[ntab Configuration]
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The Acer Aspire 5 is not designed to be a gaming laptop. However, it is the cheapest possible option for those who want to have a decent all-around machine and still do some gaming without having to turn everything to the lowest graphical settings. With its Nvidia MX 250 and Intel 10th Gen i5 U series processor, the Acer Aspire 5 A515-54G gives hope to any gamer that is severely budget constrained. Also, the Acer Aspire 5 directly replaces the older Acer Aspire E5 series, which used to be one of the most popular budget laptops in the United States.
In the US, the laptop starts at $650 for the cheapest i5 configuration and can go as high as $900 for an i7 and 16GB of RAM. However, given Acer’s pricing history, these laptops should drop to under $600 in a few months. Other regions should have a similar pricing scheme.
Configuration specifications
| Display | 15.6 inch, 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz, Matte, IPS-type AUO B156HAN02.1 |
| Processor | Intel Core i5-10210U |
| Memory | 8GB DDR4 2400 Mhz (1 x 8GB) |
| Video card | NVIDIA GeForce MX250 2GB GDDR5 (TU117M) |
| Wireless card | Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX201 |
| Storage | Kingston 512GB M.2 PCIe SSD |
| Battery | 48 WHr (46 WHr usable) |
| Operating system | Windows 10 Pro |
| Full specifications here | |
A local retailer provided the unit, and the machine was used as Acer delivers it. No enhancements or changes were done to the laptop except for installing the operating system.
[ntab Build quality]
Physical size
| Width: | 363 mm / 14.29 inches |
| Depth: | 250 mm / 9.84 inches |
| Height: | Front: 19 mm / 0.75 inch Rear: 19 mm / 0.75 inch |
| Laptop weight: | 1.725 kg / 3.80 lbs |
| Charger weight: | 0.300 kg / 0.66 lbs |
| Laptop + charger weight: | 2.025 kg / 4.46 lbs |
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Although designed for the general consumer, the Aspire 5 feels like a stripped-down version of the Nitro 5 gaming laptop. The chassis is made out of plastic with an aluminium reinforced display lid. Despite its cheap plastic build, the laptop feels rather sturdy with very little chassis flex.
Lifting the display lid with just one hand is an almost impossible task on the Aspire 5. The hinges are so tight that the laptop will lift itself entirely when trying to open the lid with one hand, and requires two hands: one to lift the top and one to keep the bottom chassis of the laptop in place. The aluminium display lid prevents any noticeable flex for the display part and keeps down the overall weight of the laptop.
The laptop’s overall design seems to be basic, with no gamer-like features, and no plastic accents. The matte silver colour is an excellent choice because fingerprints or dust are much harder to spot on it than on a black or white-coloured surface.
The touchpad is big and feels decently responsive, but does not compare with the touchpads of premium laptops in terms of acceleration and precision.
The touchpad raised some severe issues when installing the drivers and took several clean OS installs until Windows finally recognized it. The problem seems to be related to the version of Windows, as only the latest up-to-date version enabled the touchpad to work.
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Typing on the keyboard of the Aspire 5 is a pleasant experience. The keyboard feels responsive, requiring a low actuation force. The white keyboard backlight is not intruding, but the keycaps etching (signs/letters) need some improvement since the writing on the keys is barely visible when the backlight is on.
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Like most laptops, the keyboard layout is not without its issues. The Numpad is a little mess when it comes to key arrangement versus a standard full-sized desktop keyboard, but Acer deserves some appreciation for having it there in the first place. Among other questionable design choices, is the power button placement right next to the divide and multiply keys, which are often used when doing calculations on the Numpad. The arrow keys are also incredibly narrow and unusable for gaming.
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Surprisingly the webcam quality is not “bad”, but the low resolution sensor (720p) makes the image seem out of focus. Unlike other budget laptop webcams, the colours are bright, and the contrast ratio seems fine. Unfortunately, the lack of sharpness does not recommend the camera of the Aspire 5 for video streaming or conference calls.
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The sound recording quality of the microphone does not disappoint. On playback, the recordings sound clear without picking any noticeable background noise.
[ntab Disassembly]
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The Acer Aspire 5 is not a complicated machine to disassemble. The first step is to unscrew the eleven Philips head screws on the back of the laptop. Afterwards, with the help of a prying tool or plastic card placed between the two plastic surfaces that form the bottom chassis, gently lift the bottom half to release the plastic clips.
