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The Acer Aspire V3-772G-9460 ($1,249.99, as tested) is something we rarely see in the Labs anymore: the 17-inch laptop that isn’t built with gaming in mind. The system is too large to fit in with the current ultraportable craze, and the inclusion of an optical drive is very nearly an anachronism in the laptop space. Despite its rarity, the Aspire V3-772G-9460 has an important place in the laptop world, as a genuine desktop replacement, with plenty of entertainment options added for good measure. Unfortunately, it only offered adequate, not brilliant, performance on our tests.
Design
The central feature of the V3-772G-9460 is its display. The 17.3-inch screen has full HD (1,920-by-1,080) resolution, with decent viewing angles. While it boasts an HD display, it lacks the touch capability needed to really take advantage of the more intuitive features of Windows 8. Joining the display is a set of built-in speakers boasting Dolby Home Theater v4. The sound obviously won’t match true surround sound through external speakers, but the volume is decent and the sound is clear.
The laptop is made of black plastic, with faux-brushed aluminum (but still plastic) panels on the lid and palmrest. The construction is fairly sturdy, but this 17-inch desktop replacement is too heavy (7.1 pounds) for carrying around on a regular basis. Measuring 1.4 by 16.3 by 10.8 inches (HWD), it’s also too big to fit in most laptop bags, so this is one you’ll probably keep around the house or dorm room.
The keyboard has basic chiclet-style
keys, with a 10-key numeric pad for entering numbers. While the standard keys are reasonably laid out and well-spaced, the Function and Arrow keys are smaller, which may bother some people, but is in keeping with Acer’s usual keyboard designs. Just below the spacebar is a touchpad, which offers some of the touch and gesture support lost with the omission of a touch screen. For basic scrolling and zooming, the touchpad was responsive and accurate. For edge swipes, used in Windows 8 to access menus and cycle through open apps, the accuracy was less consistent.
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Features
On the right of the system, you will find a power connector, two USB 2.0 ports, and jacks for mic and headphones. On the left, there are two USB 3.0 ports, along with connections for Gigabit Ethernet, VGA and HDMI video output, and a Kensington lock slot for securing the laptop. One increasingly uncommon feature is the tray-loading Blu-ray drive on the right side of the chassis. Paired with the HD display and the quality sound, and you’ve got an excellent entertainment laptop.
Inside, the V3-772G-9460 is outfitted with 802.11n Wi-Fi and with Bluetooth 4.0 for pairing wireless peripherals. The system boasts both a 120GB solid-state drive (SSD) and a 1TB hard drive, offering a combination of zippy performance and spacious storage that will be faster than a traditional hard drive alone, and more spacious that any reasonably priced solid-state solution.
The system comes preinstalled with Windows 8, not Windows 8.1, which means you will need to install the update yourself to get the improvements offered by OS update. Acer also loads up the V3-772G-9460 with several apps and programs, from 30-day trials of McAfee Internet Security and Microsoft Office to apps like Skype, Spotify, Netflix, and Kindle reader. If the list ended there, we wouldn’t complain, but Acer throws another dozen apps into the mix, like WildTangent Games, ChaCha, iCookBook, Music Maker Jam, and links to Amazon and eBay. Acer covers the V3-772G-9460 with a one-year warranty on parts and labor.
Performance
The V3-772G-9460 is outfitted with an Intel Core i7-4702MQ, a 2.2GHz quad-core processor, paired with 12GB of RAM. It offered so-so performance in PCMark 7, scoring 3,098 points, which was slightly behind the Asus N550JV-DB72T($1,799.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) (3,546 points), but well behind the Dell XPS 15 (9530)($1,900.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) (5,817 points). In Cinebench, the V3-772G-9460 scored 6.32 points, ahead of both the Editors’ Choice Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (2013)( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) (6.21 points) and the Dell XPS 15 (6.31 points), but fell behind the Asus N550JV-DB72T (6.93 points). But while the overall processing power offered by the V3-772G-9460 is adequate, it wasn’t very impressive in multimedia tests, finishing Handbrake in 45 seconds, where the competing systems finished in less than 40, and taking 11 minutes 22 seconds to wrap up our Photoshop test, while competitors all finished in less than 4 minutes.
On the graphics front, the V3-772G-9460 boasts an Nvidia GeForce GTX 760M, a discrete GPU with 2GB of dedicated memory, but the extra hardware doesn’t promise gaming-level performance. It helped the system complete 3DMark 11 with scores of 2,395 points (in Entry mode) and 337 points (in Extreme mode), falling well behind the Dell XPS 15, which scored 4,673 points (Entry) and 972 points (Extreme), and even offered some real gaming support.
Even though this laptop really isn’t made for use on the go, the battery life is still on the short side. In our battery rundown test, the laptop’s 48Wh, 6-cell lithium-ion battery lasted 3 hours 48 minutes. That’s the lowest of the bunch, by far. The Asus N550JV-DB72T lasted 4:02, while the Dell XPS 15 lasted an impressive 6:49, and the Apple MacBook Pro lasted a whopping 8:52. While the battery life is a tad disappointing, this is one laptop you won’t be lugging around all day, and the largely stationary desktop replacement will likely stay close enough to an outlet to be plugged in for daily use, so you’re probably safe to assume it won’t be much of an issue.
Conclusion
The Acer Aspire V3-772G-9460 is one of the few 17-inch desktop replacements we’ve reviewed in recent months, and for some shoppers the 17-inch, 1080p display and Blu-ray drive will be enough to justify buying it. On the performance side, however, the V3-772G-9460 isn’t quite up to par, falling behind other desktop replacements in key areas. Our top pick for midrange desktop replacement laptops remains the Asus N550J-DB72T, as it offers touch capability, better overall performance, and sells for less.
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The Acer Aspire V3-772G-9460 is a decent 17-inch desktop replacement laptop with plenty of entertainment options, but it has a few issues we didn’t expect to see at this price.
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Source link : https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/acer-aspire-v3-772g-9460