When my old laptop was on its last legs with exhaustion, I was faced with the choice of either keeping going with it, trying to clean it and make do with its continual problems, or get a new one. The latter wasn't a fun choice because I didn't foresee the expenditure, but it was well worth the investment; the Acer 5742 is perhaps a more underrated contender in the sub £500 category. The first thing I noticed when searching for a laptop was the huge range of choice, and the small variations between even the same brands of laptops that all look the same. It got very confusing, choosing between specs and brands and appearances. I wanted something with a good ...  Read the complete review

I bought this laptop for £449.99, reduced from £549.99, from PC World in May of 2011 and I was immediately impressed. Firstly the price for a laptop of this spec was better than any other laptop around at the time. The most important specs of this laptop are: - Intel Core i5-450M which is an upgrade from the Intel Core i3 which is what was originally in the 5742, although having used both, there is little difference. -Windows 7 Home Premium -4GB DDR3 RAM -500GB Hard Drive -15.6" HD LED LCD screen -6-cell Li-ion Battery -HDMI and VGA output I use this as a general home laptop, I watch films, listen to music, surf the ...  Read the complete review

I do believe all brands in the world of laptops should aspire to ( pun intended ) acchieve the quality that this Acer Aspire gives to its users! This is without question one of the better laptops I have owned ever, and I have owned a total of 8 laptops in my time. This was a laptop that I was given as part of my job, and I have used it primarily as a laptop to write on, but have also found it to be brilliant when wanting to listen to music, watch videos, surf the internet and so forth... One of the best aspects of this computer, at least for me, is its very good keyboard, making writing several hours each day no trouble, as the keyboard responds very well to my fingers ..  Read the complete review

Before I got an actual laptop, I got one of these net books a couple years before. Overall, the quality of this net book depends on exactly what you're using it for. Using it for low vacation use is absolutely perfect as it is extremely small and not a burden to carry around at all. It is also great to take to class to take notes on. If you are looking to use it for anything beyond what has been stated, then I'd highly recommend looking into something else. Downloading and browsing the web will get quite annoying over time if you're doing it a lot. The net book its self also gets very very hot over time. It is very noisy if you are playing a PC game or watching a DVD or .  Read the complete review

My partner and I bought this Laptop from one of the big chains like curry's or comet on the recommendation of one of the technical support staff. He recommended this laptop over the other ones in our price range as he said that he never has these returned to be repaired. After taking his advice and specifying that we needed the laptop solely for internet browsing and store all our music on itunes we bought this one in the stylish red colour. It has served its purpose very well, we have a lot of music on there and it hasn't slowed it down at all. The keyboard and mouse layout is very easy and comfortable to use and the display a nice size to work with. ...  Read the complete review