HP has set out to produce a slim and stylish laptop that will draw the attention of many potential customers. What we found impressive was that despite the lack of a discrete graphics card, it didn’t take long for 1080p video to buffer when watching YouTube – and there was no noticeable stuttering in Full HD when playing movies from Google’s streaming service either.
The Acer Aspire 5 has onboard Intel graphics, which isn’t surprising given that it’s an entry-level laptop with a low-voltage Intel Core i3 processor. The only problem is the function key on the top row is small and not very intuitive – you need to hit Fn+F1 to bring up your Favourites list. The keyboard layout is lovely – with a full-size keypad and no squashed-up letter keys. However, for a 15.6-inch machine, it’s very slim which is one of the Acer Aspire 5’s most redeeming features. There are elements that suggest its price point – for example, the lid is a fingerprint magnet and the underside gets very warm when in use. The styling of the Acer Aspire 5 (A515-51G-55FD) isn’t quite what we’ve come to expect from an Acer machine it’s much sleeker and more elegant than most of its peers on the market. Acer’s Aspire 5 really is an aspirational machine, with its slimline design and base configuration of Windows 8 – but no touchscreen.
