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2029 of 2073 people found the following review helpful.
There is NO BETTER VALUE in laptops....Period!! I stake my 20 hours of research on it! ACER killed it with this one!By Honest
Let me paint a picture:My background is in purchasing, I am a research nerd. I used to spend in excess of 50 million a year for the largest retailer of its kind in my industry, I am obsessive when comparing details and am even more obsessed with getting every last ounce of value for my money. I am not the most tech savvy person you will ever meet, but I believe I am above average, and I also believe I am a realistic person with regards to my expectations. This is a fantastic laptop for the majority of people, I do not intend to do heavy gaming or run heavy/complex programs. This laptop is like the F-150 of laptops (sorry Chevy fans) , yes some people need an F-250 or even F-350 for towing/hauling, but for most people an F-150 is all they will ever need.
With that said, I spent about 20 working hours comparing over 400 laptops (nerd) from all major brands, and looked at over 300 deals(super nerd) offered on laptops by all major retailers on both black friday and cyber monday. I chose this laptop for $329 on cyber monday, and although it was only $20 off, versus others that were $200 or more off, this was still the most computer for the money.
Here is why to buy this laptop:
1) Newest Kaby Lake generation 7 Intel processor, low 15 watt usage and great speed for the price. Runs quiet and cool.
2) DDR4 ram, again the latest and greatest, also happens to be the cheapest ram available. Ram prices have an inverse relationship to normal consumer priced goods. Most things cost more when new, but because PC components become obsolete so quickly, when ram is first introduced this is the product being currently manufactured, which in turn means supply can easily exceed demand, which means lower prices. Once ram is no longer being actively manufactured the supply dries up and prices increase. Also ram can EASILY be added to this laptop, takes less than 5 minutes and costs exactly $24.99 for the best available, here is the link to the 4GB stick I added: https://www.amazon.com/Ballistix-16GBx2-PC4-19200-SODIMM-260-Pin/dp/B01DGOF6GE?th=1
***Additional note about ram, I chose to purchase an additional stick of 4gb rather than a 8gb or 16gb. There is a phenomenon known as "dual channel" with regards to ram, the concept is that if you have 2 like sticks of ram (they need to match in a few tech specs), in the exact same size, ie: 2 sticks of 4gb of ram, your pc will be able to access both sticks of ram at the same time. If you have 2 mismatched sticks, like a 4gb and an 8gb, then the pc will access only 1 at a time. Therefore after talking to a computer genius friend of mine and doing about an hours research on this specific application, my best guess is that the extra money on the 8gb stick of ram would be a waste, two 4gb sticks of dual channel ram will out perform a 4gb and 8gb stick together for most applications. Also please note that for 99% of users 8gb of ram total is plenty. My personal opinion of adding more than 8gb of ram to this specific laptop would be like putting the most expensive Z rated tires on your honda accord, yes the tires might be rated for 200mph, but will you ever utilize it? If you do want to have more than 8gb of ram total, I would recommend purchasing 2 identical sticks of 8gb or 16gb ram to utilize dual channel.
3) Full 1080 HD LED back lit (vs LCD) Screen, pretty much unheard of for this price. LED backlit biggest advantage is it uses less energy, thus better battery life. Also has a matte finish screen, I prefer the look of a glossy screen (good for a desktop in a controlled lighting environment), but because laptops travel with you to different places, you often times have reflection problems with a glossy screen.
4) Battery life, best battery life you can get for anywhere close to 3x the cost of this pc. Please know that 12 hours is in best case scenario, meaning lowest screen brightness, and NOT playing videos or games or other CPU intensive tasks. Based on my first week of use I feel comfortable planning on a solid 7 to 10 hours of normal use. Please note that the battery is not easily removed, as one reviewer put, "let your future self worry about that". ****Note on battery, ACER has a specific process for breaking in your battery. If you do not follow it you WILL limit its potential. If you are too lazy to find the manual online here is my summary of what they say: Charge laptop to full (charge light turns to blue) before you ever turn it on. Then leave the laptop plugged in while the computer updates, it will not update and boot up the first time without being plugged in. As soon as updates are completed unplug the laptop and use the PC until the battery is almost dead. Then charge it to full and immediately unplug and discharge to near empty. Do this cycle a total of 3 times to condition your battery for its best longevity.
5) Back LIT keyboard, there is no other laptop back of $800 that offers a backlit keyboard that I could find. This means the keys light up when one is pushed, you will absolutely love this feature if you have never had it. Also the keys are crisp but very easy to use, I love them.
6) Easily upgrade-able. I will briefly touch on this, because other reviews have done a fine job of addressing it. Basically to turn this PC from great to ridiculously amazing do 2 things. The first is add ram (although mine operated for almost a week very well on the stock 4GB). The second is add a SSD or Solid State Hard Drive. To make a long story short the motherboard for this PC has 2 spots for a hard drive, the SATA and the m.2. The 1TB stock hard drive is installed on the sata slot. That means the m.2 slot is open. You can either purchase a traditional sata SSD and replace the existing hard drive, or purchase a m.2 SSD and have 2 hard drives. The latter is the option I chose, I am placing the operating system and programs on the SSD because it is much quicker, and I will place files (Photos, games, music, movies) on the stock drive. ***If you decide to pull the stock hard drive, you can purchase a usb case for it and turn it into an external hard drive that connects via usb cable.
7) Newest AC wifi technology for fastest speeds
8) All the other tech stuff you want like usb 3, hdmi, CD RW drive, blah blah blah.
