The Acer Aspire 5 (Core i3, 2019) is one the most affordable laptop that provides a solid performance. The fact that you can’t spring for a high quality laptop that costs a fortune doesn’t mean you should suffer in silence and settle for less
Allow me to introduce you to the Acer Aspire 5. This laptop comes with a very powerful intel Core i3 performance, a bright 15.5 inch display and most importantly, a long battery life span. Selling for $399, this laptop is one of the best laptops under $500.
Though the Acer 5 has its few drawdowns which includes low grade graphics card and a slightly less premium build quality. It still remains the one of the best laptops within its price range.
Price And Configuration Features
The starting model of the Aspire 5 usually runs for $399. This model is fitted with an Intel Core i3-8145U processor, 4GB of RAM and 128GB SSD.. The mid tier design is priced at about $529. it comes with a higher core of i5-8265U CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.
Maxing this out, we’ll be looking at a Core i7-8565U processor, 12GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD. This is goes for the highest price of $849.
Design
The Aspire 5 is a sports premium aesthetic. It’s designed with a silver, aluminum like hood. The logo is metallic and a bit out of the lid. There are usually two lines which accents on each end of the top of the lid. Though this looks awkward, it really is the original design.
The interior has a standard design. It is usually made of silver deck and a black keyboard. The Aspire logo is neatly located on the hinge. Also, the bezels on the display are surprisingly narrow.
The Aspire 5 is lighter than its HP 14 Laptop (DF0023CL) counter-part. Weighing 3.8 pounds and 14.3 x 9.9 x 0.7 inches, the Aspire is no doubt a better choice.
Ports
The Aspire 5 has a reasonable amount of ports. On the left side of this wonderful piece, the power jack is located. Also on this side, the astonishing RJ45 Ethernet port, an HDMI port, double USB 3.1 ports and a USB type-C port.
However, on the right side is a Kensington lock slot, single USB 2.0 port and the headphone port.
Display
Unlike other high budget sports laptops, the Aspire 5’s screen panel is reasonably bright. With a resolution of 1080p. The screen display of this wonderful piece is so good, one could see mulans pores as her make up was being done in the movie “legend of Mulan”.
After testing the Aspire 5’s resolution on our colorimeter, the panel covered 65% of the sRGB color gamut. This result is below the average budget of 78%. It also surpassed the 62% that both the Aspire E 15 and the HP 14 Laptop realized.
With 276 nits, the Aspire 5’s has an awesome brightness, beating the average category nits of 213 nits. It also topped the Aspire E 15 with (227) and HP 14 Laptop with 199nits.
Keyboard And Touchpad
After putting the Aspire 5 through a typing test, we discovered has relatively clicky keys which makes typing a little bit more fun. This fine piece of technology also has a number pad as a dim white backlighting. This feature almost makes the laptop too good for the price.
The keys are positioned in a slightly shallow manner at 1.2 millimeters, which is preferable than the 1.5 to 2.0-mm range. Although they do need an additional 78 grams of power to actuate.
Furthermore, the Aspire 5 is designed with a 4.2 ×3-inch touchpad. This is a great size spec as it provides a decently smooth and soft texture. Although the keys are relatively shallow, it has windows 10 Precision driver. This feature allows gestures like two-finger scrolling and the triple-finger tabbing function respectively.
Audio
Aspire 5’s laptops are designed with a mediocre bottom-firing speakers. They could have been worse given the price range they come at. This mediocre feature reduces the weight and quality of the sound even in a small room.
However, after testing the audio feature on a couple of songs, we discovered instrumental sounds like the acoustic are produced approximately melodic. The vocals on the were sounded very clear and articulate.
Furthermore, while going through with the sound test, it was discovered that the bass in sounded slightly hollow. Also, the whole sound became muddy when two or more instrumentals where added. Although this little defect might not really matter to some users, it had to be mentioned.
With a built-in Realtek Audio Console, the Aspire 5’s enables user to customize the audio articulation to fit their desire. Users can easily find Acer’s true harmony by tuning in the app. This app features three presets which are music presets, movies and games presets.
Even though having the true harmony app helps the sound quality of acers, there’s no guarantee of getting a premium level sound.
