Inexpensive Laptop for School and Gaming- Acer Aspire 5745g-3690 Review

Recently I was shopping around for a Laptop built with the new i5/i7 processor, that had a decent graphics card and good build quality. Although hard to find, eventually I stumbled across the Acer Aspire AS5745G-3690 and was fairly pleased with what I read.

It currently is one of the best rated Laptops on Newegg.com (the only place you can buy it) and with a 5.8 Windows Experience Index, its for a good reason. Let me explain to you exactly why I love this Laptop and some issues you may have if you buy it.

Windows 7 Home Edition:

I have used every major operating system Windows has come out with since the beginning and was using XP before I bought this laptop. Windows 7 has made many interesting, and technical improvements since Vista, and does incredible in computer benchmarks. You can find comparisons of speed here: http://www.keyframe5.com/windows-7-vs-vista-performance-test/

i5 450M Processor:

This is part of the new line of processors that work very well in Laptops. The i5 450M is a 2.4GHZ dual core processor with added Turbo Boost Technology not found in its predessecor, the i3. The Turbo Boost Technology allows this processor to peak up to 2.66GHZ when the demand arises. So far from my experience this Processor has been great with everything I've done with it so far. I was able to render a AVCHD 14 minute video (roughly 1.5 gb) through Sony Vegas Pro 8 in under 40 minutes.

I would recommend the i5 over the i7 for a Laptop if you plan to be portable. The i7 is a quad core processor capable of much more, but it hasn't been doing so well with Laptops as it takes a lot of power, draining your battery and could cause your PC to overheat. The i5 has thusfar proved to be more reliable ; if you can find a good i7 and don't mind not being able to take it around without being plugged in then so be it. You can see how the i5 450M stacks up against competing processors here: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5+450M+%40+2.40GHz

NVIDIA Geforce GT 330M Graphics Card:

This graphics card is pretty good for a Laptop, it is actually the same graphics card that the new Macbook Pro's use but in this card theres 1 GB DDR3 dedicated RAM as apposed to the Macbooks 256/512. It would be better if this Laptop was given a stronger, cheaper, more power efficient graphics card like the ATI Radeon 5650, but all of the good Laptops with that card have slower processors.

I tested the Graphics card on some of the newest PC games: Mafia 2, Mass Effect 2, and ARMA 2: Operation Airhead. All three of these games played great in normal settings, and just a little bit laggy with high.

The NVIDIA graphics card is a powersucker, so don't expect to play any games without being plugged in, as you will not get more than 1 hour battery life with this graphics card. The great thing however is this model borrows from Macs way of saving power in their Macbooks.

The Acer Aspire 3690 automatically switches to its onboard INTEL GRAPHICS HD graphics card everytime you unplug it. That way your NVIDIA card does not suck the battery life.

To see how this Graphics Card plays some of your favorite games check out:http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-330M.22437.0.html

Battery Life:

Because it automatically switches back to its onboard Intel Graphics Card, you're able to get around 4 hours of battery life with Power Saver mode on. This is a really good for an i5 processor, but I think I would have preferred the battery to be bigger than just the 6 core Lithium Ion. When in Power Save mode the screen is VERY dark. You will have difficulty in low light situations, but with the proper lighting you'll be fine.

Resolution and Screen Size:

The screen is a perfect 15.6 inch, as most people including myself find 17 to be too big (and a power hog) and 13 too small. This screen is the perfect size.

The resolution however does not get as high as most people would hope for. It's very hard to find a 15.6 inch Laptop with higher Resolution than the standard 1366x768. This makes the Laptop capable of a crisp 720p (768p to be exact). The LCD Backlight is great, but when watching videos I notice a very insignificant white fuzz.

Keyboard and TouchPad:

Someone left a review on this product before I bought it saying the keyboard is very weak and they broke a key within the first day of owning it. So I was very careful with it at first, because it does indeed look weak. But now, I have become comfortable with the keyboard, and type around 70 WPM with decent pressure and don't seem to have any problems with it. It's actually very comfortable.

The keys are not smooshed together like you'd see on a lot of laptops, but they are elevated and spaced. If you're eating crummy donuts I'd suggest you stay away from the keyboard as between the spaces of the keys the laptop will pick up anything and everything.

The Touchpad is one of the new Multi Gesture Touchpads. What this means is whenever you put two fingers on the touchpad you are able to zoom in and out of the webpage or whatever you're doing by going left or right with your finger. To the right there is also a small area on the Touchpad that if you put your finger there and go up or down, it will navigate up and down the page. This is a very useful feature for Laptop owners as the most annoying thing with the touchpad is having to use two fingers to navigate down a page. The standard left click and right click buttons are below the touchpad, all one easy responsive button.

4 GB DDR3 1066MHZ RAM:

This has become the standard for new Laptops, so it's nothing impressive when you shop around, but definitely good to have 4 GB DDR3 RAM. It would be nicer if it was 6 GB, or if the RAM was a faster speed, but can't expect everything to be perfect. This Laptop is upgradeable to 8GB RAM.

Speakers:

The Acer Aspire 3690 has some of the best speakers for a Laptop in this price range. They get loud enough for you to place the Laptop 10 feet away and watch it like a TV, and the sound quality is great. That is attributed to the 3rd Generation Dolby Home Theater Audio Enhancement.

Internal Webcam/Mic:

I tested the Webcam and was not very pleased. If this is a selling point for you I would suggest you look for another Laptop. The quality is decent, but not great. I could see having webcam chats using this, but if you need a webcam I'd suggest investing in one that doesn't distort the colors.

The internal mic was tested with two different friends. They both could hear me just fine, saying that the sound quality wasn't great, but "okay". But that should be expected as Laptops don't tend to have good Mics.

Build Quality:

Typically Acers are known for having a lot of problems, and cheaper build quality. To see the likelyhood of your Acer having issues see this link:http://lifehacker.com/5524704/laptop+reliability-study-highlights-

But truth be told all computer manufacturers can make good computers every now and again. The placement of the USB Ports (3 on the right 1 on the left) is perfect. It uses the Intel HM55 Chipset. The screen is very sleek and thin, but does not feel weak, it even comes with an HDMI port, and SD card reader.

The only strange thing about the way this Laptop is built is the fan is on the left side of the Laptop. This to me is not a disadvantage, as I would feel the heat more if the hot air was coming out the back. This Laptop is very quiet and does not heat up unless you're using the NVIDIA Graphics card.

5400RPM 500GB HDD:

This PC could be a little bit better if the Hard Drives Revolutions Per Minute (RPM) was 7200. But most Laptops use 5400 and it is the standard. It performs great, but don't expect the fastest file transferring in the world.

Worth the price

All and all I think the Acer Aspire 3690 is definitely worth buying if you are able to catch it when it's not sold out again (it has sold out 4x that I've noticed so far). This computer is ideal for someone who is going back to school and wants a fast processor and decent graphics card. Besides having a significantly smaller battery, the specs match the $1700 Macbook Pro but for more than $900 cheaper. I would definitely look into this product:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115795