Acer Aspire E 15, 15.6″ Full HD, 7th Gen Intel Core i3-7100U, 4GB DDR4, 1TB HDD, Windows 10 Home, E5-575-33BM Reviews

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!

It has a M2 slot accessible without violating warranty on bottom. I ordered it with Crucial 275GB M2 SSD and additional 4GB RAM () from Kingston (what it came with). So now for 9 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 0 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 0 or more model to improve. I would buy this again at the price without hesitation.

Pros:
-Sharp & bright 1080 display, looks even better if you tweak the colors in the Intel Graphics Setting.
-Wonderful backlit keyboard.
-The battery life is PHENOMENAL! Now, it’s not *quite* 12 hours, but I’ve used it up to 7 hours off and on with reliable performance so far. In my experience, that qualifies as phenomenal.
-DDR4 RAM and newest Core i3 CPU make it perfect for normal browsing, streaming videos, or general office work. I recommend buying this for the empty RAM slot to get the most out of it: Ballistix Sport LT 4GB Single DDR4 2400 MT/s (PC4-19200) SODIMM 260-Pin Memory – BLS4G4S240FSD
-Sleek design, resist smudging much better than that glossy stuff many laptops have.
-USB 3.0 and USB 3.1 C connections future proof your interface options.
-The price, 0 is a steal!

Cons:
-Screen bezel feels a little flimsy, especially since the hinges resist a little, so be gentle or say screw it and buy the warranty.
-Webcam is grainy in low/spotty lighting. If you care about such things, it’s not ideal.
-Battery is not removable, which will be a concern down the road. I assume I can take the laptop apart and replace it, but I’ll let Future Me deal with that mess.
-No HDD activity light. Maybe I’m just old, but I miss having it for some dumb reason I can’t explain.
-Lacks premium features, like an SSD, dedicated GPU, the latest Core i7 CPU, and can’t run Battlefield One on max settings. Oh wait, I knew that because I’m not ‘tarded and deliberately purchased this product knowing it had none of those things. Weird that I would complain about all that in a review. /s