Laptop Reviews

Acer Aspire 1 Review – Best Budget Laptop Under $500

Acer, with this model, wants to change the low displays and lethargic performance that is expected from laptops. It is a simple 15.6-inch notebook for working from home and entertainment with a decent battery life. Being less expensive than most of the Chromebooks, it is an affordable one. Although it does not contain much power, the Acer model does not contain much power, yet if you only have to do work on the internet, documents, and online content, Acer Aspire 1 remains a good option. The Intel Celeron N4000 dual-core processor based on Gemini Lake powers it. Its CPU’s base clock speed is 1.1 GHz and can be boosted to 2.6 caches. 4 MB of L2 cache accompanies the chip.

Moreover, it provides 64 GB of Emmc storage and 4GB of DDR4 RAM. If Windows is a must-have, it can safely be bought without any second thought. Otherwise, Chromebook can opt. Its design provides easy access to digital life, including some complimentary services such as One Drive, Windows 10 Home, and a month’s subscription to MS Office. In case of installing specific software, it is useful as its 64 GB Emmc flash storage boots up Window fast as compared to old slow-spinning hard drives used in lower-end laptops. Its lower price makes it an outstanding competitor to Chrome OS-based laptops. The Aspire 1, like the Aspire 5 and 7, is all about value. Its above-described features, including price, make it a reliable and valued laptop for those who have computing needs and modest wallets. As far as high features and low budget are concerned, it is like its predecessor.

Design:

It has a stylish design that is lightweight as well as slim. No one expected a backlit keyboard and a premium design in this budget. It’s brushed aluminum finish on the lid and having a silver Acer logo in the center make its exterior fancy. This aesthetic elevation of its design is possible due to a brushed texture on the lid and deck. More than that, dang sleek of this model raises it above its inexpensive rivals. However, if you are searching for a pope of color, Aspire 1 will not come to terms. Its 13.5*9.6*0.7 inches measurement and 3.6-pound weight make is the closest competitor of the Lenovo IdeaPad 330.

As far as its build quality is concerned, this model of Acer is a mixed bag. The reason behind this is its smooth plastic lid, which does not seem to stimulate much confidence under modest pressure. Moreover, if you press your fingers hard on the keyboard, you will notice springiness. Its flexible display makes it suitable for collaborating with a group, but its usefulness is limited by the traditional/non-touchscreen.

Ports:

It comes with a wide range of ports. An SD card slot, HDMI, a USB 3.0 port, a Kensington lock, and an Ethernet port are placed on the left side. On the right side, you have two USB 2.0 ports and a headphone/mic combo jack. Along with a DC power jack, two LED indicators, one for battery status and the other for power, can be found.

Keyboard:

Its keyboard provides good tactile feedback. The keys are well-spaced, and the actuation force is closer to 60 grams. In short, it would not be wrong to say that its keyboard does not offer the breeziest experience while typing. Speaker is a shortcoming of this model, which is medium-range and is not for the big-size conference room. Speakers are also criticized for their voice quality.

Performance:

Being armed with 4GB of RAM, an Intel Celeron N4000 CPU, and 64GB of Emmc flash storage, this is not suitable for multitasking. Moreover, additional, demanding sites cannot be loaded. Its keyboard could not match typing speed when the 10fastfingers.com test was conducted. However, its Geekbench 4 overall performance test score is better than that of the HP Stream 14.

In transfer rate, its 64GB of Emmc flash storage helps it gain the transfer rate of 82.1 megabytes per second in the Laptop Mag File Transfer test, which is faster than the Dell Inspiron 15 3000 and the HP Stream 14.

For playing games, It’s Intel UHD Graphics 600 GPU gives it enough power, but this is not enough to fire up AAA titles such as Overwatch and Fortnite. In the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited graphics test, its score is better than the scores of the Dell Inspiron 15 3000 and the HP Stream 14, but lower than the budget laptops.

Coming to battery runtime, its results are not encouraging while tested in Laptop Mag Battery Test. It comes with a battery life of more than 6 hours, which is not better than the HP Stream 14’s time, which is more than 7 hours. However, it did better than the short-lived Dell Inspiron 15 3000.

However, Acer Aspire 1 receives criticism for its shortcomings, such as a low webcam, below-average battery life, and flimsy construction. Even with all these shortcomings, this one still remains a suitable option for those who want to spend as little as possible.

Specifications:

An in-depth look at the specifications is given below:

Processor & Operating System:

Windows 10 Home in S Mode

Display & Graphics:

Graphics Controller Manufacturer
Graphics Controller Model

Storage & Battery:

Decree:

If the budget limits your choices, the Acer Aspire 1 is a good deal. Equipping with a lightweight design, 14-inch slim display, and good selections of ports surpass its rivals in the same price range. Unfortunately, its battery life, plastic chassis, and useless webcam may make the deal sour.

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