Quick Review Acer Aspire 7739Z-P624650MNKK Notebook

The Aspire family offers a variety of differently equipped models in various sizes. The 7739z is a 17.3-inch laptop at the lower-end of the performance spectrum. Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 battery The system, which features an Intel P6200 processor and integrated Intel HD Graphics, has enough performance to tackle everyday tasks like internet browsing, office work, and videos - but unlike the Aspire members featuring a "G" in their name, it's not really suitable for more demanding 3D tasks (think modern computer games).

Case

The exterior of the Aspire 7739Z is, except for the form factor, nearly identical to the 15-inch Acer-TravelMate-5744Z-P624G50Mikk. The black / charcoal gray chassis is made entirely out of plastic which is partially textured. Acer Aspire M5 battery

The main unit appears to be solidly built, is resistant to deformation and torsionally rigid. Because of the size and weight (3.3 kg), the display doesn't really lend itself to being opened from the corner but it resists twisting surprisingly well. The screen handles pressure reasonably well; only a fair amount of force will cause a change in the picture.

ACER Aspire S Series battery When we examined the Aspire closely, we discovered the same minor flaws that we noted when testing the TravelMate-5744Z: a few sharp edges and inconsistent gaps, especially around the display frame.

Considering the size of the LCD panel, the display hinges are stiff and comparatively small which causes the lid to rock back and forth after it's been opened. Opening the lid one-handed causes the base of the laptop to lift up a bit. ACER Aspire S7 Series battery

Power Consumption
During idle, the notebook consumes between 11.3 and 20.4 watts which is in the same range as other systems like the HP 630-LH384EA or the Acer TravelMate 5744Z-P624G50Mikk. During maximum load, the 7739Z is the most power hungry out of the three systems - we need to consider though that the screen brightness is superior; the Travelmate also only features a smaller 15" monitor. Acer Aspire S Series battery The higher power consumption seems to be justified; and overall it doesn't seem to be too excessive. Compared to the more modern and significantly more powerful Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge architecture, this Arrandale-based systems seems downright archaic though.
Battery Life
The 7739Z comes equipped with a 48WH lithium-ion battery - a similar capacity battery is included with the HP 630-LH384EA and the Acer TravelMate 5744Z-P624G50Mikk. Since our test model consumes more power, it's not surprising that battery runtime is the lowest of the bunch. Acer Aspire S3 battery

For our BatteryEater Reader's Test, we turned down screen brightness to the lowest level, turned of WLAN, and chose the "energy saving" power profile. The laptop lasted for 270 min before shutting down wth 5% capacity left. During the more realistic WLAN test, the laptop reached the 5% threshold after 92 min. We wanted to change the 5%-capacity setting to 3% but where unable to do so. ACER Aspire V3 battery

Connectivity

For a 17.3-inch laptop the connectivity options are fairly limited - something one should expect in this price range. On the plus side, both VGA and HDMI ports are included, allowing for analog and digital display connections. The built-in 2-in-1 card reader supports SD and MMC. Unfortunately the 7739Z only offers 3 USB 2.0 ports but no faster options like eSATA or USB 3.0 for transmitting data from and to external storage devices. ACER Aspire 8943G battery

The placement of the ports towards the front of the laptop is less than ideal if they are utilized heavily because cables can get in the way. In addition, some ports (for example the USB ports on the right hand side) are placed very closely together. On the other hand all ports are within easy reach.

Communication
ACER Aspire Ethos 8943G battery The cabled ethernet connection via the Atheros AR8152 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller operates at 10/100MBit but not GigaBit speeds. Wireless connectivity to WiFi-Hotspots is provided by the Atheros AR5B125 Wireless Network Adapter (bgn) which also supports standard N. Bluetooth or an integrated broadband modem are not available.

ACER Aspire One E100 battery The low-resolution Acer Crystal Eye Webcam (640x480 Pixel; 0.3 MP) is adequate for video conferencing but not for more demanding applications.

What's in the box
Included are only the most basic necessities like the power adapter, battery, and informational material like quick-start guide and warranty information. The user is responsible for creating a system recovery DVD as one isn't included. This task can be easily accomplished using Acer's eRecovery Manager.

Maintenance
Acer Iconia 6120 battery The covers on the underside of the laptop only allow access to the hard disk drive, the RAM module, and the WLAN module. The battery is user replaceable but the laptop can be used sans battery without any issues.

Warranty
According to the Homepage, Acer offers a 2 year standard warranty for all Aspire models in Germany; the first year is ITW (International Travelers Warranty).

Performance

Acer Iconia 6886 battery As far as the internal components are concerned, our laptop mirrors the 15-inch TravelMate-5744Z. Here is a quick synopsis:

The Pentium P6200 is based on the (now two year-old) Arrandale architecture. Potential buyers have to do without Turbo Boost or Hyperthreading.

