Touch screens are everywhere. from tablets to smartphones, we're getting used to the idea of using our fingers to manipulate on-screen controls. Skip related content

Acer Aspire 5745PG review

Acer's Aspire 5745PG seeks to capitalise on this growing popularity of touch-screen technology by offering a device that combines the standard input devices of a laptop with the convenience of gesture-based input.

Touch screen

The Aspire's 15.6in touch-screen interface is certainly a neat touch (no pun intended). Its responsiveness and ease-of-use make it an attractive alternative to using the keypad or trackpad. With a 1366 x 768 maximum resolution, images are crisp and clear, and although fingerprints do tend to show up, a frequent wipe of the screen should sort that out.

It's easy to swipe to highlight multiple documents and similarly straightforward to click on and interact with an object. each touch of the screen is indicated with a small expanding circle animation and a cross-hair like cursor to indicate where you just pressed.

However, using the display to enter text via a soft keyboard is totally pointless, given that the device has a very nice real one.

The 5745PG also comes preloaded with several touch-screen-oriented tools and applications, including Acer's TouchBrowser, TouchMusic, TouchVideo, TouchPhoto applications and Microsoft's SurfaceGlobe, Rebound and Blackboard software.

Whether there's any business need for a touch screen on a laptop is up for debate, but it certainly gives the 5745PG an extra dimension and may entice iPad fans keen to flex their fingers.

Size and weight

The 5745PG is fairly big for a laptop, measuring 379mm x 250mm x 29mm and weighing 2.75kg similar proportions to the Samsung Q530, which V3.co.uk tested earlier this year.

As such it's not the most travel-friendly system, and so may be more suitable for use in and around the office rather than carrying around on a long journey.

That said, the laptop's island-style keyboard layout and responsive keys are very comfortable to use, as is the sizable trackpad.

However, the trackpad still leaves something to be desired, and we would recommend using an optical mouse when sat at a desk.

Videoconferencing

The laptop's built-in 1.3-megapixel webcam makes it eminently suitable for desktop videoconferencing.

The device uses Acer's own CrystalEye software, which can run through four display dimensions of 320 x 240, 640 x 480, 1280 x 800 and 1280 x 1024, offering a range of options for users making conference video-calls.

Battery

The device's maximum battery life is claimed to be a very modest 3.5 hours, and when we tested the battery using the Battery Eater Pro Classic test, which simulates high-intensity activity, the 5745PG in fact only lasted one hour and 38 minutes.

In Battery Eater's Reader mode test, which simulates reading text or some other low-intensity task, it still only lasted for two hours and 23 minutes.

The results underline the fact that this is not really a system for travelling business executives, but is rather more suited to in-office use.

Hardware

The components of the device are solid, as it's powered by an Intel Core i3-350M processor running at 2.26GHz and has 4GB of DDR3 Memory, expandable to a maximum 8GB. Storage comes in the form of a 320GB Sata hard drive, with a DVD Super-Multi drive for optical media.

For network access it combines the usual 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi connectivity options as well as a modem and Gigabit Ethernet.

Other I/O consists of four USB ports, HDMI output as well as a VGA port for connecting an external display, and an ExpressCard slot for adding expansion adapters. there is also a multi-format slot for reading Memory Stick, Memory Stick, PRO, MMC,SD card, and xD Flash storage cards.