Professional’s Score
Execs
- A lot of ports (together with USB4)
- Stable battery life
- Spectacular matte display screen
- Good fingerprint sensor
Cons
- Loud followers
- Plain design
- Not out there within the UK
Our Verdict
The Acer Aspire 5 is a stable all-rounder, however it doesn’t excel in any explicit space. Whereas that makes it a good selection for on a regular basis utilization, these with particular necessities or a need for a trendy design ought to look elsewhere.
The Aspire 5 laptop computer is certainly one of Acer’s greatest sellers. And the 2023 mannequin (A515-58M) pairs a 15.6-inch Full HD show with Intel’s Thirteenth-gen processors – the newest on the time of launch.
Whereas it’s not at present out there within the UK, does it justify the $799.99 asking value within the US? Right here’s our full evaluation.
Design, construct & connections
The design is primarily about performance, so the Aspire 5 isn’t a lot of an eye-catcher.
Its darkish plastic exterior (with a Metal Gray end) can’t be opened comfortably with one hand, whereas the moderately giant show bezels make the laptop computer look old school.
It does presents one ergonomic benefit: open the display screen additional shifts the keyboard up barely, making for a extra comfy typing place.
Thomas Rau
The Aspire 5 presents loads of ports, together with two USB Kind-A, one USB Kind-C and a full-size HDMI connection.
The Kind-C port helps USB4, so it really works with Thunderbolt for quick knowledge switch as much as 40Gbps. By comparability, the USB-A ports can attain 20- and 10Gbps respectively.
Whereas there’s no ethernet choice right here, you do get the newest Wi-Fi 6E normal. Aspire doesn’t supply LAN, however WLAN with the Wi-Fi 6E normal.
Show, keyboard & trackpad
The 15.6-inch show of the Aspire 5 has a Full HD (1920 × 1080) decision. That offers it a basic widescreen 16:9 facet ratio, despite the fact that the boxier 16:10 format makes extra sense for many functions nowadays.
A matte moderately than shiny coating on the show helps scale back the interference of reflections, however it’s not excellent. A max brightness of just below 250 nits nonetheless makes it tough to see in direct daylight.
Nevertheless, the display screen’s main weak spot is its poor color replica – each in its protection of the related color areas and in color constancy. That is insignificant for many workplace work, however it’s no good for graphical work or video modifying.
Thomas Rau
Acer makes use of virtually the whole width of the bottom for the keyboard, which is why it has a further quantity pad on the best.
Nevertheless, the latter’s keys are significantly narrower than the big keys in the primary discipline of the keyboard, which assure a excessive hit fee. When typing, the keyboard stays quiet and by no means feels spongy. However suggestions may very well be extra pronounced, and the up and down arrow keys are solely half as excessive because the left and proper ones.
The touchpad requires numerous pressure for the mouse click on: because it bounces a bit, it’s additionally fairly loud. Because of the non-slip floor, nonetheless, the mouse pointer could be positioned exactly, and even multi-finger gestures don’t trigger any issues.
Efficiency & battery life
Acer depends on Intel’s 10-core Core i7-1355U because the processor. Since solely two of those cores are performance-focused, it’s a lot much less highly effective than different chips within the Raptor Lake vary.
In Cinebench R23, the Core i7-1355U is round 30% slower than the i7-1360P and 80% behind the i9-13900H.
Thomas Rau
In on a regular basis use, that is solely noticeable if you use the Aspire 5 for duties similar to graphic design or picture and video modifying. And even then, the efficiency drop-off isn’t as dramatic – often solely round 10-30%.
For all different duties – excluding complicated video games – the machine is barely slower and so works nicely. In workplace functions, for instance, the laptop computer actually advantages from its quick 1TB NVMe SSD.
Regardless of the comparatively low efficiency and energy consumption, the fan within the Aspire 5 is clearly audible – round 45dB underneath load. Nevertheless, the machine doesn’t ever get notably sizzling.
Thomas Rau
The benefit of the U-series chip turns into obvious within the battery take a look at: the system’s energy consumption is just round 4.5W, which helps the Aspire 5 when it comes to battery life. Regardless of the comparatively small 53Wh cell, it may well final for almost 12 hours.
After you do run out of charger, an hour linked to the mains will get you again to 84%.
Verdict
The Acer Aspire 5 is an actual all-round laptop computer: With its stable design, respectable efficiency and good battery life, it covers most necessities that customers have for a . Furthermore, it may be used each on the desk and on the transfer.
Although the Aspire 5 can do many issues, it’s not excellent in any explicit class. Should you’re on the lookout for one thing particular – be it for engaged on the go, gaming, performance-intensive duties or just one thing extra trendy – you’ll be higher off with a unique laptop computer.
Specs
- Processor: Intel Core i7-1355U
- Reminiscence: 16GB
- Graphics: Intel Iris Xe
- Storage: 1TB SSD
- Connections: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
- Working system: Home windows 11 Residence
- Show: 15.6-inch, 1920×1080, 16:9, 60Hz
- Weight: 1.78kg
- Battery: 53Wh
- Ports: 1x Kind-A USB 3.2 Gen 1, 1x Kind-C USB 4/Thunderbolt, 1x 3.5mm audio jack, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x energy
- Different options: Full HD webcam, fingerprint sensor (inside touchpad)
This evaluation was initially revealed in German on PC-Welt.