Acer Aspire 5 Slim Laptop, 15.6" Full HD IPS Display, 8th Gen Intel Core i3-8145U, 4GB DDR4, 128GB PCIe Nvme SSD, Backlit Keyboard, Windows 10 in S Mode, A515-54-30BQ

I've been using computers since the Intel 8088 processor hit the market via the first IBM PC...well truth be told, we came out at the same time in June of 1979. I feel somewhat like the old man relaying how they walked to school, up hill both ways, in the snow, with no shoes on, saying this but when that device came out, it cost the equivalent of $5,000 ~ $10,000 USD today. Fast forward to 2007 when I purchased my Mac Book Pro for $2,500 to do high-end Graphic design on, with a Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR2 RAM and 5400RPM HDD....and now....I just purchased a budget buy of a PC that puts them both utterly to shame.I say these things because it has a large bearing on the decision to purchase this laptop. I just finished repairing and upgrading my mother in laws laptop from 2011 that cost more than this but had now where near the performance, even for it's time. Granted, this is not a gaming PC as it does not have a dedicated graphics card but it has enough to push the envelope of what we consider a budget PC. Also worth noting is that this laptop is a replacement for my Dell M6700 workstation laptop that got murdered by lightning.The 8th gen i3 is only half of the overall power of the i7 that was in my M6700. But! the "Single Thread Rating" of the newer i3 is significantly better...and let's face it, even many of the graphic design tasks I do are really only single threaded applications. So, all that extra power was usually not even being tapped. My CPU was usually only at 25% doing HD renderings in Blender. That's definitely worth considering when buying a device, what are the needs of your tasks? If they are single thread tasks, like most non gaming tasks, then an i3 performs quite well, so long as you don't over multi-task by running to many applications at once.It's got DDR4, which is an obvious advantage over DDR3 systems. But even systems that cost more than twice as much are being sold with 5400RPM HDDs. There are very significant performance differences between SSD and HDD systems and the fact that this laptop comes with NVMe drive, which outperforms both SSD and HDD, gives it a solid edge over other budget PCs. Being only 4GB of RAM can be concerning, especially for things like photo and video editing...but I used to do that with 2GB or RAM and it is easily upgradable to 20GB. 128GB of storage is not a lot either by today's standards, but for $50 yo can add in a decent 2TB HDD for storage...i just so happened to already have one because of my system that died. I also redirect my Desktop, Downloads and Documents to the secondary drive to help keep the OS drive clean...worth Google-ing to do yourself.The display is great! it was important to me to get something that is Full HD 1080. I was very near to buying something in the tablet range just because most laptops in this class are only 1366 x 768. it is also not glossy, which I rather prefer. In most cases, glossy screens create in consistent results because of reflecting too much of the environment.It is also very thin and light weight. This was a very important factor since my M6700 was twice has heavy and twice as thick. Overall, I'd say this laptop is the perfect balance of budget pricing with mid level performance.

I had an ACER Aspire laptop before this one and that made me love that brand enough to buy this one. I did like the other one having a flip/touch screen but couldn't find one in my price range this time. I bought this one during the big sale days on Amazon. Very happy with it. Keyboard lights for easy viewing of the keys, nice thin design and very thin "framing" around the screen (I know it has another name but I don''t know it). I am not sure what to write about it because it does what it's supposed to do and what I expect a laptop to do. It came with Windows 10S. I have it for a long time and I'm still not sure if I'll keep the "S" or not. The only problems I've had with having that are not that grave. Had trouble getting Zoom and can't download Chrome when I tried to. I find things here and there but nothing of such great significance that I can even remember them or it. I don't find it to be a fast as I thought it would be. It's plenty fast, just not as much as I thought it would be. I do miss the flip/touch screen a lot. If I were to get another one, I think I'd be sure it has those things, when that time comes. But, again, for usual use, the speed is fine. And, also again, maybe it's that way from being kept in S mode. I can't try switching to regular Windows 10 as a comparison because I won't be able to come back to S if I do. Why do I keep it with S? Well, it is said that it is more secure that way and I like that. Problems keeping that program have pretty much not existed. I am OK with the things having that program has maybe blocked so far. I don't use it for high end gaming. The one thing I wish ANY laptop could do, like my iPad does, is texting. I find that convenient when I'm on my iPad doing other things and a text comes in or I think of one I want to send.In conclusion, I really find Acer Aspire laptops to be dependable and without problems. This one holds a charge well and warns me when it's gone into low battery mode. I really can't think of Cons to state. Works well for my needs. I don't use it for work or gaming. Just ordinary home use and in that way, it serves me well.

Good news is that Acer is a decent brand that continues to permit end-users to upgrade systems. Great that you can install/boot from either a standard SATA drive or M.2. Or both (alternately). So you can throw-in another 256Gb SSD drive for cheap. Little cable adapter and sled are included (thank God). NFW can you install another CPU; BGA-soldered onto the MB.The BIOS on this just ABSOLUTELY sucks. This is relevant if you're interested in loading (or reloading) the non-native O.S. If you don't do that kind of thing, this is a well-functioning system for not a lot of dough. Everything is well-balanced and highly functional for the price. Screen is fine. (Anything smaller would suck.) Keyboard and trackpad are adequate. Speed is perfectly adequate for most tasks short of content creation; completely snappy for most tasks. 20gb RAM (with 16mb module) no problem. USB 3.1 works well. Looks good. Pretty thin. Good battery life. NOT THAT LIGHT.You can even edit/render video. Not great for that, obviously, but...It's doable.If stolen, considering performance/value/dollar, I'd absolutely buy this same model again. (Sadly, as I check this 5 months after initial purchase, no longer available new from Amazon.)Installed Win10Ent., Office 2K19, bunch of other stuff. It's all basically snappy. Only real complaint is that, using Veracrypt for whole-system encryption, boot and operation is slower than I'd like. But again, it's "reasonable" performance/cost. Internal GPT boot ONLY, no MBR.