Acer TravelMate 8372 battery The P6200 integrates a DDR3 memory controller and the DirectX 10 capable Intel GMA HD Graphics, which runs at 500 MHz (Turbo up to 667 MHz). The 2.13 GHz dual-core processor has, according to Intel, a TDP of 35 Watts. Thanks to the 4GB of available RAM (1 slot) and the 500GB hard disk, the laptop handles normal office tasks well; for much more the hardware configuration just isn't sufficient.

Processor
Acer TravelMate 8372G battery Subjected to the Cinebench R11.5 64-bit test, the 7739Z was only able to eke out a fairly mediocre 0.71 points during single-core rendering and 1.4 points during multi-core rendering. The results are in line with other P6200-equipped laptops though. Newer Core i3 entry-level processors offer quite a bit more performance. For additional information, check out our processor page; to compare other processors, take a look at our CPU benchmark comparison.
System Performance
Acer TravelMate 8372T battery PCMark Vantage evaluates the overall system performance and its core components. Our test system reached a score of 4357 here - since the laptop uses the same components as the TravelMate-5744Z, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the performance of the two laptops is nearly identical. Considering the hardware being used, this is pretty much exactly what we expected performance-wise.
Storage Devices

Acer TravelMate 8372TG battery The hard drive the system ships with is a Western Digital-sourced Scorpio Blue WD5000BPVT-22A1YT0 spinning at 5400 rpm and offering a capacity of 500GB. The hard drive is partitioned: 13.5GB are assigned to the Recovery Partition; 452.16GB are available as the C: - drive for system- and user data. The benchmark results mirror what we've come to expect from 5400 rpm hard disk drives.
GPU Performance
Acer Iconia Tab W500 battery Intels HD Graphics offer the manufacturers of notebook systems an inexpensive graphics solutions since the card is packaged with the CPU. The video decoder is capable of smooth playback of movies and trailer at 1080p; 3D-performance is extremely low though. The Acer reached 1567 points during 3DMark 06 - a fairly typical result for this kind of hardware. The graphics card can't handle 3DMark Vantage and errors out with a "std::exception Device removed".
Gaming Performance
Acer Iconia Tab W501 battery Considering the hardware specs, there is no doubt that the 7739Z is not a gaming system. Games with low demands on the hardware are playable though. We tested the (slightly more) taxing Diablo 3, and managed a not-so-smooth 20 fps at the lowest setting. We performed additional tests of various games during our review of the TravelMate-5744Z, which uses the same hardware. Our list of games shows the performance of various games using different graphics solutions.
Emissions

Noise Level
Acer Iconia Tab A100 battery The fan rarely kicks in during system idle and is almost inaudible at 31.5 dB(A). Hard drive access noise increases the level to 33.2 dB(A). The high-frequency humming of the power adapter gets annoying after a while. Under load, noise levels increase to a value of 38.3 dB(A) which is still fairly quiet. When playing movies, the DVD drive is very audible at 40.2 dB(A).
Temperature

Acer Aspire 4250 battery Our test candidate stayed cool during idle. As one would expect, the temperature increases under load - we measured 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 Fahrenheit) on the bottom, and 43 degrees Celsius (109.4 Fahrenheit) on the top, respectively. The hand rest remains cool to the touch.

Acer Aspire 4251 battery During full load, internal temperatures can reach 70 degrees Celsius (158 Fahrenheit) - still an OK number. The CPU does not get throttled - which is something 3DMark06 confirmed: the values after our load test are identical to ones we got during the "cold" system performance test.
Speakers

Acer Aspire 4252 battery The speakers are located above the keyboard. The maximum volume could be a bit higher but the sound remains distortion-free. We found the bass to be lacking - a pretty common scenario with built-in speakers. The 3.5mm audio jack functions without any issues. HDMI allows for digital transmission of audio signals.
Verdict

Acer Aspire 4253 battery You just can't expect too much from this value-priced 17-inch system. It doesn't have a lot of interface options and no fast ports for connecting external storage. The display is a glare-type and unsuitable for extended (professional) use. The hardware dates back to 2010 and is not sufficient to run demanding 3D games.

On the other hand, performance is more than adequate for running office applications or internet use. Considering the price point, the quality of the input devices and the chassis is not bad at all and the display is at least bright enough. Acer Aspire 4253G battery

Target audience for the Aspire 7739Z is the value-conscious home user who doesn't intend to play games. This price bracket offers a never-ending supply of constantly updated systems - some utilizing more current hardware. Shopping around pays off - if 500 Euros is your upper limit, take a look at the (AMD based) HPs Pavilion g7 or Packard-Bell EasyNote LK11.

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