Acer Aspire ES1-512-C323 15.6 inch E Series Laptop Review

15.6" Acer Aspire ES1-512-C323
via Amazon

Acer Aspire ES1-512-C323 is one of the latest low-cost E series laptops that you can use to run Microsoft Word and Excel, prepare school assignments, watch movies on its bright 15.6 inch LED display, play songs and light games on-, do multiple things smoothly at the same time without freezing thanks to the 4GB RAM and modern Intel processor, so it is suitable for daily tasks for web, basic multimedia and office but not for demanding programs or games.

Acer Aspire comes with the dual core Intel Celeron N2840 at 2.16 GHz (1MB cache) speed that is clocked up to 2.58GHz dynamically when the tasks require it, 4GB DDR3L SDRAM memory for multitasking- can be expanded up to a maximum of 8GB, 500GB Serial ATA hard drive at 5400 rpm rotating speed (standard size and speed but large and fast enough) that would be adequate for most people to save all their multimedia and common files and the latest Windows 8.1 operating system with Bing search. Celeron N2840 is a low end CPU for budget PCs that can not be compared to Intel i3 or higher but certainly good for daily tasks and is very much power efficient with a Thermal Design Power of only 7.5 watts.

15.6 inch non-touch high definition Active Matrix TFT Color CineCrystal LED display has the 1366 x 768 pixel max screen resolution and 16:9 cinematic aspect ratio and graphics performance is provided by the integrated Intel HD (Bay Trail) graphics with shared memory. Picture quality is more than enough for such a low cost computer thanks to the CineCrystal glossy display technology with enhanced colours and contrast but it is not as sharp as a Full HD display- nothing spectacular but not bad at all. Neither the entry level Celeron processor nor the Intel HD graphics will be fit for playing the newest games but some of the less demanding older games will run fluently- you can play Minecraft at low settings and with up to 40 frames per second. You will find a webcam with integrated microphone on top of the screen and is not a high definition one but a VGA webcam for your live chats on Skype.

Black Acer Aspire ES1 weighs 5.3 pounds with measurements of 1.03 x 10.20 x 15 inches, meaning it is relatively slim and as heavy as an average 15.6 inch computer- is portable enough with also the 6 hour average battery life (specified on the product page) but we are not sure if you can get that much with a 3-cell lithium ion 3220 mAh battery, so expect more like up to 4-5 hours. Keyboard is a standard non-backlit one with spaced out keys, 10 key numeric pad for easy data entry and a responsive touchpad but may feel more comfortable with a wireless USB mouse. There is no DVD optical drive and Bluetooth is not supported but you can just get a cheap USB dongle as you have a total of 3 USB ports (1 x USB 3.0 port and 2 x USB 2.0 ports) as well as an SD card reader, 802.11b/g/n wireless (Miracast enabled), Gigabit Ethernet with RJ-45 connectivity and an HDMI port to link to HDTVs if you wish to watch videos or work on a larger screen.

Conclusion: Acer Aspire ES1-512-C323; NX.MRWAA.005 is a decent value entry level low cost laptop at around the same price level as Chromebooks, for emails, social media, web browsing, word processing, spreadsheets, basic multimedia and light games. If you are on a limited budget or do not wish to spend much on a computer and prefer Windows operating system over Chrome OS, this is a good one to consider with its modern sleek design, capable for basic daily tasks Intel Celeron CPU, good size hard drive and memory to multitask efficiently and good connectivity including a USB 3.0 port (plus 2 USB 2.0s) and and HDMI port. Keyboard is not backlit and screen is non-touch (can you expect them to be at this price level?), there is no DVD (most modern laptops don’t) or Bluetooth (all you need is a USB dongle that costs a few dollars). Sound quality is OK and the picture quality is improved by the glossy Acer CineCrystal technology for vibrant colours and better contrast. So it is not a powerhouse with the highest technical specs but a basic modern computer for your daily needs at home or school and we do recommend it if you are on a small budget.

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