Acer Aspire Touch V5-471P Laptop Review

Aspire V5-471P Series is a stylish TouchScreen Laptop by Acer. It has Intel Core i3 SandyBridge CPU@1.40Ghz, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD and L3 Cache upto 3MB. Acer V5 series consist many models that differ in specification and size. There are three different screen size 11.6”, 15.6” and 14”. We are going to discuss on the 14” model. It has stylish looks with Windows 8 OS that adds more feature to the interface. The look is good with thin size and touchscreen is also quite responsive on the front side. Acer’s Aspire V5 series consist of touch based model that offer a composite feature of a laptop and a tablet. Adding touch at a reasonable price range makes this as a budget laptop. I also tried searching more touchscreen laptop at the price range of Aspire V5. Many of them lack good hardware specification. This is one of the primary aspect that defines the performance of the laptop compared to other touchscreen laptops. Working on a 64bit machine loaded with Windows 8 gives a comfortable output. The model number of our review product is MS2360. I had listed the specification below and on that basis you can simply figure out the performance and features of other V5 series. Instant boot time, smooth touch screen, etc; are some of the best features of V5 series.

 

We will talk more about the battery, and other performance of this laptop later on. If you are looking for a touchscreen laptop with good performance then you must have a look on Aspire One V5-475 Series. With Intel Core i3 processor and 4GB of RAM, it may look powerful enough for a laptop, but it is not quite good for gaming. For multimedia, graphics editing, video editing, etc; the laptop has enough memory and processing power. Built on 64bit architecture the processing abilities are more extended. Acer does not offer any additional video memory for 471P series. The video processing is carried out by Intel HD Graphics 3000. We checked in CPUz and found 1816MB of onboard video memory which looks good enough. As it is not a dedicated video memory you cannot expect much for gaming performance. Another model in the same series called “Acer Aspire V5-471P-6852” comes with 3rd Generation Intel Core i5 Processor and Intel HD Graphics 4000. So here you can opt for more graphics processing power.  The model number of our review product is Acer Aspire V5-471P -323b4650Mass.

 

 

Features:

• Fast Responsive 14” TouchScreen
• 10 Point TouchScreen
• Good Processing
• Windows 8 Optimized
• DVD Bay and HD Webcam
• 64Bit Architecture
• Bight Screen and back lit keyboard.
• Smart Multi-touch touchpad

 

Specification:

• Intel SandyBridge Core i3 2367M @ 1.40Ghz (3MB L3) Dual Core
• HM77 Express Chipset
• 4GB DDR3 RAM (665 Mhz) (Max 8GB)
• Intel HD Graphics 3000
• 14” Inch HD Widescreen CineCrystal LCD Display
• 500GB Hard Drive
• 8x DVD Super Multi Drive
• BackLit Keyboard
• 24.2mm Thin Size
• Dolby Advance Audio
• Multi Gesture Touchpad
• Broadcom 43228 Wifi (IEEE 802.11b/g/n)
• Bluetooth 4.0
• Gigabit Ethernet
• HDMI Port
• 2 USB 2.0 Port
• 1 USB 3.0 Port
• 4-Cell Li-ion 2500 mAH Battery (5 Hours Battery Life)
• Windows 8 64Bit

 

1. Design:

 

Based on the product that we had received for review (Acer Aspire V5-471P -323b4650Mass) we found it a reasonable device but it misses some of the most important connectivity ports. The design is thin and impressive that reflects a lucrative look. Acer has removed additional ports from the laptop due to the compact design. Ample of space is empty with greyish platform and black keys over it. The touch screen does not bend much to the backward. It has a camera on the front side with a traditional web camera that delivers photo quality upto 0.9MP on software level. The camera quality is not so good but acceptable for video chat. Images are dull on low light. The laptop has a optical drive as well. As per the design you can see in the below image, it is a bit heavier to carry. It comes with 500GB internal storage that is quiet enough for data.  

 

 

Display :

 

With 14”6 inch screen on the front side the laptop delivers complete accessibility and responsive touch support. You will need to go through a short tutorial to understand touch gesture of Windows 8. Otherwise it works really well and there is no problem while using it. Windows 8 Metro UI is much comfortable to use on Acer Aspire V-5. The screen is having limitation in bending backward. Touchscreen is bit interrupted when you are using it on this model. There is no way you can simply use the screen entirely by hiding the keyboard. There are ample of convertible models on web that act as laptop as well as tablet.

 

 

Keyboard:

 

Acer Aspire V5-471P -323b4650Mass has a blacklit keyboard. The keys look a bit weaker and there is no numpad on it. I thought due to wider size it is possible to add numbpad by keeping the keyboard more closely. There is ample of gap between the keys that would affect typing accuracy. The keys are quiet soft and comfortable to some extent. Due to backlit support you can use it in dark room as well. Unlike other models the FN key operates and manages other accessibility features. Media keys are integrated over the right side which offers additional functions also. Acer has added Alt Gr key on the right side so that those who are willing to use Mac on it can get the access of option key. There is no separate wifi or any additional button except the power button on the entire body. Everything is managed by the FN key only.

 

 

TouchPad:

 

The laptop has multi-touch smart touchpad. You can use two fingers to rotate or zoom an image. The touchpad is a bit different in design.  It has a silver finish on the top with hidden right and left click. The keys are embedded on the touch pad design. To right click you have to press at the right side of touch pad and same is applicable for left click also. This makes the model more clean and decent. You can lock the touchpad by pressing FN+F7 key. The touchpad is quiet large and has nice area covered below the keyboard. Due to which you can completely rotate your fingers to move an image. Also you can use pinch zoom gesture to zoom in or zoom out in image. There are very few touchpad feature available that can be used for application and multimedia.

