Acer Aspire 5 A515-54-51DJ review: Slim and inexpensive, but middling quad-core performance - blakephouttrat

If you'Re sounding for an inexpensive quad-Congress of Racial Equality laptop that's less than three-quarters of an inch boneheaded, the Acer Aim 5 A515-54-51DJ might fit the bill. This slim laptop packs in much enough power for everyday computing tasks, and its space-CORE functioning is respectable, if shy of fear-inspiring. A fingerprint reader and nearly all-day battery biography will appeal to productivity-minded touring warriors, although they'll have to conciliat for a display that's on the dim side.

This review is part of our ongoing roundup of the best laptops. Move back there for information on competing products and how we time-tested.

Price and specifications

Acer packs a bewildering number of configurations into its budget Shoot for 5 line—at any rate 22 away my count, ranging from $350 (at presstime) for a dual-meat AMD Ryzen 3 3200U-powered model with a bare-bones 4GB of RAM and a 128GB massive-state drive, entirely the elbow room to a considerably beefier quadrangle-essence Marrow i7-8565 model with a hefty 12GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and dedicated Nvidia GeForce MX250 graphics that cost about $850 at the time of this authorship. Most Aspire 5 versions boast a 15.6-edge display (although I spotted at any rate one 14-inch simulate), with a mix of 1080p and 720p resolutions.

The configuration we're reviewing hither is a centrist model, complete with a quadriceps-core Core i5-8265U CPU, a Whiskey Lake processor that debuted in late 2018 as a modest upgrade (mainly a slightly quicker hike clock speed) to 2017's Heart and soul i5-8250U Kaby Lake Refresh chip. Comparable to a Heart i7 CPU from a few generations anterior, the i5-8265U is a solid workhorse that pot clench its personal when it comes to CPU-intensive tasks same telecasting editing.

Ben Patterson/IDG

The Heart and soul i5-hopped-up translation of the Acer Aspire 5 comes with an impressively svelte and garnish shell.

Besides on board: a reasonable 8GB of RAM, which helps to smooth proscribed performance when running triune programs at once; a 256GB SSD, a decent amount of storage for a speedy solid drive; an integrated Intel UHD Art 620 chip, and a grumbling-HD (1920×1080) 15.6-edge in display.

In theory, that all adds prepared to a relatively rugged workhorse for everyday computation chores the like web browsing and composing Place documents, Intel's integrated UHD 620 will let you get along a little light play, but think Minesweeper more than than Fortnite.

If you'd prefer to spend a little less money, check out our review of this $399 Aspire 5 with a dual-nub Core i3 processor, which lacks the Core i5's quad-essence power but still packs a punch when information technology comes to day-to-day desktop tasks.

Design

The laptops in Acer's Aspire 5 line do a nice lin of feeling dilutant and lighter than they really are. This special model of the Aspire 5 is nobelium different: Yes, IT tips the scales at almost 4.25 pounds, merely at hardly 0.7 inches thin the Aspire 5 manages to feel reasonably light, particularly acknowledged its sizable 14.3-by-9.9-inch footmark.

The laptop's slim aluminum lid and tapering shell name it look fairly stylish for a budget laptop computer. Opening the chapeau reveals the 15.6-inch presentation with svelte left and right bezels, a fashionable "Aspire" logo along the laptop flexible joint, and a silver-colored chassis offset away the black keyboard. Incidentally, the palpebra bends elbow room back slightly beyond 180 degrees, which means you canful lay the Shoot for completely flat with the palpebra open.

acer aspire 5 51dj flat — You rump place the Aim 5 flat on a put over with its lid open, if the mood strikes you.

Turn the Aim 5 upside-down, we incu a pair of small speaker grilles near the front and a large temperature reduction release near the back. On that point are also 11 Phillips-heading screws that look away atomic number 3 though they're inviting you to remove the bum panel, and what's this: an extra hard drive bracket? Alas, spell you probably could go ahead and pop soured the bottom control board, a note in the box warns that cracking unresolved the chassis yourself could void the warranty, so you power want to leave the upgrades to an authorized service dealer.

acer aspire 5 51dj bottom — You could remove the Aspire 5's buns instrument panel with a screwdriver, but doing so might vitiate the laptop's warrant.

Display

When it comes to the Shoot for's display, let's bug out with the positives. Its 1920×1080 resolution is the minimum we like to see when dealings with a 15.6-edge in screen. The Aspire's IPS (in-plane switch) panel makes for hard viewing angles, with the video display looking relatively bright and readable even when looking from the side, above, or below. The reveal's matted "ComfyView" intent minimizes glare, though direct alfresco sunlight will fight back hard.

acer aspire 5 51dj bezel — We like the svelte bezel happening the left and ripe sidelong of the Aspire 5's display, but screen luminosity leaves something to personify desired.

