The Acer Travelmate 5730 is one of the latest additions to Acer’s long-running Travelmate family of business oriented laptops.
It is in the interest of consumers to make sure that the laptop that will be chosen is indeed worth the money put in for its purchase. In this case, let us look at the features and the details about the Travelmate 5730 so you can form your opinion whether or not you would want to buy this laptop from Acer.
SPECS
| AVAILABLE OPTIONS (From Acer’s Website) | |
| CPU | Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor P8600(3MB L2 cache, 2.40GHz, 1066MHz FSB)Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T6670(2MB L2 cache, 2.20GHz, 800MHz FSB)
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T6570 (2MB L2 cache, 2.10GHz, 800MHz FSB) |
| RAM | Up to 4GB (2GB installed in one of two memory slots) DDR2 667 SDRAM |
| Screen size | 15.4″ (1280 x 800) TFT LCD |
| Operating system | Genuine Windows 7 ProfessionalGenuine Windows Vista Business |
| Battery life | Up to 5 hours depending on battery type |
| Graphics | Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD |
PROS:
Similar to the other Travelmate laptops by Acer, the 5730’s strong points are in its security features. With data security being important for the businessman, Acer has given the 5730 as well as its siblings the essential capabilities to safeguard important data. One of these is the fingerprint reader, which one can activate in order to restrict access to the laptop. Second would be the Disc Anti-Shock Protection, a proprietary firmware system exclusive to Acer notebooks that prevents data loss from impact shock. The DASP simply shuts the hard drives down if the sensor detects that it is in a state of free fall.
Power is also on the 5730’s side. With Intel Core2Duo technology powering its operation, the 5730 is apparently poised to provide smooth and fast processing. This is further enhanced by its large memory capacity: the 5730’s motherboard is able to accommodate up to 4 gigabytes of memory, with a minimum of 2 gigabytes. This is more than enough to provide its powerful processor the necessary memory to process programs.
The Travelmate 5730 features a neat 15.4-inch liquid crystal display. Furthermore, this LCD is able to output a display resolution of 1280×800. This resolution provides enough graphic detail for the user, plus it also allows for easy multi-tasking. Browsing web pages is made easy as well: scroll is minimal with such a resolution because most of the web pages these days are optimized for lower resolutions than what the 5730’s screen outputs.
Further essential features that you can find with the 5730 include: a 5-in-1 card reader, four USB ports, BlueTooth, eSATA ports and an ExpressCard/54 slot for connecting to external hard drives.
Lastly, let us discuss its battery life. With 5 hours of battery life, the business person has enough power to access the Internet or review files while on the way to an important business meeting. It can also provide enough time to finish work or to save important files in the event of a power interruption.
CONS:
The 5730, as a business laptop, shares the same weakness as its Travelmate family members: low power when it comes to processing graphics. Having only a graphics display card integrated into its chipset, the Travelmate 5730’s graphics processing power is severely limited making it inappropriate for heavy gaming.
The 5730 also lacks an HDMI port for connecting to an external HDTV.
CONCLUSION:
A good business laptop has only a few essential features to watch out for. First, it would be fast processing power, and the 5730 certainly has that. Second, the user should be able to multi-task or to browse different documents simultaneously with ease. The 5730 has that as well.
Given those advantages, we could say that you cannot go wrong with a purchase of a 5730 not unless your intent is to use it for gaming because that is where it is weakest. Otherwise, it’s a good choice.
| Store Rating | Store Name | Price | Visit Store |
|---|---|---|---|---|
   1684 Store Reviews |  Amazon | $ 661.99 | 
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3736 Store Reviews |  Buy.com | $ 732.99 |
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185 Store Reviews |  Amazon Marketplace | $ 701.32 |
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2174 Store Reviews |  eCOST.com | $ 674.99 |
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401 Store Reviews |  WolfCamera.com | $ 767.94 |
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Tags: 5730, Acer, Core 2 Duo, eSATA, HDMI, Travelmate
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[...] Acer Travelmate 5730, like its siblings in this laptop series, boasts of its data security features – something really [...]
[...] with wireless and wired connectivity options, the Acer Travelmate 5730 makes it easy for business people and office executives to share information and important data [...]
My Travelmate 5730 has been a disappointment.
The battery life is typically 1.5 – 2.0 hours when running Word or Excel, and I have also been plagued with my screen partially blanking/fading out and locking up my machine intermittantly.
I have taken it in for warranty repair per the screen issues, but whatever they do to fix it does not last more than a couple of weeks.
My machine is currently less than 1.5 years old and has never been jarred or dropped.
All the processing power in the world, etc. means nothing if you can’t see what you’re working on.
Previous experience with Toshiba notebooks, in a more harsh environment, never produced such poor results. The 5730 should not be advertised as a business machine, possibly a machine which is used primarily at home and isn’t moved too much.
Bottom line – you get what you pay for.
For my next machine, I’m going back to Toshiba!
My two cents…