Acer Aspire 5 Review Light Weight and 15 Incher in $399
High-end laptops are getting slimmer, lighter, and expensive while mid-budget laptops still show that, despite their low rock prices, they can be perfectly capable. However, the mid-range machines such as the Acer Aspire 5 are easily overlooked by most of the laptop buyers. Acer Aspire 5 is lightweight and costs around $399 USD (AU$500).
Instead of having the latest technology and extravagant designs, many of these mid-rangers perform their tasks quietly and competently while striking an equilibrium between updated and powerful technical parts and maintaining prices as low as possible.
Medium-range laptops are the most likely to buy from many of us and are ideal if you want something future-proof, because they have more powerful and new components than costly machines, but they do not want to afford the odds.
Acer has recently updated Acer Aspire 5 to include Intel Core processors from the 8th generation, so now is the perfect time to see what this affordable laptop can do.
Availability & Costs
In the UK, the lowest expected Aspire 5 comes with an 8 GB DDR4 RAM, Intel i3-6006U Processor, 1 integrated graphics, and 5.9-inch 1080p display. The Acer Aspire 5 is offered in a range of configured settings and prices, beginning at around $399 (around £300, AU$ 500) for the Acer Aspire 5 A515-51-3509 with Intel Core I3 7100U Processors and a 15.6inch Full HD Display. Aspire 5 in Australia is the cheapest model and features an I5 8250U processor with an Intel Core i5 15.6″x 768 display, an 8 GB RAM and a GeForce 940MX graphic card.
There are a large number of Acer Aspire 5 configurations to choose, which will again vary depending on where you live, with top-of-the-line models including an Intel Core i7 8550U, 17.3inch 1080p, 12 GB RAM, an HDD and SSD and special Nvidia GeForce MX150 GPU graphics courtesy for $999.99 (approximately £700, AU $1,200). Beyond these budgets, there is an extensive array of confinement options to choose.
The version examined here is the Intel Core i5 8250U, integrated graphics, 8 GB DDR4 RAM, 256 GB SSD, and Acer Aspire 5 A515-51-50Y5.
Design
The design of the Acer Aspire 5 is likely to be as slim as ultra-books like Dell’s XPS 13 or Asus’ ZenBook 3, but nothing is too bold. That does not mean, however, that it has nothing to offer. The Acer Aspire 5 is a big laptop with a size of 2.16×38.16×26.3 cm and weight of 2.20 kg, but it is not too heavy or difficult to transport. However, you can find it a bit difficult to whip out and work on a busy train.
It’s an excellent, understated machine with a few flourishing designs. The chassis is made primarily of plastic and has a textured surface and a reflective logo from Acer.
When you open a laptop, the screen is decent, with a reasonably large bezel surrounding it. The half bottom supports keyboard while you can easily adjust webcam on the big bezel in the center.
The bottom bezel has a different Acer logo and underneath the laptop hinge, graved ‘Aspire’ gives a perfect touch. The hinge makes it possible to adjust the screen decently at different angles, but it’s not a laptop that can flip 360 degrees into a tablet-like position.
Acer Aspire 5 comes equipped with two USB 2.0 port, one USB 3.0 memory port, USB-C memory port, Ethernet memory card, and SD connection.
We would like to have another USB 2.0 ports, but the USB-C port is a welcome addition, which provides you with a certain level of future protection.
Keyboard & Touchpad
A plastic surface is manifested in the lower half of the laptop with its large keyboard and touchpad. Acer has given it a brushed finish, but it’s not as premium as aluminum, yet very pleasant. However, it didn’t take much time to the touchpad to collect fingerprints.
The keyboard itself is massive, making typing on it comfortable for a long duration, although it is not the most responsive or comfortable keyboard that we have tried with flat keyboards.
The Acer Aspire 5’s significant forming factor makes it possible to hold the large touchpad, which is slightly offset to the left of the center of the chassis.
The large size makes it easy to use multi-finger gestures, including tweaking two fingers to zoom out, although some can find it irritating when they’ll accidentally rest the palm of the curser on it when typing. The touchpad also feels pretty much plastic and cheap, which is a shame.
Price— ACER ASPIRE 5:
Acer Aspire 5 is a laptop for everyday tasks, which is the most successful factor in it. The solid-state drive (SSD) keeps Windows 10 pretty fast and helps multifunctional processors with 8 GB of RAM and quad-core Intel Core i78550U. Aspire 5 does an excellent job for general Windows desktop applications–it does not feel as fast as costly laptops, but it’s perfect for regular tasks.
As we have just pointed out, the SSD of the model that we tested helps to ensure things work faster, so if your budget permits, we would recommend an SSD model–preferably also with a standard hard drive. The 256 GB SSD was already in our Aspire 5 to complete many installations–you may find yourself in need of investing in an external hard disk to accommodate your applications and media.
The IPS screen is decent; the contrast is not as sharp as we saw on other portables. However, a Full HD (1920x 1080) monitor is welcome and makes movies & pictures look much better than laptops with lower resolution, and the Acer Color Intelligence technology claims to adjust gamma & saturation on the screen as dynamically as possible to make it look as good as possible.
We have not seen much difference, honestly enough, and once again, the screen would be suitable for standard day-to-day tasks with the Full HD resolution. However, you can have a look at an alternative machine if you want to edit photos or videos.
The integrated graphics card of Intel 620UHD is not able to handle modern games except one or two classic games. It’s fair to say; it isn’t built for gamers.
Battery Life
Acer Aspire 5 lasted six hours and forty-eight minutes using the battery-test PCMark 8, replicating medium to heavy-use batteries, was quite impressive in battery life. It can consume less battery life if you dim the display when using the internet.
It at least means you can spend most of a working day on a full brightness which is good compared to some laptops.
However, the battery takes a while–in particular, three hours to recharge.
The Acer Aspire 5 was good for us–apart from the slightly loosed touchpad, it has a good design and excellent build quality. The wide range of ports is welcome and makes this a versatile laptop with several peripherals and perfect battery life.
We didn’t like the touchpad, and it’s a sad thing to remember that it isn’t a premium one.
The screen is also a little washed away, not as great as we would like to contrast with other brands.
Final Verdict
The Acer Aspire 5 is an excellent choice if you are looking for a mid-range laptop that doesn’t cost much but doesn’t compromise the quality of cheap components and old ones. Whereas when it comes to graphics, the model we tested was not too capable.
Battery life was good, thus the Aspire 5 worth considering if you want a cheap laptop that can handle daily tasks confidently, without having to plug in always into a power socket.
However, if you want your laptop to run modern games or deal with heavy pictures and video editing, you must go for another one.
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