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Business News/ Technology / Apps/  Acer Aspire 5 Review: One of the first to adopt the newest Intel chips
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Acer Aspire 5 Review: One of the first to adopt the newest Intel chips

Acer Aspire 5 has a run-of-the-mill design, but it is solidly built and offers the latest hardware in town

Acer Aspire A5 is a well-built notebook with metal at the top of the lid and in the frame of the keyboardPremium
Acer Aspire A5 is a well-built notebook with metal at the top of the lid and in the frame of the keyboard

Acer is updating its mid-range notebook line-up with Intel’s 8th gen processors and Nvidia’s new mobile graphics, designed for slim notebooks. The Aspire 5 (A515-51G-571Z) belongs to their new breed of notebooks targeted at professionals who like to travel light, but do not want to miss out on a full-fledged notebook experience either. It is priced at Rs51,999 and is available on Flipkart.com and retail outlets.

In case you are mulling about buying a notebook in the vicinity of Rs50,000, here are the few things that you need to know about the new Acer Aspire A5.

The Aspire A5 is a well-built notebook with metal at the top of the lid and in the frame of the keyboard. Acer has tried to jazz up the looks with a lined pattern at the top. While it looks unique, it is not in the same league as the Asus Vivobook S15 (Rs59,990) or the Lenovo IdeaPad 520 (Rs53,999), which looks more premium with a full metal chassis.

At 2.2kg, the Aspire A5 weighs as much as most big-screen notebooks. The Asus notebook packs a 15.6-inch screen too and has discreet graphics too, but looks slimmer and weighs just 1.7kg.

The connectivity options are lined up, as usual, on both sides of the keyboard base. The left side includes connectors for USB 3.0, HDMI, USB Type-C, Ethernet and an SD card slot, while the right side panel includes two USB 2.0 connectors and a 3.5mm jack. There is no optical drive, but unless you need it specifically, you won’t really miss it.

The keyboard base looks balanced with big keys, wide palm rests and trackpad. The keys are soft and there is ample amount of spacing between the keys which makes typing a breeze and more accurate. The only limitation is that they are not backlit, when the Vivobook S15 and the Lenovo IdeaPad 520 have backlit keys.

The 15.6-inch (1,920x1,080p) display has an anti-glare coating, which puts less stress on eyes by making the screen less reflective. This puts it at par with the Vivobook S 15, which has a resolution of 1,920x1,080p on a 15.6-inch screen. But the Asus notebook has a more immersive and edge-to-edge screen as the bezels around it are a lot thinner. The IdeaPad has a 15.6-inch screen too but lower resolution of 1,366x768p.

This Acer Aspire A5 is powered by Intel’s 8th gen Core i5 processor, offers 4GB RAM and has Nvidia’s new GeForce MX150 graphics (2GB). The new chipset is 30% faster than the Intel’s 7th gen Core i5 processor which has been used in Lenovo IdeaPad 520.

The Nvidia GeForce MX150 graphics are slightly better than the Nvidia GeForce 940, which is what you get in as discreet graphics in most mid-range notebooks such as the Lenovo Ideapad 520. The GeForce Mx150 is still not meant for high-end games, but can handle one-year-old games at lower settings easily. The Asus Vivobook S15 is as powerful as the Acer notebook and uses the same Intel processor and Nvidia graphics.

Battery backup is a strong limb of the Acer notebook as it lasts up to 6 hours of continuous web browsing, typing and movie playback. This puts it at par with the Asus notebook, and makes it much better than the Lenovo notebook which lasts a paltry three hours on one charge.

Overall, the Acer notebook is a well-priced Windows 10 notebook with the latest 8th Intel Core i5 processor with discreet graphics on board. The Lenovo IdeaPad 520 costs as much but runs on an older processor, inferior display and graphics. If you can spend a little more, go for the Asus Vivobook S15 for its cutting-edge looks, light form-factor, thin-bezel design and fingerprint sensor.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Abhijit Ahaskar
Abhijit writes on tech policy, gaming, security, AI, robotics, electronics and startups. He has been in the media industry for over 12 years.
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Published: 24 Jan 2018, 03:21 PM IST
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