Product review of the cheap 15.6 inch laptop Acer Aspire ES1-512 powered by Intel Celeron processor
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| Acer Aspire ES1-512 |
The Acer laptop we are reviewing in this article – Acer Aspire ES1-512 is a hot seller at Amazon and Argos recently. It tops the leader board at both retailers and this is why we decided it’s worth to take a look.
Acer decided to stick to a tried and trusted formula with this model and to pack in as many features as they can for as low of a price as possible. The laptop is currently selling between $230 - $280.
Design:
Design-wise, there is nothing special to this machine – the built is mostly functional rather than visually impressive. Opening the laptop reveals a very generous design thanks to a 15.6-inch form factor. A keyboard with a separate numeric keypad welcomes you – its island-style keys are soft to the touch and have a decent amount of travel, and while they're a bit noisy, it's nothing too worrying.
Most ports are placed at the back of the laptop, along with the power socket, which may be slightly uncommon but not uncomfortable once you get used to it. The laptop also has an optical drive.
The touchpad, which is closer to the left edge, is massive compared to other models but doesn't have any physical buttons. It is totally smooth unlike the textured palm rest surrounding it; the latter reinforces the bland, cheap plastic look of the ES1-512.
The display, a 15.6-inch, 1366 x 768 resolution LG-built TN panel, is not bad, but has definite weak spots – there’s a very distinct and distracting glare. Additionally, the viewing angles are poor, even in a well lit room.
PROS
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CONS
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Price
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Processing power
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Impressive battery life
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Non-removeable battery
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Optical disk drive
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Screen glare
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Performance:
The Acer Aspire ES1-512 offers the same hardware as most of its competitors. The processor is Intel Celeron N2840, a Bay Trail-M model with two cores clocked at 2.16GHz with 1MB of L2 cache. The graphics subsystem is Intel HD, you get 4GB of RAM (some of it shared with video), a webcam, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Gigabit Ethernet.
The storage is a Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500GB HDD with 5400RPM spinning speed and 8MB of cache and an LG optical drive as the DVD writer. A pair of tiny speakers are located on the (elevated) bottom of the ES1-512 that offer below-average sound.
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On the other hand, the laptop offers surprising battery life – Acer claims that its Aspire ES1-512 should achieve up to five hours of longevity, but it’s actually ran for eight (8) hours which was certainly a very nice surprise.
The Acer Aspire ES1-512 is an average laptop as a whole, but it is rather cheap, especially if you can get it on a flash sale. It provides decent value for money and a great battery life is one of the best reasons to consider it among its competitors.
Specifications:
Processor
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Intel Celeron N2840 2.16 GHz, Dual-core
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Memory
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4 GB DDR3L SDRAM, 1 slot
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Memory card reader
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Yes
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HDD
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500 GB
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Screen size
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15.6’’
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Display type
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LCD
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Screen mode
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HD
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Backlight technology
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LED
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Screen resolution
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1366 x 768
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Graphics
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Intel DDR3 SDRAM, shared memory
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WLAN
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IEEE 802.11 b/g/n
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Ethernet
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Gigabit Ethernet
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Microphone
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Yes
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Fingerprint reader
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No
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HDMI
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Yes
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USB
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2 x USB 2.0; 1 x USB 3.0
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Network (RJ-45)
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Yes
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Battery
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3-cell lithium-ion, 3220 mAh
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Dimensions
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H: 26.1 mm, W: 381.6 mm, D: 258 mm, Weight: 2.40 kg
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