I agree with Trellium’s excellent review. I use the Acer AS5742Z-4685 laptop for business: developing marketing plans and websites. The 4 gigabytes of RAM enable programs to quickly execute without any delay. The graphics are adequate for demo’s to clients and developing applications. (I do not play any games on the computer. Therefore have no perspective on its performance in that field.)

There was not too much software junk preinstalled. Although I did spend a few hours with Revo Uninstaller to remove everything but the basic stuff. I opted to work with Avast’s Antivirus software. It’s performance on the Acer is excellent – do not even realize it is operational. I also used MSCONFIG to turn off features, like the internal camera, that I do not use.

The unit is very light – easy to carry around. Good battery usage – about 3 to 4 hours.

Would highly recommend this computer to anyone interested in a quality laptop for multiple purposes.

I got this unit for $399 on sale. It’s got Intel’s latest great budget duo-core processor (P6100, without hyperthreading capability), not a stripped down single-core Celeron processor. The design is sleek and mesh-like surface finish resists finger print smudges and overall, it feels more expensive than it really is. You can burn restore disks from the recovery menu in case you need to reintall OS or a new HD. It came with 4G of RAM but I upgraded to 8G RAM ($105) and 320g 7200 RPM HD ($55). Now it runs blazing fast, for a budget laptop.
Pros: HDMI output to connect directly to LCD TV for fantastic picture and video viewing; 3 USB ports; runs cool and decent but not great battery life (about 3.5 hrs normal usage); built-in webcam; fantastic LED backlit LCD screen; solid keyboard; SD card reader.

Cons: onboard graphics processor not for gaming; lame sounding speaker (it only has one, not two), spotty customer and tech support (but not the worst); lots of Acer derived nannyware

Overall, one of two recommnded budget laptops under $500, other being ASUS K52 variant (Best Buy).
I would buy again.

Acer Aspire TimelineX AS5820T-6401 ACER AS1430Z-4677 ACER AS5552-5898 Acer Aspire TimelineX AS4820T-6645 ACER AX3400-U4032 ACER AZ3100-U3072 ACER AZ5700-U4002 ACER AM3400-B4052 Acer AS5253-BZ684 Acer AS7741Z-4839