Unfortunately, the display on this particular good example of the Aspire 5 is disappointingly dim—just 201 nits (Oregon candelas) reported to our measurements, which is well below the 250 nits we generally prefer. While the Draw a bead on 5's block out looked bright sufficiency indoors, it began to fade noticeably when I was using information technology outside in the tincture, and it looked symmetrical worse in direct sunlight.

Keyboard, trackpad, speakers, and extras

The Aspire 5 offers a roomy backlit keyboard complete with a 10-key quantitative computer keyboard. The latter is a tad too squished for our liking, just information technology's there. The keys themselves felt good to type on, delivering a satisfying bump and bouncy spring on from each one keystroke. That said, go on (basically a measure of how far the key travels happening each stroke) felt a bit skimpy compared to other productiveness-minded laptops I've tested.

acer aspire 5 51dj numeric keypad — The backlit keyboard on the Shoot for 5 comes with a dedicated (but narrow) numeric keypad.

The Acer Aspire 5's roomy trackpad felt smooth and answering during my testing. I did occasionally notice the cursor jittering across the screen as my palms dragged ended the trackpad come out spell typewriting. Information technology was only slenderly annoying, but trackpads on other laptops I've tested have done a better lin at rejecting such false inputs.

Spine along the plus side, the trackpad comes with a fingerprint reader, convenient for sign language into your Windows profile OR any Windows Hello-compatible apps by imperative your fingertip on the sensor. I victimised the fingerprint referee, which sits in the whirligig-left corner of the trackpad, repeatedly throughout my examination and didn't have any problems.

acer aspire 5 51dj fingerprint reader — A fingerprint reader is always a nice touch, and the uncomparable on the Aspire 5 was fairly reliable during my testing.

The stereo speakers connected the Shoot for 5 are about as mediocre as those on most other laptops we've time-tested. You can crank them nice and loud, which is a plus, and they even render a hint of freshwater bass, although the sounds gets muddy at higher volumes. We've definitely detected worse.

Ports

The Aspire 5's collection of ports offers a decent selection of new and bequest options. Along the left side, you've got a full-on Gigabit ethernet port for an old-school wired connection to your router. You don't often see ethernet ports in laptops this hairlike, but this uncomparable has a "dropjaw" ricoche mechanism thusly the port fanny expand to accommodate a cable connector. You as wel get along a couple of speedy USB 3.0 Type-A ports, HDMI, and a USB 3.1 Gen 1 Typecast-C port for connecting newer USB-C-equipped computer storage devices and peripherals.

On the right, you get a USB 2.0 Case-A port, plus a combo audio jack.

acer aspire 5 51dj ports right — There's a USB 2.0 Type-A port and a combo sound jack up happening the reactionist side of the Aspire 5, but no retentivity card reader.

Disappointingly, in that location's no memory card reader, which agency you won't be able to pop in memory card game from your Android phone operating theater your digital camera.

Performance

With its in-between-of-the-road specs, we were expecting middle-of-the-road performance from this Nucleus i5-equipped version of the Genus Acer Aspire 5, and that's bad much what we toughened.

The good news is that the Aspire's got it where IT counts, putt up fantabulous tons when it comes to everyday productivity—think network browsing, Office productivity, playing tunes, and even off several loose photo editing. That aforementioned, the Aspire's quad-burden processor chugs a bit when information technology comes to CPU-intensive activities, particularly video encryption.

PCMark 8 Work 2.0 Stuffy

The PCMark 8 Work 2.0 benchmark simulates such routine desktop activities as composition schoolbook documents, fiddling with spreadsheets, shopping on the World Wide Web, video conferencing, and other day-to-day activities—in other lyric, the regular desktop chores that are squarely in the Aspire 5's wheelhouse. Broadly speaking, a score of 2,000 or advisable along the PCMark 8 benchmark means you can expect smooth Business office execution.

acer aspire 5 51dj pcmark8 — The Core i5-based Genus Acer Aspire 5 gets high marks for its PCMark 8 performance.

The results were impressive, with this particular configuration of the Shoot for 5 top-hole our graph of similar Pith i5-powered laptops in some the same price range. The Aspire's PCMark 8 score of a little over 3,500 easily cleared our low-piss pock of 2,000 for this benchmark, and it even bests the numbers racket of competitive laptops that toll hundreds of dollars Sir Thomas More, although some of those pricier laptops are also much littler and light (and thus tougher to keep cool) than the Aim.

