Acer Aspire 5 A514-54

Acer needs to upgrade the Aspire 5 chassis, which is looking tired even for a budget machine

The Acer Aspire 5 chassis - the A514-54 on test is one variation of many that Acer sells - has been largely unchanged for years, and it's showing its age. The metal effect finish of the plastic chassis fools no-one, while the high-contrast black bezels around the screen simply look large. And while Acer quotes an 18mm height, it's closer to zomm in many places. At 1.7kg, this is a chunky machine by modern standards.

First impressions aren't improved by a lacklustre screen. Whites aren't true, and even when we pushed the brightness up to its 264cd/m² maximum - and tweaked its colour balance in software - this wasn't a panel that brought joy to our eyes. If you plan to watch films on your laptop, then again we suggest steering clear, but this time due to a pair of tinny speakers.

We've seen worse webcams than the 720p unit here, which suffers from noise (as do so many of this month's contenders), but it does at least capture natural looking colours. You won't be embarrassed making video calls on it.