Finding a good laptop for those on a budget has always been a challenge. There are a lot of cheap laptops in the market but reliability and performance are some serious drawbacks. In this Acer Aspire 5 A515-54-51DJ review, we take a look at this new laptop from Acer and see how it feels this gap in the budget laptop category.
This laptop is primarily aimed at light and mid-range users. If you are going to need a lot of power, this laptop can and can’t help you. While the laptop is not a week one in terms of power, there are still better laptops you can get by spending a bit more money. So is this laptop worth your hard-earned money? Can you go through your everyday work on this laptop? Let’s find out.
- 8th Generation Intel Core i5-8265U Processor (Upto 3.9 gram Hz) | 8 GB DDR4 Memory | 256 GB PCIe NVMe SSD
- 15.6 Inches Full HD (1920 x 1080) Widescreen LED-backlit IPS Display | Intel UHD Graphics 620
- 1 - USB 3.1 Type C Gen 1 port, 2 - USB 3.1 Gen 1 Ports (one with Power-off Charging), 1 - USB 2.0 Port & 1 - HDMI Port with HDCP Support
Design
The Acer Aspire 5 A515-54-51DJ comes with a classic design that we are used to in the Acer Aspire series. If you are new to this lineup, here’s how it goes. The laptop comes in a nice silver chassis and has plastic as its primary build material. we have seen a lot of plastic ranges on laptops, but this one is more durable than some of the cheaper ones.
The construction quality of the device is pretty good. There is no creaking or flex when you try to push this laptop to its limits. We might be overreaching but this laptop can stand a couple of falls, but we urge users to be more careful with their laptops.
With dimensions of 14.31 x 9.86 x 0.71 inches, this is one of the lightest 15.6“ laptops you will find on the market. The laptop weighs around 3.97 lbs and you can easily take this with you wherever you go. If you are someone who travels and is looking for a lightweight 15.6“ laptop, then this one is a real contender.
Let’s talk about the keyboard and the mouse on this laptop.
The keyboard we have here is a full-size keyboard that comes with an excellent and proven layout. The keys are a bit plasticky but they are not that loose and don’t wobble much when typing. The wobbling of keys is a common problem in cheap laptops, but this Acer Aspire 5 A515-54-51DJ doesn’t seem to have it. Another good thing about this laptop is that it comes with backlighting which will Enable you to work even in dark conditions.
The trackpad on this device as a standard one. It has a smooth surface, and it comes with 100% percent support from all the Windows operating system gestures. Though there is nothing extraordinary about this trackpad, which is more of an operating system thing, it gets the job done which is nice.
This Acer Aspire laptop also comes with a fingerprint reader. This fingerprint reader uses your fingerprint as a key to your laptop. You can now log in to your user profile with just a tap of your finger which saves you a few seconds now and then. Though it looks like a simple thing, these small savings can add up and will benefit you big in the long run.
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Display And Audio
The Acer Aspire 5 A515-54-51DJ comes with a 15.6” LED-backlit IPS display. The resolution we have here on this display is full HD, and we are quite impressed by the fact that Acer has included a full HD screen in this budget offering. The display is a glossy one and you do get a lot of reflections if you work in a bright environment.
The image quality of this display is pretty good. The resolution offers nice crisp images that don’t compromise too much when it comes to color quality. At this price, it is unfair to expect a fully color-accurate display but this laptop manages to do a decent job.
The display is a good fit for media consumption especially with the excellent viewing angles you get, thanks to this IPS panel. you will also find this display perfect for everyday use like browsing the web, streaming your favorite content online, working on your office docs, and other everyday requirements.
The sound quality coming out of this laptop is decent, at best. We have seen a lot of budget laptops perform a lot worse when it comes to the sound department. In that regard, this Acer Aspire 5 A515-54-51DJ saves its face and manages to do a lot better.
With the audio coming out of this laptop, you will be able to fill a small room without any issues. If you are an audiophile, then you might want to invest in some good quality earphones. If you don’t nitpick about sound, then you’ll be perfectly fine with this laptop.
Performance
The Acer Aspire 5 A515-54-51DJ laptop is powered by an Intel Core i5 8265U processor. This is a quad-core processor from the 8th generation of Intel chips that comes with a base clock speed of 1.6GHz. One might think that this is a low-end processor, but that is far from the truth.
The processor gets a CPUMark benchmark score of 8002 which categorizes this chip as a mid-range one. The real-life performance of the processor matches the benchmark. With this processor on your laptop, you will be able to do everything you want. Even when it comes to heavy lifting, the processor provides ample processing power as it can clock to a maximum of 3.9 GHz.
The memory situation on this laptop is pretty good. We get 8GB of DDR4 type memory that should be more than enough for most users who are a good fit for this laptop. You will be able to multitask without bringing the performance of the device down. Another good thing is that you can upgrade the memory later in the future if you need it.
The storage on this laptop is made up of 256 GB solid-state drive. Solid-state drives are way better than mechanical hard drives and are much more expensive as well. It is such a refreshing change to see a budget laptop going the solid-state drive route. Having storage like this means you will get performance enhancements whenever it is necessary. Everything will run fast despite the budget laptop tag and your user experience will be good.
Gaming, Battery Life, And Connectivity
As far as gaming is concerned, this laptop supports light and mid-range gaming at best. We do not have a dedicated graphics card on this Acer Aspire 5 A515-54-51DJ laptop, and it affects the gaming performance of this device. Having said that, the integrated graphics card on this laptop is a pretty good one and you will be able to play most graphically less demanding games without any issues.
Battery life is one of the best selling points of this Acer Aspire laptop. With simple, everyday use, you will be able to get around 9.5 hours of battery life out of this laptop which is fantastic for a budget device. Even with some heavy lifting, you will still be able to run this laptop for about 4 to 5 hours without any power back up which is truly amazing, in our opinion.
There are a lot of connectivity options on this laptop. You get all the essential ports like the USB 3.1 Type-C port, a couple of USB 3.1 Type-A ports, and a USB 2.0 port. There is also an HDMI port with HDCP support and an ethernet port. One of the USB 3.1 Type-A ports comes with support for power charging which is unique. The laptop also comes with built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless connectivity standards which will play their part.
Acer Aspire 5 A515-54-51DJ Review – Wrap Up
If you are on the lookout for a budget laptop, you will find that not a lot of so-called budget laptops will be less reliable and as powerful as this Acer Aspire 5 A515-54-51DJ laptop. It gives you more bang for the buck and also behaves like a premium laptop in many situations. For the price, you will be hard-pressed to get an everyday laptop that is as good as this one. Highly recommended.