Acer aspires to lead its users into 3D computing

The Acer Aspire 5738DZG is the world's first 3D laptop, and it's better than I thought. It could get even better in the future, if lots of 3D content appears.

The system comes with a TriDef 3D Media Player, so it will only play TriDef content, such as the 20 titles available from Yabazam. These include a Rio Carnival travelogue ($14.99), The Curse of Skull Rock ($9.99), a pirate cartoon, and Stereoscopic Skydiving ($2.99). It's not a stellar collection, though even the short samples that ship with the PC show that the system has lots of potential.

You can also convert 2D footage to give a sort-of-3D effect, with variable results. If you're a 3D buff, you could download a different 3D player and perhaps even make your own movies. But ordinary consumers who want to play off-the-shelf Hollywood titles appear to be out of luck. If your dream is to watch 3D Pixar movies on the train, don't hold your breath.

The Aspire 5738DZG uses a passive polarising system, so you have to wear special glasses. The system comes with one pair of glasses plus a clip-on version for spectacle wearers. The TriDef system shows two images at once, using alternate lines, which effectively halves the vertical resolution of the 1,366 x 768 pixel screen. This isn't a problem with movies, but could make it hard to read text in games.

Another drawback is that the 3D effect works best with the screen at the correct angle and your head at the correct distance in front of the screen. There's a "framing shot" of a vase of red roses so you can set it up before watching something.

In other respects, the Aspire 5738DZG is a solid machine with a decent keyboard, glossy 15.6 inch screen, and Dolby Home Theatre sound. It has 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB of memory, a 450GB hard drive, DVD writer and 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium. It is rated 4.1 on the Windows Experience Index, with the baseline score being for the Aero (2D) graphics.