Did you finally get to see Avatar in glorious 3D? Loved it? How about watching a load more movies and pics in 3D on your laptop? Acer may just have come up with the answer – check out our multidimensional Acer Aspire AS5738 3D laptop review to see whether this really is the future of computing.
Outwardly the Acer Aspire AS5738 3D laptop seems like hordes of others on the market. It’s styled in no-nonsense black and grey and if you parade around the sides you’ll find most of the usual suspects: a 5-in-1 memory card reader, four USB 2.0 ports and adaptors for modem, Ethernet and VGA. Strangely there’s an HDMI output which made us hope for a Blu-ray optical drive, but alas we were only offered a standard DVD player.
See, the fun part with the Acer Aspire AS5738 3D laptop begins when you lift the lid and view the 15.6” HD LED-backlit TFT LCD, with its widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio. Once you turn on the cool blue backlit power button above the keyboard, you can launch your first venture into 3D laptop viewing thanks to the integrated TriDef 3D screen.
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Inside the box for the Acer Aspire AS573683D laptop are two sets of smoky grey glasses (one’s a pair of clip-ons for spec wearers) that are far sturdier than the old cardboard green and red lenses. Slip them on, start the programme and then watch some mind-boggling demos that really do give you true 3D depth and perspective.
What’s even better is that you can then open games, movies and photos via the TriDef software and they too will be transformed from 2D to 3D. Using the Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 CPU in the Acer Aspire AS5738 3D laptop, this works especially well with low-spec games like F.E.A.R. and Sims 3 but unfortunately the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 graphics card struggles when dealing with more demanding actioners like Crysis. Also, after about an hour, the glasses start to pinch and you start to go cross-eyedm so it’s advisable to enjoy this gimmick only for short bursts.
Apart from the 3D fun, the Acer Aspire AS5738 3D laptop is a perfectly respectable if unexceptionable work machine – it’s light (just 2.8 kg), has a very responsive keyboard and off-centre, lockable touchpad, plus energy saving features, Dolby surround sound, WiFi and Bluetooth. If you could merge this 3D laptop with MSI’s GT740, that would be awesome!