Acer Aspire 5 Slim Laptop, 15.6 Inches FHD IPS Display, 8th Gen Intel Core i5-8265U, 8GB DDR4, 256GB SSD, Fingerprint Reader, Windows 10 Home, A515-54-51DJ

This Acer Aspire laptop was purchased on Black Friday 2019. In short, it has proved to be a wonderful computer and a great buy. It has been used by, myself as well as a backup computer for our son for virtual school, and my wife's PC needs. It's regularly used with a graphics tablet to run ADOBE Photoshop for school, and Affinity Photo/Publisher/Designer. While it's not the most powerful choice for graphics design, it works fine for college-level tuition. The display is fantastic, clear, great color, and clear. Also, the displays a good size for a laptop. It's also much better than a compatible-priced Lenovo we had to buy for virtual school. The keyboard is good, has an ok feel, and has been robust. The Lenovo keyboard has a better feel. Otherwise, this PC is nicely balanced with an i5 processor now running Windows 11. The SSD is fast enough and never lags even on big jobs. Above all else, we have had this computer for 5 years and not a single problem, and it still runs well. So in the long run the Acer has been a champ, and could not be happier with our original purchase. 100% recommended for the long haul, and a great user experience on the way.

I bought this laptop, and a Crucial 1TB SSD on Black Friday. After two and a half weeks, these are my thoughts:Speed: The primary reason I wanted to update my laptop from a nearly 6-yr old HP Pavilion was to get better speed. This laptop delivers the goods. With an 8th generation i5-8265u, 8GB of RAM (expandable to 20GB max), and a 256GB PCIe-NVMe SSD, it is only the Intel UHD 620 graphics that holds it back. From completely off (not sleeping), to booted and signed in, with a functional desktop, ready to respond, takes 12 seconds. The SSD gets most of the credit, though the fingerprint reader speeds sign in significantly (it doesn't work every time). Apps open quickly, and web pages load promptly. More importantly, it feels fast. On User Bench, it tests out as only a Surfboard as a gaming platform, and a Sailboat as a workstation (no big surprises based on the graphics and amount of RAM), but it is a Battlecruiser as a desktop. For everyday computing, this rig is a member of the Brute Squad. So, on speed, it earns a solid check mark.Screen: Excellent. It is bright, colors are nicely saturated, and, as expected these days, no dead pixels. At typical working distance, it is a retina screen, with not a pixel in sight. Thanks to the IPS technology, the wide viewing angle without the “photographic negative” effect is a solid plus. How many nits, and what percent of the color gamut can it display? Don't know, don't care. It easily passes the “eye test.” So the screen warrants a solid check mark. Of note, this is NOT a touchscreen.Keyboard: The other reason I wanted to upgrade was to have a back-lit keyboard. It was a MUST-have, and I will not purchase another laptop, or any other keyboard that is not back-lit. Are you listening out there, all you laptop manufacturers? I like the size of, and the feel of the keys. It is a fairly quiet keyboard. The back light does turn off after 30 seconds of no input, in order to conserve battery. Some have criticized this feature. If you continue input, it does not turn off. If it turns off, it comes back on by depressing any key. And the back light is not just around the edges of each key, but each character is is illuminated as well, so you can really see what you are doing. The only negative is that the Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn keys share double duty with 4 keys of the numeric keypad, and you have to turn NumLock on and off to use them. Also, the NumLock and the hated CapsLock key do not have indicator lights to tell you if the are on or off. Both of these are significant, though not fatal flaws, in my opinion. So on the keyboard - check.WiFi: It works. No fuss, no muss. Connects easily, and it is fast. On Speedtest by Ookla, it produces a download speed of 207mbps, and an upload speed of 116mbps, over a background of a nominal internet connection speed of 300mbps. Of course, your results will vary. WiFi – check.Form Factor: This is a 15.6” screen, and it weighs ~4lbs. It is comfortable to use. The track pad is fairly large, and works well, though I have yet to learn all the gestures that are available. I like it.Fan Noise: This has been an issue of criticism in some reviews of Aspire 5's. I would disagree. Most of the time, fan noise is minimal or absent. Occasionally, if the CPU is pushed harder, fan noise does become audible. However, it tends to be short-lived, e.g., <30 seconds. So I don't regard it as much of an issue.Battery Life: I mostly use my laptop plugged in, so battery life is not a major issue for me. However, the estimate of 5hrs of battery life on average seems reasonable, based on some experience on battery power. The claim of 9.5 hrs maximum seems a bit of a stretch, but not necessarily impossible if you maximize power saving.Adding a 2nd SSD: With only 256GB on the SSD, a 2nd hard drive of some sort seems mandatory. These days, given the prices of SSD's, there is little excuse for installing a traditional HDD. I added a 1TB Crucial SSD, at a very reasonable price, and the upgrade was relatively easy (the hardest part was prying the back off after removing the 11 screws), aided by a very helpful Acer YouTube video that walks you through the process. Also, the laptop comes with the needed bracket, cable and connector, and all the screws to add the SSD. So, adding the 2nd SSD, which was a MUST-have, was painless. Good one, Acer!In Sum: For <$500 (at the Black Friday prices for the laptop and SSD), I have an awesome laptop, built for general everyday computing tasks. In my book, this is an outstanding value.5-month update: After 5 months with this laptop, I have only come to appreciate it even more. It remains very fast, everything works, the screen and the keyboard are great (excepting the few keyboard omissions noted above), battery life is more than acceptable. Best laptop I have ever owned, by a lot! It remains a tremendous value.

