To help us provide you with free impartial advice, we may earn a commission if you buy through links on our site. Learn more

Acer Aspire 5742G review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £545
inc VAT

The 5742G lives up to Acer's reputation for value, with good performance and decent features, but it lacks a few expansion ports

The Aspire 5742G is typical of the latest breed of Acer laptops, with its slimline design, powerful processor and relatively low price. We’re amazed sometimes how much Acer crams into its laptops; not only do you get the latest Core i3-370M processor, but there’s also a dedicated graphics processor that can play games, and a generous 500GB hard disk.

Acer Aspire 5742G

However there’s a cloud to go with this silver lining: Acer’s laptops come pre-installed with more software than most, and it’s mostly useless. The Programs list is filled with games and Acer utilities, each of which has its own uninstall entry. Many people are unaware of the extra software that runs by default on their new computer, often slowing it down, and it will take a while to clean up the 5742G so that you get the most from it.

Despite this, performance is good. An overall result of 86 in our benchmarks shows the 5742G to be powerful enough to handle almost any task. With 4GB of RAM, you’ll have plenty of overhead for working with large files.

We were surprised by the inclusion of a Radeon HD 5470 graphics card; at this price range, most laptops make do with an integrated graphics chip. The 5470 isn’t the fastest around though, and managed only 20fps in our Call of Duty 4 test, but with reduced settings you should be able to play many games.

Pages: 1 2

Basic Specifications

Rating****
ProcessorIntel Core i3-370M
Processor clock speed2.4GHz
Memory4.00GB
Memory slots2
Memory slots free0
Maximum memory8GB
Size34x381x253mm
Weight2.6kg
SoundRealtek HD Audio
Pointing devicetouchpad

Display

Viewable size15.6 in
Native resolution1,366×768
Graphics ProcessorATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470
Graphics/video portsVGA, HDMI
Graphics Memory512MB

Storage

Total storage capacity500GB
Optical drive typeDVD+/-RW +/-DL

Ports and Expansion

USB ports3
Bluetoothyes
Wired network ports1x 10/100/1000
Wireless networking support802.11b/g/n
PC Card slotsnone
Supported memory cardsSD, MMC
Other portsminijack audio output, minijack microphone input

Miscellaneous

Carrying caseNo
Operating systemWindows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Operating system restore optionbackup and recovery software
Software includedMicrosoft Office 2010 Starter, NTI Media Maker

Buying Information

Warrantyone year RTB
Price£545
Detailswww.acer.co.uk
Supplierhttp://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk

Read more

Reviews