Acer Aspire 4730ZG Review

Ok – this is probably an untimely review. After all, this computer isn’t the latest powerhouse to come down the block. For the most part, it’s a decent computer. Here’s the breakdown.

1. Screen/Graphics

The 14.1” screen is really nice. The contrast is good enough to make digital photo really pop from the screen, and the text is big enough to read without having to lean in toward the screen.

Graphics are on-board (as are most laptops), and so far it seems to be holding up very well. I haven’t decided whether or not to shoehorn World of Warcraft of the system yet (I might do it as a test), so I don’t know what the 3d capabilities of the computer are. It also has a VGA out, so I could hook up a monitor to it to use externally. Up to 1536MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD3470 HyperMemory. Anyway just to give you a rough idea of the performance in Intel graphic cards, my laptop has Intel 4500MHD. Can play Warcraft 3 smoothly at 1280 x 768 resolution.
Can play Left 4 Dead at 640x480 but quite laggy. When there is incoming attack, the game will be too laggy to be playable. But when going through areas which are empty, it is smooth.So,with ATI technology it could be more than that....

2. Sound

The built-in speakers are very tinny, but the sound output from the headphones is very clean. No popping or distortion, and the jack is located conveniently on the left hand side of the computer.

3. Hard Drive

250 GB. Plenty of room for movies, music and pictures.

4. Keyboard

The keyboard, for me, is hard to get used to. I’m very used to have the springy tactile response from a regular computer keyboard, so typing on the laptop feels like I’m light touch typing, and it’s not easy to get used to.

5. Touchpad

It’s sensitive. And the ability to scroll using the right side of the pad is cool, but not easy to control. I’ll be getting a small laptop mouse for this computer.

6. DVD Drive

It as one, and it burns fine,a little bit slower than a desktop’s would. I haven’t ripped any DVD’s off of it, so I don’t know how the read/write speed is yet.Maybe at the speed of 8x Super-Multi DVD...

7. Networking

The wireless access is great. I get faster downloads over wi-fi than I do wired on my desktop. Whether that is because the computer is new, or because the signal is faster, I’m not sure. It also has a port for a direct wired connection, and – in a quaint 1990’s gesture – it has a built in 56K modem. acer Nplify 802.11b/gDraft- WLAN

8. Vista

Well… It’s Vista Home Premium 32bit. Despite the bad publicity and general crapped-on-ness that it’s got, it works fine. I’ve used Vista at my friend’s place of and on, but I haven’t had any significant time to delve into it and see what it can do.

9.Processor

The processor for 4730ZG is Dual Core T4200 ( 2.0 ghz, 800mhz FSB, 1MB L2 cache ) which is the SAME chip as Core 2 Duo T6400. You won't notice the performance difference. Pentium Dual Core and Core 2 Duo are just marketing terms.

10.USB hub

There's only 2 usb hub for this model...needs more extension for this model...

11. Overall feel

It’s a great machine – I like the fact that I have it setup to do e-mail websurfing. One of the few downsides is the battery life – only 3 hours. I’m going to try to find a 6-cell battery to replace the current one so that I can get a few more hours of time on it.

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