This laptop was purchased to replace a Chromebook (because many programs and platforms haven't caught on to the Linux thing, yet). Fortunately, using a Chromebook for a year taught me to utilize platforms and cloud storage for nearly everything, so hard drive space is not a concern for me. Also, I am not a "gamer" per se, so I don't need the gaming stuff (fast processors, awesome graphics processing cards, whatever). I use this primarily for writing, editing, photography editing, online research, etc. I also use it for watching movies/TV shows (whether streaming or downloaded), accessing large JPG files, and sometimes playing games that don't involve being chased or shooting anyone(thing) hahaPROS:* This computer is very, very fast for what I need -- I am a professional screenwriter, writer/editor, and photographer, so I use it to do writing and photography editing.* I can have 20 tabs open on Google while simultaneously using Word for multiple-document editing, screenwriting software, AND downloading updates. Even on 2G wi-fi, the speed never even hiccups.* The graphics are AMAZING and the screen size is awesome. Love the backlit keyboard, and the ability to use night settings to cut down on blue light emissions so I (might) go to sleep on time!* For the money, this is a great laptop for those who aren't "serious gamers" -- although I have used it for movies, TV shows, streaming live, etc. and it is phenomenal. I don't do any gaming that requires fast processing, so this doesn't matter to me at all.* Downloading movies, TV shows, large documents, bulky JPG files, everything has gone very quickly and smoothly. Even using my screenwriting software hasn't caused any problems at all, regardless of how much I do all at once (I multi-task a LOT). I currently have 17 tabs open on Google Chrome, Word, and my system is updating. No issues!* Works great with portable hard drives, wireless headphones, wired earbuds, phone integration (cell phone synced with laptop for messaging while working), and the power cord actually was identical to my previous Chromebook!* Lightweight, large screen, nice-sized keyboard (includes the numerical pad) and a lot of features I still haven't gotten to explore!CONS:* The battery dies rather quickly, when used for movie/TV show viewing (about 4 hours from full charge). When used for writing/editing and online work (only) it lasts closer to 7 hours.* Sometimes, the touchpad will just stop working, altogether. However, I use a wireless mouse so this doesn't bother me very much. If you use the touchpad exclusively, this will be a MAJOR issue.* If you are used to having big, fat hard drive space -- well, that's just silly (use the cloud, people!!) -- then you will not like the "smaller" amount of hard drive space on this laptop. Easy solution: use a portable hard drive (I have a 1TB from Office Max for $54). Or learn how to use the multitude of cloud storage available (many are free!)** Does not work with my current printer (HP DeskJet 2622) for wireless printing. But that is more the fault of HP, not Acer. Just not compatible (ugh) because the printer uses its own "network" and is only 2G (very strange). **