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Inside, there is:
- one M.2 SSD slot;
- one RAM slot (there are variations of this model that can come with soldered memory, which keeps this slot free and enables dual-channel memory configurations);
- one 2.5-inch storage bay;
- a PCIe slot for the Wi-Fi card;
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The 2.5″ storage drive connects to the motherboard with a special SATA adapter included in the laptop box. The adapter itself is a ribbon cable that requires special care when handling. The ribbon cable connects to the motherboard.
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There are variations of this laptop (other SKUs) that have one memory module soldered onto the motherboard, enabling dual-channel memory support if another memory stick is added to the memory slot.
[ntab Ports]
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The Acer Aspire 5 ports and connectivity options are similar to that of most budget laptops. It has two standard USB 3.0 ports and a USB-C 3.0 port, which helps speed up charging and data transfers with modern smartphones. Most ports are located on the left side of the laptop. Only one USB port is on the right, making it more accessible for an external mouse.
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There is:
- one RJ45 LAN connector;
- two USB 3.0 (also known as USB 3.2 Gen 1);
- one USB-C 3.0 (also known as USB-C 3.2 Gen 1);
- one HDMI port;
- a standard 3.5mm jack combo for microphone and headphones or speakers;
- one Kensington lock
- a DC-in power connector;
If this laptop is used for gaming, an external mouse, a keyboard and a USB flash drive will quickly fill up the three USB ports. Of course, the port limitation can be resolved using a USB port hub..
[ntab Display]
The display model in this unit is the AUO B156HAN02.1. This display is popular among budget laptops. Both the 2019 Acer Nitro 5 and the Lenovo Legion Y7000 2019 previously reviewed by Noteb use the same display model. Unfortunately, it is a mediocre IPS-level panel with a standard 60Hz refresh rate. Its brightness can reach a maximum of 250 nits. The colour space barely reaches 60% of the sRGB standard. It also has some backlit bleed, which is to be expected for laptops in this budget range. On the positive side, it has almost perfect viewing angles and has a matte coating that enables it to be used outdoors to some degree, preferably in the shade.
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Unfortunately, due to the quality of the display, photo editing or any other activities which require colour accuracy are not recommended on this laptop.
Here is a link to the calibrated display profile of the reviewed unit. Because each display is unique, this profile will not perfectly match other displays of the same model. Still, using this profile should give better overall colours.
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[ntab Benchmarks]
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SCORE |
1132 |
|---|---|
| Graphics score | 1053 |
| CPU score | 1983 |
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SCORE |
2962 |
|---|---|
| Graphics score | 3396 |
| Physics score | 4916 |
| Combined score | 1160 |
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SCORE |
9288 |
|---|---|
| Graphics score | 10899 |
| Physics score | 5105 |
| Combined score | 10580 |
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SCORE |
9914 |
|---|---|
| Graphics score | 20720 |
| Physics score | 3509 |
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SCORE |
1646 |
|---|---|
| Average frame rate | 35.90 fps |
| Target frame rate | 109.00 fps |
| Single-core score | Multi-core score |
| 4548 | 12607 |
| Single-core score | Multi-core score |
| 146 | 454 |
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PCMark 10
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RESULTS (1080P NORMAL)
SUPERPOSITION
BENCHMARK
1570
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RESULTS (1080P LOW)
SUPERPOSITION
BENCHMARK
6841
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SPECviewperf 13
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Crystal Disk Mark
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[ntab Gaming benchmarks]
The Acer Aspire 5 reviewed here comes with the GeForce MX250, which is a low-end dedicated video card. Even though it is twice as powerful as most Intel or AMD integrated video solutions, it should still not raise any high expectations when it comes to gaming. After testing it through a few games, it seems the card fairs rather well, and can manage to run even the most demanding games provided settings are set to low/very low and on rare occasions even tunning down the resolution to 1280 x 720 from the usual 1920 x 1080.
| Very low preset | 11.3 FPS | 54.0 FPS | 38.8 FPS |
| Low preset | 25 FPS | 61 FPS | 52 FPS |
| Normal preset | 40.6 FPS | 78.2 FPS | 49.2 FPS |
| Low preset | 25.9 FPS | 53.7 FPS | 33.5 FPS |
| Medium preset | 23.4 FPS | 49.5 FPS | 33.8 FPS |
| Medium preset | 43 FPS | 121 FPS | 76.8 FPS |
| High preset | 22.7 FPS | 69.7 FPS | 47.9 FPS |
| Low preset | 28.8 FPS | 192.8 FPS | 94.3 FPS |
| Low preset | 26.7 FPS | 62.4 FPS | 34.4 FPS |
| Very low preset | 5.8 FPS | 57.3 FPS | 21.0 FPS |
| Medium preset | 15 FPS | 76.8 FPS | 31.8 FPS |
| Medium preset | 30 FPS | 150.1 FPS | 56.0 FPS |
| Medium preset | 28.3 FPS | 57.8 FPS | 46.6 FPS |
| Medium preset | 47 FPS | 131.9 FPS | 68.4 FPS |
| Medium preset | 20 FPS | 54 FPS | 41 FPS |
[ntab Temperatures]
All temperature measurements were performed at an ambient temperature of 23° C (73.4° F).
