Acer just announced the Aspire AS5738PG, their first multi-touch notebook, that will ship with Windows 7 on October 22nd. Unlike many mobile PCs that sport a touchscreen the Aspire AS5738PG doesn’t fold flat like a tablet, opting for a conventional laptop configuration. This doesn’t take away from the ability to use the touchscreen; it just changes the focus of touch technology from that of a tablet.
According to Acer, the multi-touch experience on the Aspire AS5738PGwill focus on making, “entertainment and multimedia experiences more intuitive and interactive.”
With this focus on entertainment, the new Aspire will let users;
- touch anywhere on the screen using one or two fingertips to play movies
- Zoom in and out on websites
- Edit photos and video
- Handwrite notes
- Resize windows
- Launch entertainment applications
- Use gestures like pinch, flip and swirl to zoom, navigate and browse.
For more details on what you can do with touch in Windows 7 on the Aspire AS5738PG check out this collection of touch apps.
Laptop Magazine had early access to this notebook and posted their full review of the Aspire AS5738PG including impressions of the touchscreen and the Acer Touch Portal.
While reading new messages posted to Twitter, we very much liked how we could zoom in on text to make it bigger by spreading two fingers apart, zoom out by bringing two fingers together in a pinching gesture, or scroll up/down by flicking in those directions with our index finger. When viewing images in the Photos folder, we could page through all of the pictures in the folder by swiping left or right with a single finger, which felt completely natural. In fact, after a few minutes of interacting with the 5738PG in this fashion (and after some initial trepidation), we found it superior to the mouse for navigating photos.
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Overall, touch worked like a charm, but with our fingers constantly pressing the screen, it reclined from a 90-degree angle to approximately 45 degrees over the course of a few minutes. You’ll clearly need to keep one hand behind the screen during longer touch computing sessions to keep the LCD front and center. We also found that the display picked up fingerprints quickly.
Overall the laptop earns good marks from Laptop Magazine for including touch at an affordable price but they wish the touch experience was a little bit more “robust”.
Another interesting part of the Aspire AS5738PG, that number crunchers are sure to love, is the dedicated numeric keypad for easy number entry.
The Aspire AS5738PG will be sold at select retailers later this month and according to the press release will be available at and MSRP of $799.
Acer Aspire AS5738PG Specifications
Operating System | Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit |
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Processor | Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T6600 (2.2GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 800MHz FSB) |
Memory/RAM | 4GB DDR2 667MHz Dual Channel Memory |
Display | 115.6-Inch HD CineCrystalâ„¢ LED-Backlit Multi-Touch Screen Display (Widescreen 16.9 Aspect Ratio, 1366×768 Resolution) |
Graphics | ATI Radeonâ„¢ HD 4570 Graphics with 512MB Dedicated DDR3 VRAM |
Hard Drive | 320GB SATA Hard Drive |
Optical Drive | 8X DVD-Super Multi Double-Layer Drive |
Battery | 6-Cell battery |
Wireless | Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 5100 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N Wi-Fi CERTIFIEDâ„¢ |
Audio/Visual | Two Built-In Stereo Speakers With Dolby®10-Optimized Surround Sound System, Acer Crystal Eye Webcam With 640 x 480 Supporting Acer PrimaLiteâ„¢ Technology |
Ports | 4x USB 2,0, power connector, HDMI, RJ-45/Ethernet, integrated multi-in-one media reader |
Price | Starts at $799 |
Weight | 6.16 lbs with 6-Cell Battery |