The Acer Aspire 5738DG-6165 grafts a 3D panel onto a mainstream laptop. It's a gimmick, a feature that caters to maybe 1 percent of the computing population--and at first I was completely skeptical. People are offering 3D as a crowd-pleasing extra in movie theaters, as a ploy to justify the purchase of Blu-ray discs, and now as a new reason to buy a high-end graphics card. But in a $780 all-purpose laptop?

After kicking the tires on the 5738DG-6165 for a few days, I've seen some mixed, finicky--but also at times surprisingly good--results. Since the rest of the laptop (even the discrete GPU driving the visual experience) is so average, I have to make the 3D panel the focal point of this review.

But before we dive into the specifics of the panel, you need to understand the three different 3D technologies currently available. The first approach is the old standby, in which you use red-blue cardboard glasses. The effect tints your world a little (mutes colors), but it's fairly effective in everything from comic books to movies. The second approach is more advanced. A while back, nVidia proudly trotted out its 3D Vision goggles--powered, shuttered glasses that blink in time with a screen's refresh rate. Similar takes on the technology have been used for some time, and it yields pretty solid results. With nVidia's version, you plug the goggles into a powerful PC, make sure that your screen has at least a 120Hz refresh rate (or, if it's a CRT, at least 100Hz), and you're in business. The third approach, employed in the Acer laptop, uses polarized lenses. In this case the entire thing works thanks to a combination of Oakley-shades look-alikes, the polarized panel, and TriDef software.

That software is the main reason why I was digging the 5738DG-6165. Fire up the program's main interface, and you can open specific 3D video files that truly leap off the screen. The software will also add depth (a slider lets you adjust the 3D functions) to any movies that you pop into the internal DVD drive; our DVDs of Top Gun and There Will Be Blood looked reasonably good. On top of that, the 3D effect works with video files on your computer. In my trials, WMV and AVI clips ran well, but I hit some roadblocks with QuickTime videos and TV shows recorded on Windows Media Center--you'd figure those would be no-brainers to work out of the box.

You know what else would be handy? 3D effects added to video from Netflix Instant Access and Hulu streaming. A TriDef spokesperson noted that in order for the software to offer 3D functions, developers need to create drivers and plug-ins that work inside programs. So here's a request for the developers: Hulu has desktop software and Netflix is now integrated into Media Center. Make it happen. Please.