Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I'll be comparing this to the old Macbook Pro (generation before the unibody). I originally had my macbook in bootcamp mode but kept running into problems, so decided to upgrade. Review is based on 2 weeks of office work, no gaming. This is primarily a work laptop for programming and stock analysis and after weeks of research, i landed on this with the best compromise of features.
My original requirements were:
* Speed: i7 processor met the bill but the hard drive did not. Upgrading to an SSD drive solved this (additional 100-200 dollars)
* Quiet: Although not silent, its quiet enough that i never think about it. Although there's still the electronic buzzing that i have to figure out.
* Heat: Since i'm spending hours and hours on this think, i dont want to be touching a hot chassis. The acer runs super cool.
* Keyboard: Since i'll be constantly typing, i wanted a nice tactile keyboard. This fit the bill. Although the offset took a bit of getting use to (well i'm still not use to it).
* Screen: I wanted at least a 1080p matte screen, but they're apparently impossible to find in the sub $2000 category. Even reflective 1080p screens are regulated to Media and Gaming laptops only, which contain much more powerful video cards, which will likely increase heat and noise. I had to compromise here, but researching into upgrading to the LG 1080p matte screen (I know its not 'recommended' since it might not work or burn the inverter, but if anyone as actually tried it with an equivalent Acer, please let me know!).
* Good Battery: This would have been nice. The Acer utterly fails here. 1-1.5 hrs.
* Multi-Monitor support: I wanted to be able to run at least 3 screens at a time. I know the video card is capable of eyefinity, but it wasn't implemented here (i think the HP Envy is the only laptop to implement eyefinity). Guess i'll have to buy a separate video adapter.
Detailed Comments:
Noise: Silent if completely idle, quiet thereafter with typical use. You can continuously hear the fan changing speeds but typical background noise will block it out. In contract, the Macbook was completely silent. The Bluray drive does make a bit of noise though when on, so that's something to consider if you're going to watch bluray on this. Another note is when the room is completely silent, i can hear an electric buzzing going on and off, which can get pretty annoying. Its possible that its coming from the Intel SSD i swapped in, havent had time to veryify. It could also be the fan.
Heat: The vent on the left side is warm, but the rest of the laptop remains cool (its been on a desk so i dont know how hot it gets underneath). In stark contrast, the entire chassis of the Macbook Pro gets notably hot, even around the palm rests. Using the chassis as a heatsink not such a good idea.
Construction: The laptop itself looks pretty nice but feels a bit flimsy. The screen flexs quite a bit and the Bluray drive just bounces around its housing. The rest of it is decent but not great. Of course, the apple's construction is worlds better.
Speed: The i7 processor is a screamer and the 5650 AMD video is good for mid range gaming, but the whole system is bogged down by the hard drive. Its been replaced by an Intel SSD drive and is insanely snappy. Highly recommended to get an SSD drive, and if you need more space, get the appropriate mounting brackets and mount a second drive. Without a HDD upgrade, the computer probbably won't feel much faster than your previous system.
Screen: Okay, not great. Its refective but hasn't been much of a problem working at a desk with a big window in front of my, as long as the screen has some color. I use to have a solid black windows background but the screen then acts like a mirror. Changing it to the standard windows background and the reflectivity isn't noticeable. Black levels and contrast isn't too hot, but servicable. I was actually thinking of swapping it with a 1080p Hannstar or LG screen (which a lot of people do for the ASUS Gaming laptops). Since this screen is 900p no one recommends upgrading resolution since it *might* not work or burn out the inverter. If anyone has any experience with this, please let me know!
Battery Life: Pretty bad. 1-1.5 hrs of general use. Wished Acer sold an extended battery. The 3+ year old Macbook still lasted for at 2 hrs.
Keyboard: Pretty nice feel to it, although the keys are a pretty odd shape. You can rip to buttons out pretty easily. No backlighting, but not a problem for me. Hated the Macbook keyboard, had quite a mushy feel to it. One thing to note is it's a full keyboard with a number pad. I thought it would have been a nice feature but ended up being kind of annoying; instead of being centered to the laptop, i'm offset to the left a bit, with my head tilted slightly to the right. Can't be good for my posture.
Touchpad: Liked the macbook much more. Buttons are small and hard to click. Nothing really wrong with multigesture, but it worked better on the macbook.
Speakers: Decent enough, they're laptop speakers.
Software: Quite a bit of bloatware. Nothing partiuclarly useful, spend a couple of hours cleaning everything up.
Other Random thoughts:
* The system will not run 3 monitors despite having an HDMI and VGA out. Including the laptop monitor, you can only have 2 running at a time. I guess eyefinity wasn't implemented.
* there are 3 usb ports on the right and one on the left. Being a right hander, if you use a lot of usb devices and an external mouse, things will get in your way. It would've been nice if one was on the back (for my wireless mouse receiver). Then i could slip it into my case without removing it.
For the price, very good laptop. With just a handful of changes (or options), this thing would've been absolutely perfect and at the right price.
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