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Acer Aspire Z5610 review

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Verdict

An impressive touchscreen PC at a very attractive price. A fine alternative to the A-Listed Sony

Review Date: 19 Nov 2009

Reviewed By: Mike Jennings

Price when reviewed: £782 (£899 inc VAT)

Overall Rating

Features & Design
4 stars out of 6

Value for Money
6 stars out of 6

Performance
5 stars out of 6

PCPRO Recommended

Touchscreen PCs always felt awkward when they were underpinned by Windows Vista, but now that Windows 7 has arrived, we've begun to see these devices come into their own. First out of the blocks was the Sony VAIO VPC-L11S1E, which wowed us with one of the best screens we'd ever seen, and now Acer has unveiled its own premium touchscreen model: the Aspire Z5610.

While Sony's touchscreen effort was a graduate of the minimalist school of design, the Acer is a little more eye-catching. Two chrome struts support the weight of the 23in screen, and liberally scattered around the Aspire's glossy bulk are strips of deep-maroon plastic. That doesn't look as bad as it could, though, and although the Z5610 is unlikely to appeal to everyone, we'd have no reservations about letting it take centre stage in our living room.

The 23in display takes pride of place and boasts a native resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 - higher than the 1,920 x 1,080 offered by the Sony. It boasts optical touchscreen technology as the Sony does, and this means the screen control feels highly responsive and accurate. It offers two-finger multitouch control, which allows you to zoom, scroll and rotate images in applications that support it. And the panel itself is bright, boasting realistic colours with no sign of backlight bleed. It may not be able to match the quality of the double-backlit Sony, but it isn't far off and is certainly perfectly capable of doing justice to any media you care to throw at it.

Beyond the scrolling and panning support built into Windows 7, the bulk of the Z5610's touchscreen-specific features are wrapped up in Acer's TouchPortal interface, which hides Windows 7's familiar desktop beneath an attractive wood-effect tabletop scattered with icons. Featured applications include Windows' own Touch Pack tools - Lagoon, Globe and Collage - and Acer has bolstered this collection with some of its own applications. These include an image-sharing tool for Facebook and Flickr, a handful of games, plus basic note-taking and drawing tools, the likes of which we've seen before on HP's TouchSmart systems.

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Comments

User comments

I'm sure I'm probably the only human on the planet who thinks that dragging sticky, sweaty fingers all over a perfectly pristine screen is a really crap idea. Ergonomically, if one is seated at a desk all day, it makes no sense either. What precisely is the appeal of touch screens and where's the benefit?

By CliveDH on 19 Nov 2009

I can see some uses for touchscreens. I'd like to get a system similar to this for use in a hi-fi set-up. It could be wall mounted and allow control of computer based music. A remote control for use from a seat along with a touchscreen it would be pretty sweet. However I'd like one which could be vertically mounted (better for showing playlists) and it would have to be silent.

But for a pimary, working desktop no - touchscreen is a terrible idea. This looks more like a secondary computer so touchscreen could be handy. Maybe.

By stoin86 on 19 Nov 2009

My wife has MS and cannot use a keyboard without frustration. The introduction of touch screen has been a revelation.
Puriste might sneer but the Acer Z5600 has opened a new dimension for my wife, and I imagine for others with similar sexterity limitations.

By Ozzie on 25 Nov 2009

Look how good the iphone 3G is compared to archaic button phones. Look at how high spec this is compared to desktop pc's and there's no box. how can there be a complaint? if you dont loke touchscreed, use the mouse (but i bet you'll use the touchscreen more than you thought) great PC.

By zorrano on 30 Dec 2009

Touchscreen Aspire

A desktop icon that changes the waay one uses a computer. The 64bit processor has its way of tripping you up (new iTunes download and the 64 bit iE8 doesn't like to show the videos which want 32 bit etc etc) To be fair I have a keyboard and mouse (LX710 from Logitech - more capable than the Acer provision)and so using the touch screen is just a bit out of comfortable reach - then when I want to point at something for someone I go "oooh" (cute I know...) when I remember it's touchscreen and you can do extra stuff with it. I'm probably enjoying the Windows 7 experience even more than the new PC having jumped from XP over Vista to Win7 but there's no doubt the PC is a great value package that I couldn't resist whereas the Sony and VAIO were easier to say "not at that price". Go see one in Staples (which was the best deal when I was buying last month) and see for yourself.

By aeromat on 5 Nov 2010

Touchscreen

For normal day to day use I would prefer a keyboard/mouse. But for the lounge/media applications where I don't want keyboards/mouse clutering up the room a touchscreen is just perfect. Ideal for itunes, email and websurfing etc.

By goingfrance on 2 Dec 2010

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