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The Aspire’s cooling system consists of one shared heat pipe and one exhaust fan positioned in the middle-back of the laptop. Even though it may not look like a powerful cooling system, it is enough to prevent overheating of the ultrabook-oriented processor and of the MX250 video card. With a more complex and powerful cooling solution, the Aspire will probably have better performance, though it will also require a more powerful power supply, since the one provided by Acer is already reaching its limits under heavy load. Unfortunately, a more complex cooling solution and a bigger power supply will undoubtedly add to the price and weight of the laptop, pushing it into a different market segment.
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Under heavy load, the chassis surface felt cold, with parts of it remaining close to room temperature. Only the area around the top-left of the keyboard mildly heated up. Coincidently, this is where the processor and video card are situated. For Aspire 5, Acer does not provide software for controlling the fans, because the laptop has low-temperature emissions and considers it unnecessary. Furthermore, there are no Windows compatible third-party tools that can control the fan speed.
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The processor stress test involves running AIDA64 (CPU, FPU, cache) for 20 minutes. During this test, the processor reached an average temperature of 70 °C (158 °F) with a maximum of 77 °C on individual cores. The temperature is well within acceptable limits, but unfortunately, this is because the maximum frequency of the processor never goes above 2.4 GHz. It seems Acer has decided to limit the power draw of the processor, which severely hinders the performance of the laptop by comparison to other laptops with a similar processor. Acer likely imposed these performance constraints because the power requirements of the laptop can easily overshoot the power supply’s capabilities, and Acer wanted to make sure it never overloads the power supply.
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The video card (GPU) stress test involves running Unigine Superposition in a continues loop for 30-minute. Unsurprisingly, the Nvidia MX250 temperature was kept well under control and reached a maximum temperature of 75 °C (167 °F) with a boost speed hovering between 1240-1340 MHz. Unfortunately, the average boost speed is well under the official base speed of 1519 MHz, meaning that the video card is severely throttling itself and underperforming. The reason for this performance limitation is likely related to the same power supply constraints that affect the processor and Acer’s desire to keep the video card under 75 °C no matter what.
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For the combined load test, the system was set to simultaneously run the AIDA64 CPU stress test and the Unigine Superposition GPU stress test for 30 minutes. On average, the GPU speed kept itself between 1240 MHz and 1340 MHz. However, occasionally, it briefly dropped to under 1000 MHz. There is no evident reason for this behaviour, which indicates that there might be some underlining electronic/BIOS issue or a 75 °C thermal limit to protect GPU from overheating. The processor exhibited a similar behaviour, with speeds falling slightly under its official base speed of 1.6 GHz. During this test, the processor reached a maximum temperature of 81 °C (177.8 °F) but stayed on average around 75-76 °C.
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Finally, the system was put through a full stability test with AIDA (CPU, FPU, cache, System memory and GPU) to push the machine to its limits. The video card performed the same as in the previous tests, reaching a maximum of 75 °C. However, this time the processor got severely throttled to well under its official base speed of 1.6 GHz, dropping to 1.4 GHz (1.396 Mhz) and reaching a maximum temperature of 81 °C.
The processor temperatures and performance during gaming varies wildly from synthetic heavy-load benchmarks. Boost speeds can range anywhere from 1.6 GHz to 4.0 GHz depending on the game’s processor load. The impression is that there is a combined system power draw limit of 55W and a processor temperature limit of 90°C. Whichever limit is reached first will make the processor downclock itself. During gaming, these limitations result in the processor sometimes spiking to 90 °C and an average temperature of 85 °C with wild frequency fluctuations. However, this behaviour also maximizes the system’s resources for a better gaming experience.
Before anyone judges this machine, it is essential to note that this is a budget laptop not designed for continuous heavy loads. Moreover, synthetic benchmarks are intended to push computers to their limits and in everyday use, their workloads usually only happen for a brief few minutes. Even so, it is obvious that this laptop will underperform when it comes to heavy workloads or light gaming, even by comparison to other similar machines. However, given its throttling behaviour, better thermal paste on the video card (GPU) may slightly improve its performance. For the processor, the main limitation seems to be built-in in the laptop’s BIOS and electronics, and there is no easy way of overcoming it, even with a bigger and better power supply.
