Acer Aspire Laptop AS5732Z-4280 $399 @ OfficeMax,T4400 dual,3GB,320GB HD,15.6" LCD,webcam,DVD-RW, wifi b/g/n,Win7 64b

OfficeMax has an Acer Aspire AS5732Z-4280 laptop on a sale for $399.99 that started yesterday (Sunday 1/17/2010). It has an Intel T4400 (Dual Core Pentium @ 2.2GHZ), 3GB, 320GB HD, 15.6" LCD backlit display, Webcam, DVD-RW, Wifi b/g/n, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64b comes pre-installed. I was surprised that nobody posted the deal, so here it is.

Since Windows 7 appeared, it seems to me that the sub-$400 deals for standard 15.6"-screen notebooks that have something better than a single-core Celeron or lower-end AMD chip have dried up. Since I have another low-end laptop with a T4300 Pentium dual-core, I knew my next low-end laptop would have to have that processor or something better. Acer has a great reputation & the price was right, so I jumped on it when my local Austin, TX OfficeMax opened yesterday morning.

OfficeMax link - Link
Acer website - Link

Note that the 5732 on the Acer website shows an Intel T4300 processor (2.1 GHz). The OfficeMax model has the slightly better T4400 (2.2 GHz).

From OfficeMax website:
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Product Description (AS5732Z-4280):
Installed Memory - 3GB
Processor Series - Pentium
Processor Brand - Intel
Operating System - Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Hard Drive Size - 320GB
Webcam - Built in Webcam
Processor Model - Pentium Processor T4400
Graphics Memory - - up to 1695MB
Optical Drive Detail 8x DVD Super Multi Double Layer Drive
Processor Bus (MHz) - 800MHz
Battery - 6-cell Lithium-Ion battery
Card Reader - 5-in-1 integrated digital media reader
Screen Type and Resolution - 15.6 HD Widescreen CineCrystal LCD display (1366 x 768 resolution)
Optical Drive Write Speed - 8x
Estimated Battery Life - up to2.5hrs battery life
External Ports - 2 - USB 2.0 Ports, 1 - VGA Port, 1 - Headphone/Speaker/Line-out Jack with S/PDIF Support, 1 - Microphone-in Jack, 1 - Ethernet (RJ-45) Port, 1 - DC-in Jack for AC Adapter, 1 - Kensington Lock Slot
Processor Cache Size - 1MB L2 Cache
Chipset Mobile - Intel GL40 Express Chipset
TV Tuner - N/A
Dimensions - 14.4" (W) x 3.97" (D) x 12.36" (H)
Graphics Brand/ Model - Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500M
Hard Drive Detail - 320GB 5400RPM Serial ATA
Wireless Compatibility - 802.11b/g/Draft - N Wi-Fi Certified
Audio - Two built in Stereo Speakers
Fingerprint Reader - N/A
Installed Memory DIMMs - 1 x 2048MB & 1 x 1024MB
Graphics Type - Dynamic
Screen Size - 15.6" diagonal widescreen
Modem Detail - N/A
Memory Type - DDR2
Processor Speed (GHz) - 2.2GHz
Weight - 6lbs
Networking Detail - 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet LAN
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So far, I'm very satisfied. The webcam, Wifi draft-N spec, and generous HD size was a plus at this price point. Another surprise, which I confirmed on the Acer website (link above) is that it's an LCD backlit screen - 15.6" (1366 x 768) high-brightness (220-nit) TFT LCD. I like the keyboard (with dedicated numeric keypad on right side) and the large smooth touchpad with a dedicated vertical scrolling area. I'm burning recovery disks right now - three blank DVDs required for O/S, one blank DVD for apps+drivers.

I don't mean to say negative things about this laptop at all, but let me also go over the negative points as gently as possible -

* No HDMI at this price point, just standard VGA
* No 4:3 display, just standard 16:9 1366x768 TFT
* Only 2 USB ports total, both on the left side
* No dedicated volume ctl (just Fn-UpArrow or Fn-DnArrow)

btw there was no HDMI on the $499.99 Acer Aspire at OfficeMax either, also in their current ad.

Windows Experience Ratings:
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Processor: 5.5
Memory: 5.5
Graphics: 3.5
Gaming gfx: 3.3
Disk: 5.4

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Processor specs:
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Intel T4400 Essentials

Status Launched
Launch Date Q4'09
Processor Number T4400
# of Cores 2
# of Threads 2
Base Frequency 2.2 GHz
L2 Cache 1 MB
FSB Speed 800 MHz
Instruction Set 64-bit

Intel T4400 Design Specs

Processing Die Lithography 45 nm
Max TDP 35 W
Package Size 35mm x 35mm
Processing Die Lithography 45 nm
Processing Die Size 107 mm2
# of Processing Die Transistors 410 million
Sockets Supported PGA478

[Deleted duplicate message]

vchadaga said: Just picked one up -- it's a great laptop for the price. The quality is suprisingly good. The only two drawbacks are that it only has two USB ports and no microphone (although it does have webcam).

and the 2.5 hour battery life.

Sorry if I'm showing off my newbie-ness, but this seems to be mis-categorized as a "netbook". Should be a notebook since it's a full keyboard with numeric keypad, a 15.6" screen, and a Pentium dual-core processor. How do I fix this?

It has better specs than the Lenovo G550 posted today so I want to make sure folks see it.

NOTE: The "GL40" is the codename for GMA 4500M (the old, much slower version of the GMA4500HD chipset).

Don't forget to use bing (see officemax store) to get 3% off ($11.10) WITH the coupon ($30 off $150 or more purchase) to bring the total to 358.89 (plus taxes) - I was able to combine the coupon/bing and my bing CashBack account is confirmed showing the CashBack, fyi.