Acer Aspire 5 A515-54-37U3 Review
The budget laptop world is never short of exciting gadgets. Gone are the days when buying a laptop on a budget meant having to do with a super-slow machine that wouldn’t even last a week. These days, you can get a solid laptop – like the Acer Aspire 5 Slim Laptop Review – with a relatively good performance and a nice keyboard, for under $400.
This Acer Aspire 5 refreshes last year’s model the Acer Aspire 5 (A515-54-30BQ) that we loved for its design, price and sleek design. Sure, it may not be the sleekest notebook out there, but with a newer 10th-Gen Intel Core i3 chip and a decent battery life, the Aspire A515-54-37U3 is one of the best budget laptops you can buy.
Acer Aspire 5 Design
Going by 15-inch laptop standards, the Aspire 5 sports a premium look but it isn’t very light, weighing just under 6 pounds. Most budget machines are defined by cheap, heavy materials like molded plastic. In contrast, the Aspire 5’s exterior is made of silver aluminum, meaning this notebook is not very light, but sports a sleek, modern look. However, it’s not anywhere close to the Acer Swift 5 that weighs a paltry 2.2 pounds, but it will still not weigh you down in your backpack.
Around the display edges there’s some plastic but the keyboard deck and rest of the interior surface are made of the same material used on the exterior. Even with the improved dimension and better materials, you’ll notice that the base of the unit is slightly wobbly, even when resting on a flat tabletop. There’s some flex on the base, too, which doesn’t inspire lots of confidence in the Aspire’s durability if the body is banged around much.
Acer Aspire 5 Display
When you open the lid, you’re greeted by a 15.6-inch full HD (1,920-by-1,080) display, alongside the new standard LED backlight and in-plane (IPS) technology. The screen is of excellent quality, with clear and vivid colors, when the backlight is set to its optimal level. Better still, the screen achieves this quality using a matte finish that reduces glare from ambient lights.
On the downside, Acer doesn’t offer a touchscreen option, but is a remarkable improvement over last year’s model. Above the display, there is a 720p webcam with decent – but slightly grainy video quality, that lacks IR sensors that would allow you to log into your Windows 10 account using face recognition. After all, we didn’t expect such a feature on a budget laptop.
Acer Aspire 5 Inputs
Another interesting feature on the Acer A515-54-37U3 must be the backlit keyboard, just above the touchpad. It’s comfortable, sturdy and offers the flexibility you’d need during intense typing sessions. Again, it gets little give when you strike the keys forcefully. The keyboard has a dedicated number pad on the right side, but unlike the main part of the board, its keys are not full-size.
The touchpad used here doesn’t boost a built-in fingerprint reader, and it lacks dedicated left- and right-click buttons. Instead, the entire surface on the pad is clickable, although it results in a fairly mushy feel whenever you click.
Connectivity options are excellent, especially if you hate dongles but have lots of peripherals and cables to plug into your laptop. The left edge has a power connector, full-size Gigabit Ethernet and HDMI ports, and two USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports (one with power-off charging). The other edge holds a Kensington-style cable, a two USB 2.0 ports, and a 3.5mm audio output. Wireless connectivity comes via Intel Wireless Wi-Fi 6 AX201 802 11ax Dual-Band 2 4GHz and 5GHz featuring 2×2 MU-MIMO technology.