9) Fit and finish is excellent. Speakers are also stupid good for this price range.
Reason's to not buy:
1) You need more of a workhorse PC
2) You print money in your basement and don't care about value
3) You don't like Henry Fords philosophy of "you can have any color you like as long as it is black", because this PC only comes in the 1 color.
Conclusion: Sometimes, and much more rarely than you would think, a manufacturer actually listens to customers and gives them everything they want at a great price. This laptop is a unicorn in the fact that it has ALL SOLID FEATURES, with 2 potentially weak spots for some users (ram and hard drive). But these are easily upgraded, and the truth is (regardless of what tech nerds might argue), 4gb of ram, and the included hard drive are more than adequate for the majority of users. The only real question you have to ask yourself is do you have the patience to wait, or will you pony up for 1 day shipping?
734 of 770 people found the following review helpful.
This is a great all around laptop if you are trying to find ...By Amazon-er
This is a great all around laptop if you are trying to find something in the budget range, under $350.
At the time of this review, there are no i3 7th gen 2.4GHz laptops that offer 1TB hard drives, 32GB max memory, or 1920 x 1080 screens. Other things that I found on this model that are not on similarly priced units are RJ-45 ports (most units are wireless only), Dual-Band 2.4GHz & 5GHz wi-fi capable, or have backlit keyboards.
Few models in this price range have built in optical drives, 3.1 USB port, SD reader, or battery life claims of up to 12hrs like this Acer E575 Sig Ed laptop.
The computer does have a plastic feel to it, but no stranger than the plastic feel of an LG4 or Samsung Galaxy phone. Carrying the laptop, it feels sleek and solid. Accessing the RAM or HD is as simple as unscrewing a panel under the laptop.
Honestly, I do not know how the computer runs with 4GB RAM, because I bought a 16GB stick of RAM and now have 20GB. That and the usual "How Can I make Windows 10 run faster" tweaks make this laptop very responsive and meet my daughter's personal and academic needs.
The last laptop I bought her was in 2006, an HP HDX-18t CoreDuo 1.8GHZ Vista laptop. It lasted 10 years, up to her senior year in HS, and just died. It cost about 3x more, had 2hrs battery life, and weighed 6+lbs. With college coming next fall, I needed something to meet her needs and my budget. Her current uses for this laptop are web surfing, Netflix/Youtube binge watching, Internet Radio, Skyping, heavy Excel sheets (+50 pages & calculations or more), Matlab, SPSS Statistics 20 for Windows.
Although this is a budget laptop, it does not stick out in appearance or performance when she's studying with friends that have expensive Apple laptops or higher end notebooks. It isn't a gaming laptop, but she does run BlueStacks to play some Android games.
You've got to be crazy to pass on this laptop if the main selling point for you is having 1yr MS Office or not, like I have read in other reviews. Libre Office is free and the hardware is a good value. Maybe later this year or next year (it's Oct 2016), competitors will come out with more comparative offerings, but if you need a notebook >now< , this is your best bet.
Two criticisms my daughter does have about this model, is 1) the palm rest (area below the keyboard) attracts fingerprints and is showing some wear. Would be nice it it were textured like the exterior of the laptop.2) If the RJ-45 port cover could flex, retract, or hinge more. It's a very tight fit and feels like the port cover will snap in two, every time it is pushed down.
Hope this review helps people who don't have much to spend, thanks Acer for putting good value in the market!
446 of 484 people found the following review helpful.
Incredible Deal, easy to upgrade to max performance.By Stephen Van Vuuren
This model (1TB HD, 4GB RAM) is the best buy in low budget laptops for many reasons. I was prepared to return it but it's exceeded my expectations. First, it has features almost never found in even sub $800 unit much less $329 - backlight keyboard, 1920 x 1080 display and upgradable/replaceable storage. For those reasons alone, it's a 5 star machine.
It has a M2 slot accessible without violating warranty on bottom. I ordered it with $70 Crucial 275GB M2 SSD and additional 4GB RAM ($29) from Kingston (what it came with). So now for $429 I have a 15" Kaby Lake I3 with 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD and 1TB second drive with backlit keys and Full 1080p display and HD 620 Intel Graphics - better for video playback than 520. I could not find something close to this used much less new.
And the other aspects are good as well. Keyboard is comfortable, number keybad is nice for my work, backlit works well (if on/off proximity function does not bug you, it does not me). Trackpad works better than I expected.
Screen is a TN panel (1080P IPS would probably double the price). So viewing angles are not great and contrast is just okay. But for single person use it's good by budget panel features with better than expected color accuracy and a blue light filter that reduces strain.
The chassis has a nice faux brushed metal look and more rigid than most sub $400 plastic models. Weight is so so - not heavy not light for a 15.6". Sound from speakers was also better than I expected in this price range.
Bloatware on my model was minimal. BIOS is bare bones but easily accessible to change boot drive etc. And you get full ports without ultrabook dongles. And with my upgrades, model posted a 2900 Single Core Geekbench and 5800 multicore. Again, very good for a machine in this price range.
I've had it for a week - will update long term use - but right now it's a winner. For the money, you can't find a better deal on a 15.6" HD with backlit.
EDIT. Update. Everything is worked as stated above - nothing has changed. Battery life is impressive even with adding RAM and SSD. The only real quibbles is backlight timing is annoying and viewing angles are not ideal (not a great group laptop). But considering nothing at this prices even has backlight or 1080p screens, you would need to move to $500 or more model to improve. I would buy this again at the price without hesitation.
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