and that's assuming there's even a dedicated GPU at all. If gaming is your primary concern and money's tight, your decision is already made: you simply will not find a better combination of performance and price on the market. Bar none. The 2.26 GHz Intel Core i5 and powerful Mobility Radeon HD 5650 make this thing a steal at its asking price.
If, however, all things aren't entirely equal, you may want to ask yourself which sacrifices you're willing to make to get this much gaming power. The Aspire 5740G is bulky but not horrendously so, but the battery life is mediocre and the keyboard is going to make or break the notebook for some users. You're going to want to venture out into retail land – where Acer thankfully has a very strong presence – and check out the chassis and keyboard to see if they're compromises you can live with to get to the juicy, delicious performance-class components inside.
The other sacrifice for many users is going to be connectivity. Personally, the Aspire 5740 was all aces at first glance, but a lack of FireWire takes it out of contention for a great deal of multimedia work. Like the Dell Inspiron 15 we recently reviewed, omitted ports wouldn't be such a hassle if there was at least some kind of remedy available in the form of an ExpressCard slot. There isn't one. What you see is what you get with the Aspire 5740.
What we're left with is price, and Acer has made this mightily compelling. If you can handle the dreadful keyboard, the mediocre battery life, and the somewhat cheap-looking build, you'll find yourself with a heck of a machine for the money. The Mobility Radeon HD 5650 delivers plenty of gaming prowess that should last the earnest gamer for some time to come, and the Core i5-430M ensures games present and future won't be horribly starved for processor power. Bottom line: if all you're after is how much computer you can get under the hood for as little money as possible, Acer's Aspire 5740G is hands down the best laptop deal on the market.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
31 Comments
View All Comments
Fastidious - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
You'd think they'd put a bigger battery in it at least. I never understand laptops that have shitty battery life since the whole point of them is to be mobile. Two hours is terrible for a new laptop.Alurian - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
Agreed. What point is there in having a lighter laptop to carry around if it doesn't have the battery life for you to actually use it?Miggleness - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
That's where customers needs to balance things out. There's not gaming laptop under a grand that has decent battery life. Being mobile can mean you can easily lug the laptop anywhere, just be sure to plug it in. Can be a convenience to quite a number of people I know who game.vol7ron - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
Mobile devices don't always mean being able to use it at the beach, or use it on a train, w/o needing to plug it in. Instead, what's it's come to mean is that you have the luxury of TAKING IT PLACES with the opportunity of plugging it in; whereas lugging a desktop (and monitor) around with you is more of an inconvenience.I do agree that battery life should be better, since it seems like it takes 2 hours to wade through spam and check mail, but that is why they make multiple batteries of various capacities. There are also different uses for laptops; gaming is one of the most power hungry things you can do on a laptop, if you're using a kickass video card with a decent performing screen and expect high quality response, then you're going to need more juice. Such a laptop would be expected to be plugged in. Having such a system in a laptop case enables you to play at school, or on vacation, as well as at home.
Hrel - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
Seriously, I WANT to give them more money for a 1600x900 screen. And preferably a 7200rpm hard drive and a higher capacity battery wouldn't hurt but it's not really necessary.chrnochime - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
Well Considering that envy 15 is known to be hot as heck and with equally low battery life(the former being much more unavoidable), I think users would prefer either going with optimus or cooler (pun intended) designs.chicagotechjunkie - Monday, April 5, 2010 - link
The gen 1 envy had some heat issues, but the newest generation doesn't get very hot at all. after a full suite of benchmarks, the GPU never broke 72C (that's with an overclock). The palm rest and underside got a little warm, but nothing that was abnormal imo.blackshard - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
Why there are no AMD laptops in comparison? I mean, the only one is the gateway NV-52 with the old Athlon QL-64 and integrated graphics. Why there are no Turion II, for example? It would be nice to know the difference with higher priced notebooks.jasperjones - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
Anandtech delivers the best laptop reviews imo.However, I am getting more and more disappointed that virtually every laptop reviewed here features dedicated graphics. Why limit yourself to serving laptop gamers and people needing mobile business graphics cards? I can't be the only reader that prefers integrated graphics on a laptop (I assume there might be fewer readers that prefer integrated graphics on a desktop).
mtoma - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
Hello!There is something that really bothers me about Anandtech (otherwise my favorite tech site): why on Earth the laptop reviews ignore the long term reliability of the products? I am the co-owner of a computer repair-shop in Romania (in Europe, if you don't know where that country is).
And I can tell you first hand that 95% from all the laptops we repair are ACER!!!!! The motherboard often fails, there are serious flaws in the assembly quality, and in the medium and long run, these laptops suck!!!
When asked, the customers say that these laptops are cheap (they are the cheapest on the market, really) and they are confident on the reliability of a new product (which is, of course, a bad assumption). Here in Romania we have only one year warranty on the ACER machines, and of course, this tells us a lot about the quality of ACER laptops.
I believe, and I strongly suggest, that this respected site (and others who sell/buy those products) should care more about the medium and long term reliability of any tech product, because, often, the cheapest product is usually the worst buy decision. And, the cheapest laptop with a particular technical specification, has really NOT the best bang for the buck!
Suggestion: this site is very carreful about the realiability of the SSD drives, and in this regard his laptop reviews must be more aware.