“Buying a laptop is not an easy task – it often means
looking for specs you need now and specs that could offer some
functionality down the road. For a Linux developer interested in
touch computing, the Acer 5738 represents an interesting option for
developing touch-screen apps and working with eventual touch
versions of Linux distros. Today, the 5738 is intended for use with
Windows 7, but it is easy to configure the system for a dual-boot
and use any recent distro.“The Acer Aspire 5738 is essentially a standard laptop equipped
for basic computing and development work that happens to support
touch. The system uses a dual-core 2GHz processor and came equipped
with 4GB of RAM. One of the most impressive specs on this laptop is
the weight – at only 2.6 kilograms, it feels portable enough
to carry around all day while still benefiting from the fast
processing speed and desktop-like performance. The all-grey design
lacks some of the pizzazz of a Toshiba or Sony laptop and makes it
look like it was designed more for an office setting than home
(which is a good thing). The trackpad was unfortunately one
detriment to an otherwise well-designed laptop – running
Ubuntu 9.10, we found the trackpad would slip slightly and was not
quite as precise as we would like for detailed work, although we
solved that problem quickly by using an external mouse.”
Acer Aspire AS5738PG Netbook review
By
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