The compact 11.6-inch laptops do not often get in our test lab. The average user mostly purchased a 15.6-inch models, more experienced and prepared, as a rule, prefer the 13.3-inch laptops, and representatives of the smallest class remember the last thing. And yet, in these models is very slim usage model in which the office or at home you connect an external monitor to your laptop, providing a fulfilling workplace and on the road trip, or take it with a minimum configuration, saving space and weight in carry-on luggage.
In the family of laptops Acer Aspire V5 includes models of three form factors – compact 11.6-inch ultraporty and 14 years, and 15.6-inch sredneformatniki. Moreover, as the hardware platform can be used by processors from Intel and AMD, so the choice of a particular configuration noutubka should be given special attention. In this review we will focus on the 11.6-inch Acer Aspire V5-123 on energy-efficient platform from AMD.
Options
Laptop Acer Aspire V5-123 comes standard with a set of package documentation and compact “monoblock” power with a single wire and a removable plug.
Design
Caught on the test Acer Aspire V5 is made predominantly in silver, but available on the market and other color variants of registration. Top cover is decorated with laminated plastic, which is more resistant to scratches than the regular glossy. Smooth surface quickly collects fingerprints, but pollution will be clearly visible only in the dark version of design, in this case, the prints can be seen only at a certain angle view.
Lower housing Acer Aspire V5 is made of a practical rough black plastic. The distal portion is allocated under a removable battery compartment capacity of 37 Wh, and the need to move the clip to use a pen or other small object. Most of the bottom of the case is to upgrade the hatch, dotted with holes for ventilation. After proximal to the leading edge of the hole clearly visible pair of speakers.
The rear face of the housing Acer Aspire V5-free connectors on the front rendered three indicators of activity and edge single button touchpad.
On the right side wall can be found under the Kensington lock hole, the charger, a pair of connectors USB 2.0, audio ports combined and almost invisible due to rounding sidewall card reader with plug-sled. The left side panel contains a video D-sub, network RJ45, another HDMI video output and a “fast” port USB 3.0. At the same bend near the front panel submitted radiator cooling system.
Display
Because of the tight hinge cover Acer Aspire V5 unable to open with one hand, but the display unit can be practically put on the table, ensuring that the maximum angle of inclination. The inside of the display unit is made by the classical scheme with a fairly narrow edging of black glossy plastic.
Officially for the model proposed several modifications display with a matte or glossy finish, touch screen and even the IPS-matrix, but for the most part you will encounter a typical glossy TN-matrix. In particular, the samples tested Acer Aspire V5 -123 installed matte TN-matrix with a resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels and a brightness range from 15 to 180 cd/m2.
Ergonomics
Operating panel Acer Aspire V5 is framed in a contrasting style, it sets off the black surface of the silver island keyboard and the top of the battery into the top of the panel. Note that in spite of the natural silver color operation panel is made of colored plastic that can be quickly scratched with a sloppy operation.
The keyboard layout is typical for a 11.6-inch notebook – the size of the symbol keys almost hurt, but not all service buttons are in place. The most “narrow” place the keyboard – too small block arrow keys, with which we do not only move the cursor on the four sides and use the buttons Home, End, PgUp, PgDn, but also in addition adjust the volume and display brightness.
Touchpad Acer Aspire V5 is quite good for its size, and the successful construction of a single hardware button allows you to press it, not only from above, but also on the front.
Functionality
As we have already mentioned, the model Acer Aspire V5 can be built on a hardware logic from Intel or AMD. In terms of performance in the initial configurations, it really is comparable to netbooks, which is so like, so if you want a more powerful solution, you should initially look closely to the higher-level models based on the Intel Core and AMD Ax.
In our case, the Acer Aspire V5 -123 comes with an economical dual-core AMD E1-2100 with an operating frequency of 1 GHz and a maximum power consumption in Wh 9, performed on a 28 nm process technology. Graphics integrated into the processor, it’s Radeon HD 8210 with an operating frequency of 300 MHz, the performance of which is only enough for simple games. Also, the laptop is equipped with 4GB of RAM and a 500 GB hard drive.
Battery Eater
In this configuration, the laptop showed expectedly low results in popular benchmarks.
The battery capacity of 37 Wh model could hold out for three hours in maximum load, and almost five and a half hours in the emulation mode of reading.
The results
As a result, Acer Aspire V5 – is a compact 11.6-inch notebook, which, depending on the hardware configuration (and of course the cost), you can replace a netbook or a mobile home working laptop for business trips.
Liked
+ Cute design, multiple color options
+ Versions exist with IPS-screen
+ Full set of connectors (3xUSB, RJ45, D-sub, HDMI)
+ Removable battery door for upgrade
Do not like it
– Productivity in the initial configurations
– Too small block arrows
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