The Aspire 5742G is typical of the latest breed of Acer laptops, with its slimline design, powerful processor and relatively low price. We're amazed sometimes how much Acer crams into its laptops; not only do you get the latest Core i3-370M processor, but there's also a dedicated graphics processor that can play games, and a generous 500GB hard disk.
However there's a cloud to go with this silver lining: Acer's laptops come pre-installed with more software than most, and it's mostly useless. The Programs list is filled with games and Acer utilities, each of which has its own uninstall entry. Many people are unaware of the extra software that runs by default on their new computer, often slowing it down, and it will take a while to clean up the 5742G so that you get the most from it.
Despite this, performance is good. An overall result of 86 in our benchmarks shows the 5742G to be powerful enough to handle almost any task. With 4GB of RAM, you'll have plenty of overhead for working with large files.
We were surprised by the inclusion of a Radeon HD 5470 graphics card; at this price range, most laptops make do with an integrated graphics chip. The 5470 isn't the fastest around though, and managed only 20fps in our Call of Duty 4 test, but with reduced settings you should be able to play many games.