Performance
For a price below $400, the Aspire 5’s has an Intel Core i3-8145U processor installed. It also has a 4GB of RAM which hurdles through 30 google chrome. The features also allows up to four 1080p YouTube videos with a slight slowdown while Spotify was operating in the background.
The Aspire 5’s scored 8,030 after running a Geekbench 4.1 overall performance test. This score is way above the nominal budget laptop average of (5,504) as well as the core i3-8130U installed in the Aspire E 15 with (7,871).
On our Handbrake benchmark, the Aspire 5’s it took 32 minutes and 53 seconds to transcode a 4K video. This statistics makes it more slower than the category average result of 23 minutes and 5 seconds. This assertion makes the Aspire E 15 with (31:40) a little superior than the Aspire 5’s.
In 20.5 seconds, the Acer’s 128GB SSD copied a whooping 4.98GB of data. Working at a conversion speed of 248 megabytes per second, the Acer 5’s is way ahead of the average budget laptop of (75 megabytes per second).
The speed rate of the Aspire E 15 on the other hand is weighed down because of a more slower 1TB HDD (34 Megabytes per second). Even though the HP 14 Laptop is designed with 128GB SSD, it still had a processing speed rate of just (85 megabytes per second)
Graphics
Taking statistical results from the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited graphics benchmark, the Aspire 5’s had a wonderful score of 59,873. This is partly because of the fact that this fine piece of tech comes with an Intel UHD 620 GPU. This great test score of the Aspire 5’s puts it way ahead of the budget laptop average of 37,818.
However, after running the same test on the Aspire E 15 we discovered oy shoots better than the Aspire 5’s with a score of 63,817.
The Aspire 5’s didn’t meet our expectations as is crashed and shut down while running on the Dirt 3 benchmark. This happened after averaging just 19 frames per second, Dropping slightly below the minimum playability time frame of 30 frames per seconds.
Also, with 25 fps, the HP 14 wasn’t any different as it couldn’t meet our expectations either. This put the Aspire 5’s in first place with a whooping 56 frames per second.
Battery Life
The Aspire 5’s goes further than just offering a solid performance, it also possesses a rare feature of maintaining a long battery life. Testing this assertion, we simultaneously surfed the web with a Wi-Fi connection running at 150 nits brightness. Blowing past the average 8 hours of Aspire E 15 battery, it lasted for a straight 8 hours and 51 minutes.
Webcam
The Aspire 5’s 720p webcam isn’t the best choice for users with the grainy spots it produces. Though it provided a pretty bright and decent color, the contrast wasn’t so great. Though this defect can be solved by connecting an external webcam.
Heat
This fine piece of technology stays surprisingly cool even under pressure and multi-tasking. Practically speaking, we played a 15 minutes, 1080p video, the bottom of the laptop clocked a maximum of 88 degrees Fahrenheit. This result is no doubt below the nominal 95-degree comfort threshold.
Furthermore, the middle of the keyboard and keyboard reached 86 and 79 degrees respectively.
Software And Warranty
The Acer company has relatively reduced the number of the apps it installs into your machine, but there are still some of them we can point out. The Aspire 5’s comes with an Acer product registration (this gives users access to discounts), Apps Explorer ( a vivid set of the best windows apps).
More apps that are installed by the manufacturer includes Acer Care Center (essential app for recovery management and other utilities), amazon, Evernote, Netflix and other.
Meanwhile, the Windows 10 bloatware comes with a couple of fun games which includes Bubble Witch 3 Saga and Candy Crush Friends Saga.
Just like many other tech devices, the Aspire 5 is packaged with a one-year limited warranty. The acer also have a great support system which responds to customer complaints almost immediately after their tendered. See how Acer performed on our Tech Support Showdown
Overall Lesson
The Acer 5’s is one of the best laptop to purchase if you’re operating on a budget. It has a great performance characteristics for its price. With a display that’s brighter than majority of cheap laptops and a great battery usage life. The only underlying drawdown of this wonderful piece is the graphics and the off-center lid placement.
If you desire to save more, the Acer Aspire E 15 (361$) isn’t a bad idea. Though it’s a little bulkier, it possesses more port, higher quality graphics and a much better build for a relatively cheaper price. You will not get the SSD advantage.
Generally, the Aspire 5’s is an excellent budget friendly laptop.
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