Acer Aspire 5700-U2112 – big 23 inch screen

Acer Aspire 5700-U2112 is an all in one desktop PC and it is the successor of the older Z5600 which the manufacturer gave us at the end of 2009. This computer comes with a 23 inch display and costs $1,099. It is a good alternative if you don’t want to splash cash on the more expensive 21.5 inch Apple iMac. The iMac costs $1,199 and it is slower than the Acer machine. There is HDMI port on the Acer all-in-one which lets you use the system as an entertainment PC. Apple is ahead only in terms of design and I will recommend you the Acer all-in-one if you don’t care much about beauty. This is an excellent and versatile system.

I just have one gripe about the Acer Aspire 5700-U2112 – the front support posts. They work well but look a bit cheap, like a homemade repair job product. Apart from that, the design is good and these posts don’t come in the way of Aspire Z5700’s functionality. I would like it if Acer paid some more attention to making their products pretty. The company seems to underestimate the power of good looks for their PCs.

The Acer Aspire 5700-U2112, just like its predecessor, is a touch screen based all-in-one PC. The manufacturer wanted to make it a totally cord-free system and hence gave a wireless keyboard and mouse. The touch software too has been updated for better user experience. The touch apps too have been changed. You don’t have the traditional peel down corner that is very popular on such systems. Instead, you have a home screen which has a carousel layout. Getting to programs, media players and games is much easier through this. None of the touch based apps are revolutionary and I am sure you won’t find any app of much useful except for the media player. But I am still glad that the interface is made more user-friendly.

iMac is not the only computer competing against the Acer Aspire 5700-U2112. This system will lock horns with Gateway all-in-one PCs too. Acer has a faster processor along with a bigger hard drive but Gateway comes with a Blu-ray drive which makes it a better multimedia system. However, there is no HDMI port. If we had a all-in-one with the best features of both Gateway and Acer machines, this system would have given a strong competition to the iMac. For now, there is some compromise on both the systems. But both these systems have bigger screens and hence are better than Apple’s machine when it comes to watching movies.

Acer Aspire 5700-U2112 has a Core i5 560 processor which really impressed in my lab tests. The iMac is not far behind; in fact, it is better in multitasking. Acer gave me similar or better results in most of my speed based tests and it is impressive because the price of this system is really low. I would still recommend a traditional desktop to people who run mainstream and processing challenging applications.