World's first 3D-supporting laptop reviewed

Review Acer 5738DZG - fad in the pan?

Product: Acer Aspire 5738DZG 3D-434G50Mn 
Price: £587.97 (inc VAT)

According to many sooth-sayers, crystal ball-gazing IT trend followers and pushy IT product managers, 2010 is going to be the year when 3D comes out of the big budget Hollywood studios and into the home, with 3D TV screens and even notebooks with 3D screens, which brings us to Acer’s Aspire 5738DZG 3D, the world’s first 3D-supporting laptop.

Disregarding the screen for a moment, what else makes the 5738DZG tick? Well, from the outside it looks just like any other of the current Aspire Gemstone models, with its pleasing curves and clean design together with the usual Acer attention to detail and build quality. Internally it’s very much a mainstream laptop. The keyboard is good, with large flat keys which have a good action, making typing a pleasurable experience. Under the trackpad sit two mouse buttons separated by a fingerprint reader.

So back to that screen, the 15.6in (1,366 x 768 native resolution) panel looks like a normal high-gloss finished unit which as usual produces bright, well produced colours but with the downside of being very reflective under bright office lighting or sunny conditions outside.

What makes the screen special and gives the 3D effect is the polarising filter which coats it, which together with the bundled polarised glasses (Acer bundles two pairs, a standard pair and a clip-on pair for people who wear prescription lenses) tricks the brain into seeing 3D images.

Controlling the effect is a tricky piece of software from Dynamic Digital Depth called TriDef 3D which, when enabled spits the display resolution in two, producing alternate horizontal lines for each eye, so when wearing the polarised glasses, each eye sees a different image. However to make it work properly you have to sit so your eyes are around 60cm away from the screen and with the screen at a 120° angle, move around and the effect is lost.

The bundled showcase examples give mixed results, the best of the videos are - surprise, surprise - the computer animated ones, while the photo examples show the effect best when its used to give depth to a photo and in these cases it works rather well. 

The TriDef software has another trick up its sleeve as it’s able to transform ordinary 2D content into 3D, but although it does do it, it can be very hit and miss. It can also transform games, and to their credit Dynamic Digital Depth have put a list together of compatible games and although it works well, (we tried it in Far Cary 2 and it added a real sense of depth), the limitations of the technology soon become apparent – try playing a shoot-em up game without moving your head!