Another winner in a long line of budget-priced workhorses, the latest version of the Acer Aspire 5 graduates to Intel’s Ice Lake CPU and packs in enough power to tackle daily computing tasks with ease. This new Aspire 5 model does come saddled with a few compromises, including a cramped storage drive and so-so battery life, but its solid multi-core performance and impressive array of ports make up for those shortcomings, particularly once you consider its affordable price (currently $550 on Amazon [go.pcworld.com/asp5]).
CONFIGURATION
Last year, we saw versions of the Aspire 5 in various dual- and quad-core configurations of Intel’s Core Whiskey Lake CPUs and AMD Ryzen 3000 series chips. Now, in the second half of 2020, the Aspire 5 is moving to 10th-generation Intel processors and AMD Ryzen Series 4000 CPUs, with configurations ranging from quad-core (Intel) all the way to octo-core (AMD). Sticker prices for the Aspire 5 line remain decidedly wallet-friendly, ranging from $400 from a dual-core Intel Core i3-1005G1 model to $850 for a quadcore i7-10510U system with discrete Nvidia GeForce MX250 graphics.
Here are the details for our $550 configuration (A515-55-56VK) of the Acer Aspire 5:
CPU: Intel Core i5-1035G1 (Ice Lake) quad-core CPU
Memory: 8GB DDR4
Graphics: Integrated Intel UHD
Storage: 256GB SSD
Display: 15.6-inch FHD (1920x1080) IPS non-touch
Webcam: 720p
Connectivity: One SuperSpeed 5Gbps USB Type-C port, two SuperSpeed 5Gbps USB Type-A ports, one USB 2.0 port, HDMI, ethernet, combo audio jack
This story is from the November 2020 edition of PCWorld.
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This story is from the November 2020 edition of PCWorld.
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