Acer Aspire 4740 Review
We got a 14-inch Acer laptop here sporting a Core i5 processor for review. The Acer Aspire 4740 comes in many configurations. The more common ones have a Core i3 processor with an ATI or NVIDIA graphics card. Ours, the 4740-432G32Mn, has a Core i5 but only with integrated graphics.
I’ve been playing with it for the past couple of weeks now and here’s my review of this laptop.
Design
The lid of the Aspire 4740 has a simple, glossy, dark blue coating. No textures or patterns but still looks classy. The palm rest on the inside however, has a bluish gray textured finish (see photos below).
The circular power button on the upper left portion emits a blue glow to add a bit of personality to this basic laptop.
The keyboard looks like that of their Timeline series and the layout is pretty standard which is good. The keys are evenly spaced and provides good tactile feedback. The Home, Pg Up, Pg Dn and End keys on the rightmost side also alternate as multimedia controls. I didn’t have any problems typing this review on this laptop.
On the right side are six very useful buttons. One quick-button where you can assign an application or a website. WiFi button that also blinks when you’re connected to a WLAN. A Bluetooth button. A one-key button to launch Acer Backup Manager. And finally, the most useful buttons, volume control.
The touchpad has a dedicated scroll area on the right which I like and it can also handle multi-touch gestures. The only drawback for me is the rocker which is slightly recessed and far from the edge making it hard to click with the side of your thumb. There’s also a button to toggle the touchpad on or off in case you’re going to do a lot of typing.
Display and Audio
The LED glossy display can do a maximum of 1366 x 768 resolution which is pretty standard for 14-inchers these days. Glare is expected in this type of display and viewing angles are a bit limited.
I also have to mention that there’s no indicator for brightness so you have to play it by sight if you’re going to adjust the brightness setting.
The top part of the keyboard is dedicated to the speaker which is powered by Dolby Home Theater with Virtual Surround Sound. It’s not that powerful really when left on its own but you will appreciate it once you put on a pair of headset. I highly recommend it especially when you’re watching movies with a lot of “oomph”.
The Crystal Eye webcam is optimized for low-light video chatting and you know what? It works! I compared it with my netbook’s standard cam and this one gives better results in a low-light setting.
Performance
This Acer Aspire 4740 comes with a 64-bit Windows 7 Home Basic OS and powered by an Intel Core i5 430M (2.26GHz) processor. Sad thing that the default RAM is only at 2GB. Upgrade to 4GB immediately to maximize the 64-bit OS. Anyway, here’s its Windows Experience Index:
Comparing it to the previously reviewed Core i5 laptop from Neo (B4105), the Aspire 4740’s processor seems to be well-used at a score of 6.7. Or maybe we have to attribute it to the 64-bit OS? Real-life usage won’t show much difference anyhow.
If you’re not familiar with the difference between a Core i3 and a Core i5 processor. It’s the Turbo Boost Technology which allows a Core i5 to automatically overclock a single core when needed and if other cores are not being used. Pretty useful really for applications that do not utilize multiple processing threads.
Facebook games and YouTube HD are being handled really well. One thing I noticed is the slow boot time. For a fresh laptop, it takes a minute and 10 seconds to launch an application. I’m not sure if it’s due to Windows 7 or the bunch of Acer crapwares that are installed by default but my 2 year-old netbook running on Windows XP boots faster.
Battery Life
Common problems with powerful laptops such as this is the toll it takes on the battery. The Aspire 4740’s 4400mah 6-cell battery doesn’t help that cause either.
Here’s what BatteryBar has to say about it:
It says that the battery can give you 3 hours and 48 minutes on a single charge. To try it out, I employed my primitive but effective way of testing a laptop’s battery life. WiFi always on, brightness at medium setting, browsing, playing Facebook games and watching YouTube vids, I was only able to get 2.5 hours out of it. You can probably squeeze 3 hours max on light to regular consumption.
Heat isn’t an issue with the Aspire 4740 which is nice for a Core i5. It gets warm but its very tolerable even when it’s plugged in and charging.
Conclusion
Well what can I say? It’s a very basic Core i5 laptop. I would want a more powerful battery on it and maybe a couple GB more RAM but it’s a decent choice for an everyday laptop. Do note that you can sprout bigger biceps lugging this 2.3kg baby around.
What I really like about it is the surround sound. I kid you not, you should really try it out with a pair of headsets. Oh and the low-light webcam is very nice as well if you often do video-chats with relatives.
The price is a little bit on the high-end for a basic Core i5 laptop. Villman priced it at Php40,900 but there should be better deals in other stores.
Local price: Php40,900
Specs:
- Processor: Intel® Core i5 430M Dual Core Processor (2.26 GHz)
- OS: Genuine Windows® 7 Home Basic (64-bit)
- Display: 14″ WXGA (1366 x 768, Glare Type)
- Graphics: Integrated Intel® GMA HD
- HDD: 320 GB HDD
- RAM: 2GB DDR3
- Optical Drive: Super-Multi DVD+RW
- Ports: USB 2.0 x 3, VGA, HDMI, SD/MS Card Reader
- Wireless Connection: WiFi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth 2.1
- Battery: 4400mah 6-cell Li-Ion
- Weight: 4.8 lbs.
Related posts:
- Acer Aspire 4553G Review
- Acer Aspire One D150 Review
- Acer Aspire One 721 Ultraportable
- Asus K43 vs. Acer Aspire AS4750G
i have this one! super sulit!!
i love core acer 4740. hmmm but how can i find driver for windows XP?
how much????
mejo mataas lang to sa aspire 4741 ko. intel i3 lang eto.! 30k..
sulit din naman.
walang lag.
what is the difference of core i5 to i7 and what its price in the market
I also like my acer aspire 4740 i5. I bought it last march 2010 for only 37,590 . Noong unang first week ko itong ginamit nasira ang harddisk as in hardware problem pero pinaayos ko agad sa acer service center dahil meron akong warranty. Pinalitan ng harddisk tapos sila na din naglagay operating system. Medyo may nagbago sa video cam nawala yung menu doon sa window ng crystal eye. Hindi na din ako makapagrecord ng video. Pero the performance ok pa din naman. Mabilis ang loading ng OS malinaw ang crystal eye cam. Nirecommend ko pa din sa friend ko na bilhin acer dahil wala ng ibang problema. Satisfied pa din ako sa acer.
leptop aspire 4740 core i3 bermasalah dengan batre,saat saya isi tidak mau 100% full tp hanya 87,89 persen saja….. knapa yaaa…. itu kejadian nya setelah saya istal (format ulang)…..mohon di beri solusi nya,,,,,
i have this pero i3.. can i ask if i can upgrade video card & 2gb memory into 4gb? thanks!
bad experience with acer. keyboard is not responding, my warranty is 2.5 weeks to go. when i went to the shop I bought it to they said Acer’s waiting time to process is 2 weeks, my warranty might not make it. so told me to go to their branch in paco. then from there they told me they dont service there, directed me to 2 other branches which where bogus for servicing. on the shop where i bought it from there are 5 of us with the same problem with acer and it’s services. not hapi,