[ntab Noise]
Under full load, the laptop noise level reaches around 35-37 dB near the fan exhaust (about 10 cm / 4 inches away from it), which to most people is an almost unnoticeable hum. When idling, the fan noise remains close to the room’s ambient level of 26-27 dB. Gaming on this laptop, or doing any other hardware-intensive activity will not push the fan noise above 37 dB.
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The LatencyMon test evaluates if a laptop is suitable for video/audio editing and recording. The results are mixed. It seems that when the LAN / wired network port is in use, the laptop experiences high latency, which may result in clicks or pops when recording. This problem completely disappears if the laptop is used on a WLAN / wireless connection. Otherwise, LatencyMon did not signal any other issues with this machine.
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| LatencyMon test – WIFI | LatencyMon test – LAN |
[ntab Sound quality]
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The sound system of the Acer Aspire 5 is almost identical to that of the Nitro 5. The speakers are situated on the underside of the chassis, facing downwards. Their mediocre quality and positioning results in a sound with lacklustre quality, no bass and over-pronounced highs. Furthermore, lifting the laptop from the table reduces its sound loudness by almost a half. Therefore, for half-decent sound quality, the laptop must be placed on a hard surface.
The speakers work fine for media consumption, but for those who prefer higher sound quality, a pair of headphones is the only solution.
[ntab Battery life]
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Since most laptops are used on battery for mundane office activities and web browsing, the laptop was tested using a simulated continuous web browsing session over WiFi. The session involved browsing emails/news, social media and multimedia websites, similar to the behaviour of an average user.
The level of brightness was set according to visibility and usability. At 25% brightness (maximum is 250 nits) the laptop provided an enjoyable viewing experience. The sound volume was also set at 50%.
Despite having a battery officially rated at 47.8 WHr, the laptop reported a maximum charge capacity of 46.4 WHr. With its 46.4 Whr battery, the laptop lasted just 5 hours and 40 minutes. However, with lower brightness settings, it should get more battery life.
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| Acer Aspire 5 battery specifications | Acer Aspire 5 charger |
Charging the laptop from 5% to 100% took almost 1 hour and 30 minutes with the 65W power adapter included in the box.
[ntab Software]
The laptop was provided without an operating system, so Windows was installed by the Noteb review team. The only software available and worth mentioning is the Acer Care Center.
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The Acer Care Center is designed to help users update drivers, verify device specifications, check memory, battery or hard drive health, clean the cache, disable startup applications and even defragment the hard drive. The application can also create restore points or restore the operating system.
[ntab Conclusion]
Pros:
- The entire laptop surface is not a fingerprint magnet
- No noticeable chassis flex
- Silent, even under load
- Nice esthetics, slim design and light-weight
- High-speed M.2 PCIe storage device
- Good battery life
- Decent webcam quality for a 720p sensor
Cons:
- Bad performance under long intensive workloads
- Low colour coverage display (slightly under 60% sRGB)
- Mediocre sound system
- Not the best touchpad even at this price point
- Unable to lift the display lid with just one hand
The Acer Aspire 5 is a general use laptop with low graphics quality gaming capabilities. The laptop is suitable for people who want to play popular online games casually. However, at the $650 it cannot be considered a gaming laptop, since there are similarly priced laptops that have much better gaming capabilities, like the Nitro 5, which is often on sale for just $50 more. However, where the Aspire 5 lacks in performance, it makes up in portability. For students and general use activities with some gaming capabilities on the side, we consider this laptop to be among the best budget laptops on the market.
[ntab Buy]
Since the Acer Aspire 5 with Intel’s 10th Gen processors has only been recently released, its availability on different retailer websites might differ. To support noteb.com search engine and its review team, please consider buying a future Acer Aspire laptop through one of the links included below. Thank you!
Aspire 5 Intel 10th gen(Comet Lake)
Acer Store – i5-10210U, 12GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, 15.6″ FHD display, GeForce MX250
Microcenter – i7-10510U, 16GB RAM, 1024 GB SSD, 15.6″ FHD display, GeForce MX250
Amazon – i5-10210U, 8GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, 15.6″ FHD display, GeForce MX250
Aspire 5 Intel 8th gen(Whiskey Lake)
Amazon – i7-8565U, 12GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, GeForce MX250
Amazon – i5-8265U, 8GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, GeForce MX250
Newegg – i7-8565U, 8GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, GeForce MX250
Newegg – i7-8565U, 12GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, GeForce MX250
Newegg – i5-8265U, 8GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, GeForce MX250
Walmart – i5-8565U, 12GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, GeForce MX250
[ntab More Pictures]
[ntab Videos]
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