Acer rolls out new budget-minded Aspire laptops
By Donald Melanson 
posted Jun 22nd 2009 3:52PM
posted Jun 22nd 2009 3:52PM
They may not be quite as thin and light as Acer's Timeline laptops, but the company's latest trio of Aspire models will at least save you a few bucks, and give you some decent enough specs as well. On the low-end of the lot are the 15.6-inch AS5536 and the 17.3-inch AS7735Z (pictured above), the former of which packs an AMD Athlon 64 X2 processor, 3GB of DDR2 RAM, ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics, and a 320GB hard drive, while the latter sports a Pentium T4200 processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics, and a 250GB hard drive. Both of those, however, are bested by the 15.6-inch AS5739G, which dials things up to a Core 2 Duo T6500 processor, 4GB of RAM, NVIDIA Geforce GT130M graphics with 1GB of memory, a 250GB hard drive, and a built-in Blu-ray drive -- all for just $750. Look for all three to be available this month, with the AS5536 and AS7735Z running $480 and $600.
How are you supposed to type on that thing with the trackpad where it is?
It seems the trackpad is moving further and further to the left every time I see a new laptop.
Its centered on the main keys. Just happens to be a full keyboard 17"
looks kinda lob sided
How many times do people have to ask this?! It IS in the center, right under the spacebar.
Guh, the only thing that makes this a no go is the graphics. If it had an ATi Mobility or an NVidia M chip I would consider it.
Sarcasm?
"its centered on the main keys. Just happens to be a full keyboard 17"
It still isn't centered on the main keys, you know.
Any guess as to when the desktop line will get a refresh? That last batch of Aspire X1200 models seemed to be a pretty good "entry" HTPC for the price, especially after the audio sync got fixed up for the HDMI out. I think the X1200's came out about this time last year, so I was hoping to see the next versions soon.
Look pretty damn good, given the price!
I think the top end model might actually beat the supercheap Vaio from a couple days ago.
That 15.6 sounds pretty nice. Although I'd rather have excellent battery life than a Bluray drive, I'll never use that thing. And that button beside the trackpad is most likely there to turn the pad on and off in case your worried about it getting in the way while typing. I'd like to see more photos.
they sound like great deals actually.
*will consider
What do you mean budget? Budget laptops are $430 right now and sometimes hit $350 with 15" screens.
im sure the price of these will fall within 6 months
good point. nevermind ;)
A whole gig of GTX130.. that's better than a 9600GT.
Stupid broken reply buttons.
Heh, I have one of the previous models (6930) hooked up to an external monitor because its screen is broken. It is now my desktop.
Can the CPU+GPU handle 1080p h264?
Well they are cheap for a built in BR player in a laptop. However without screen res specs its kinda hard to determine the quality on screen of said BR players playback ability. However given the price its probably 1280x800 screen or maybe a bit more.
More like 1366x768 - these are 16:9 aspect ratio notebooks from the sounds of it.
It's not too bad, as I've got one myself (the 16" 6920G).
How long until the network adapters decide to uninstall themselves and then stop working permanently?
if you read the corrected release there is no blu-ray...looks like I'm back to saving for the Vaio NW
Has anyone found out where the TIMELINE is being sold??? I am still looking for that!
The press release has been "corrected," no blu-ray drive after all.
Yeah, these things have "8X DVD-Super Multi Double-Layer Drive"