 

 

Connectivity:

 

Acer Aspire V5-471P -323b4650Mass has only 3 USB ports. Among which 2 are USB 2.0 and only 1 is USB 3.0. If you are using additional keyboard and mouse, then only one is left for pen drives. You can use a USB hub to extend the ports. All connectivity ports are placed on the left side of the screen. Next to that lies the HDMI port. Acer has replaced VGA port and added a Display Port in place of that. VGA is the most commonly found video port, and due to design limitation it looks like Acer has replaced it.  Power jack is placed just at the end. There is no LAN port available on the entire body. This is one of the biggest drawbacks. To use internet you will need a Wifi connection only. The laptop has Broadcom 43228 Wifi (IEEE 802.11b/g/n) adapter that meets all wifi standards and Bluetooth 4.0. A optical drive is provided on the right side.  There is no integrated card reader available.

 

 

2. Multimedia

 

Camera:

 

Acer Aspire V5-471P -323b4650Mass does not come with good camera quality. It looks the laptop has a 0.3 MP that can offer you a maximum 0.9MP image quality on software level. The image quality taken by the camera is not well enough. The camera is placed on the top of screen at the center. It also offers Acer Crystal Eye software with some photo enhancement feature. But that does not works great on the existing model. If you need a better video or photo quality it is recommended getting a good HD webcam. While it is reasonable enough for video chatting.

 

Audio & Video:

 

The V5-471P series features Dolby Advance Audio and Virtual Surround Sound. We had tested the same for a while and were quiet satisfied with the output. The audio enhancing options only work on speakers. The noise is loud enough but there is no bass effect on it. It can be due to the limitation of the speakers. Maximum laptop have speaker on the front side at the top part just below the screen. But in this laptop the speaker are placed underneath. Below the touchpad section there are two speakers configured. But sometime the voice is restricted as you keep the laptop on surface. You can modify the Dolby Digital Sound Mode through a utility available in the system tray.

 

The screen is bright enough to deliver maximum video resolution and gives each detail properly. Due to Intel HD Graphics 3000 video processing is quite beneficial.

 

3. Performance

 

I will rate Acer Aspire V5-471P -323b4650Mass laptop 6 out of 10 on the basis of performance. The laptop has enough power for professional work, but if you are a gamer or work on professional video/audio editing software then you need to have patience on this system. After analyzing it with different software we found that the performance chart remains in the mid-level somewhere. It is not a high end system. It is mid range laptop that is designed to give you better browsing and application experience. But if you overload the same with heavy games the performance will be degraded. 4GB RAM is just not enough to handle everything. Under our gaming section you can find out a short output about the performance. We had tested some high end games and application to check the maximum output that it can give, but we were not completely satisfied.

 

Gaming:

 

Acer V5 has Intel Core i3 processor and as per the system specs we checked whether the laptop might be able to give a decent gaming performance. As it has onboard Intel HD Graphics, it is not giving out best performance on latest games. Still on minimum settings we struggled to run some games that were extremely slow. Where else low end games works fine. Due to lack of dedicated graphic memory, the laptop is not good for gaming.

 

Application:

 

Acer Aspire V5-471P -323b4650Mass is capable of giving out multi-tasking features. The processing is good enough but not so helpful when you run a resource intensive software like AutoCad. At that point it is necessary to turn of all the background services. The processor operates @ 1.40 GHz. So it is optimum to work for web browsing, downloading, video/audio conversion, etc. But when you are using some heavy software it is necessary that you must keep the maximum physical ram free. The application response time is quiet good. Web Browser, Office Application, etc; work flawlessly on it. Windows 8 looks to be well optimized for this laptop. The Metro UI did not lag when you are working on different application at the same time. The Wifi works fine and connectivity is instant. We had performed a small test by running some heavy applications and received satisfactory result.

 

Benchmark:

 

PC Mark Benchmark Score: HDD, Multimedia – MB/s. Graphic – FPS

 

 

PassMark Benchmark Score: 626.3

 

 

Battery Life:

 

Acer V5-471P has a 4-Cell Li-ion 2500 mAH battery capable of giving 5 Hours Battery Life. That is as per the specs say and it is correct. The laptop needs early charging when you are on wifi or when you are using the same for multimedia purpose. As per my expectation it has low battery life. For games, as I had already discussed, you cannot run high end games and can expect around 4-5 hrs of battery life constantly. It is more when you are working on application. But somehow it looks that the battery life is not at all impressive.

 

Conclusion:

 

Acer V5-41P series laptop has good performance and based on the current hardware it is capable of delivering better output. The price of the model that we had tested is marked around Rs.43,000. The price fluctuates on the basis of different models. Acer V5-471P is a good touch screen laptop. But it is not good to expect much from it. The touchscreen is responsive enough to work on application. For gaming you need touch optimized feature in it or else it is useless. Acer V5-41P lacks a LAN Adapter, due to which you can access files or use internet only on wifi. It seems that Acer has tried to keep Acer V5 series laptop limited to a travel model.

 

Pros:

• Responsive Touchscreen
• Windows 8 Optimized
• Sleek Design
• Multi-Tasking

 

Cons:

• Poor Battery Life
• No LAN and VGA Port
• Not Good for Gaming