HandBrake

A considerably tougher test than PCMark 8, our HandBrake benchmark measures how long it takes for a given laptop to convert a 40GB television file into an Android tablet-compatible format. Whereas PCMark 8 is a one-man-Congress of Racial Equality workout for a CPU, Handbrake demands peak performance from all of a processor's cores, meaning that the chip with the just about cores will generally win away.

Look-alike just about of the laptops in our comparison chart, the Core i5-powered Aspire 5 has a quad-inwardness central processor, and so, the Aspire's 4,973-minute scotch lands in the ballpark, albeit near the behind of the pack. Ahead of the Aspire are laptops that are either much pricier (like the Lenovo ThinkPad L480) or bigger and therefore easier to cool (like the hefty Acer E 15). Lagging behind the Aspire is the 2.7-pound Asus ZenBook 13. As expected, a couple of dual-core Acer laptops, including a Core- i3-backpacking version of the Aspire 5 line (full review future soon), bring up the rear.

Sounding low-level the hood using Intel's Intense Tuning Utility, we terminate see that the Aspire is frequently engaging thermal throttling during the HandBrake test. Put differently, it's repeatedly pumping brake system on the Processor's execution to keep it from overheating, most likely a concession to the Aspire's slim chassis.

The Aspire's so-so HandBrake score matters only when you have overambitious plans for this laptop computer. Activities care web browsing and redaction Business office documents don't postulate multi-core performance; broadly speaking speaking, the CPU only inevitably a single core to handle most mainstream background chore. The PCMark 8 benchmark already told us that the Aspire sails right through those types of tasks.

If you're planning on editing 4K videos, however, then yes, the Aspire 5 may get sluggish as information technology tries to cool itself off. It'll still get the job done much faster than a twofold-core laptop could.

Cinebench

Some other benchmark that pushes a CPU to its limits, Cinebench measures how long it takes for a given system to render a 3D image in genuine time. Information technology's other multi-core torture test, and once more, we should look to laptops with the most processor cores to be top-hole the chart.

Reflecting the results of the HandBrake test, the Substance i5-powered Acer Aim 5 once again brings up the rear of the Core i5 pack in the multithread Cinebench test, although it's not by a long sight a walkaway. So, while we (again) proverb the Aspire 5 dialing cut down its CPU via thermal throttling during the test, its 493 all-threads Cinebench scotch is still relatively respectable.

Also interesting are the only-thread Cinebench test results, which shows the Essence i5-powered Aspire 5 basically even with its competition, save for the much heavier Aspire E15 and pricey Lenovo IdeaPad. The Draw a bead on 5's relatively strong single-rib performance bodes well when it comes to informal computing duties.

3DMark Flip Loon

With its integrated Intel UHD Art 620 core, it's unfair to expect much from the Shoot for 5 in terms of gaming, just we put it through its paces anyway with the 3DMark Sky Diver graphics bench mark.

acer aspire 5 51dj 3dmark sky diver — The Aspire 5 and its structured nontextual matter core sits bunched up with similarly configured laptops, piece the Acer E 15 A-one the graph thanks to its separate graphics card.

No surprises hither, with the i5-packing Aspire 5 in the top thirdly of its class in our chart. What's that incomparable laptop at the top that's blowing whol the others away? It's the Core i5-enabled Acer E 15, a bargain-priced laptop with an ace up its arm: a discrete GeForce MX150 graphics card. The MX150 is no powerhouse, mind you, but it illustrates the difference that even an unveiling-level discrete art card can make.

Battery life

We test battery life on laptops past looping a 4K video all over and over using the sprout Movies & Boob tube playback app for Windows, with the screen brightness level tuned As close as possible to 250 nits (which meant cranking the Shoot for's smartness all the mode upbound) and with the volume put away to 50 per centum, with headphones plugged in.

acer aspire 5 51dj battery rundown — With a trifle more nine hours of battery life in our testing, the Aspire 5 is perfect for day-tripped without a power adaptor.

On the average, it took a little over 9 hours for the 49 watt-hour battery in the Core i5-equipped Aspire 5 to die, which is suited in line with our expectations. Topping the list is the Asus ZenBook 13, which wrings an exceptional sum of juice out of its similar-sized battery. The Genus Acer E 15 benefits from a larger 62 W-hour battery. In any event, the Shoot for 5's nine-hour answer in our bombardment rundown tribulation means close to all-day battery lifetime.

Bottom course

Capable of smooth-as-butter performance for mainstream computing activities, this Effect i5-powered version of the Genus Acer Aspire 5 manages to pack space-core mightiness into a thin, budget-priced chassis. But while it can campaign Role comparable a appeal, the Aspire's quad-core operation isn't quite a as impressive, and we're also disappointed by its dim display.