The launch of the Acer Aspire V3 series of laptops in all kinds of modifications clearly did not go unnoticed by potential buyers or competitors. Judging by the numerous reviews in the media, the advantages of a mobile device can not be considered, first of all, it is a low price and very high performance. In this article, the reader will be able to better get acquainted with the culprit of the hype in the laptop market. Having learned the technical characteristics, advantages and disadvantages, as well as having studied the reviews of the owners, anyone can independently draw conclusions about the device and make the right decision before making a purchase.
Positioning the device in the global market
The Acer Aspire V3 laptop is designed for home use, and the target audience is the owners who need the most powerful mobile device to run all kinds of multimedia applications. However, in our country, for some reason, it is generally accepted that the presence of a sufficiently powerful discrete adapter indicates that the device is aimed at the gaming market. This is an erroneous opinion, because the video system is still in demand in working with video editors or viewing programs, graphic editors that use video filters, in graphing and 3D modeling.
And when it comes to games, then the user should initially know that the Acer Aspire V3 series laptops are not marketed as mobile gaming devices.
Brand packaging from the manufacturer
How subtly noticed: "Meet by clothes." The buyer needs to perceive the manufacturer’s decision to refuse luxury packaging as a desire to reduce the price for this mobile device. In fact, the box is needed only to bring the laptop to the door of the house. It is made of ordinary cardboard and presented as a diplomat. At one of the ends of the box, the manufacturer gave a brief description of the functionality of the laptop. And on the main packaging panel there is even a graphic image of the device itself with the name of the modification.
The package bundle of the device is a little more interesting: the Acer Aspire V3 laptop itself, a recovery disk for restoring a Windows system, drivers, a power supply, a quick guide and a rag cover. Some modifications of mobile devices, as noted by the owners in the reviews, come with a complete set of instructions for setting up the system and operating the laptop. Regarding the case in the kit, opinions agree that it is intended to protect the device from dust and moisture during storage.
First meeting
The design of the laptop is more conservative. The complete absence of glamorous bevels around the edges, additional drawings on the laptop cover and mirror gloss on all surfaces make it clear to the potential buyer that he is facing a device for business and home use, and not just another toy for the envy of others.
Due to the fact that the Acer Aspire V3 laptop has many modifications, the manufacturer decided to release several types of case design - metal and plastic. This decision has significantly expanded the target audience of customers.
A laptop in a metal case is less prone to fingerprints, and its appearance, unlike a plastic device, is more presentable. However, do not forget that you will have to pay extra for a metal solution; the manufacturer has made such an innovation not free.
Most important component
Acer has a rather strange attitude towards its customers. All modifications available on the market have different liquid crystal matrices, and it seems that the manufacturer put what he had at that time at hand. The business class of the 17-inch devices received a low-quality TN + Film-matrix, but with support for FullHD resolution. The classic 15-inch laptop was not the luckiest; it was equipped with antediluvian TN matrix with a resolution of 1366 x 768 dpi. Even the LED backlight, designed to align the color balance of the screen, is not able to reflect the real black color.
But 13-inch devices, the same Acer Aspire V3 371, reviews of which in the media assure that the device is aimed at mobile users, received all the latest technologies. This IPS-matrix, a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and LED-backlight. Naturally, this series of laptops has excellent color reproduction and excellent viewing angles, and, accordingly, there will be no negative feedback from buyers in the media.
Interfaces & Connectors
The manufacturer’s decision to install an optical drive in the Acer Aspire V3 notebook line is very pleased. As practice shows, the technology is again in demand after USB-drives began to fail according to the term of operation. The DVD drive is missing only in the 13-inch device, which is why there are a lot of negative reviews in the media, because instead of the drive the manufacturer did not deign to place additional connectors, leaving the panel empty.
The right panel of devices, in addition to the optical drive, contains a connector for connecting a charger, two USB ports, an audio output for connecting headphones and a corresponding microphone input. The left panel of the laptop has two more USB connectors, an RJ-45 connector for connecting to a local network, an HDMI output and an analog signal output, implemented as an old D-Sub interface. It is worth noting that there is a Kensington lock and a huge grille with a radiator on the same panel, through which hot air is removed from the processor and video card.
This is the keyboard!
When you open the lid of the laptop, the first thing that catches your eye is the chic keyboard. It is very important that the manufacturer did not become wiser, as he did with the screens, and provided all his devices, including the most popular Acer Aspire V3 571g line, with an excellent and practical input device. The keyboard is full: there is a digital block, all buttons are full-sized and a couple of millimeters distant from each other.
The key travel is short, but very hard, with a small recoil in the finger. Even a long spacebar is able to control pressing. Judging by the numerous reviews in the media, the owners express special thanks to the manufacturer for installing a professional input device.
It's pretty strange to see function buttons on full-sized keyboards. However, upon careful examination, everything falls into place - the buttons control the wireless interfaces, screen and sound. It is unfortunate that the manufacturer decided to save money here, because the keys separately placed on the device panel would have looked much more elegant.
Special attention - touch panel
A rather strange touchpad is installed in the Acer Aspire V3 laptop. User reviews on this issue are twofold. On the one hand, the touch panel has a matte finish with a slight roughness. This solution allows you to most effectively control the sliding of the finger. Accordingly, the touchpad can even be used to create sketches in the drawing.
On the other hand, the touchpad attracts a lot of questions regarding size and location. The manufacturer does not understand why he drowned it a couple of millimeters deep, reducing in size, and the placement of the touch panel almost at the front end of the laptop causes negative emotions when using it. After all, it is inconvenient to constantly keep your hands on weight. Also, many users were outraged by the lack of multi-touch technology for the touch panel.
Nice sound
Recently, most manufacturers have not paid attention to the audio system of their devices, and this has already become a norm, which can not be said about laptops in the Acer Aspire V3 line. The reviews of the owners of this gadget assure that they have not heard such beautiful sound for a long time. The speakers are located under the panel located between the screen and the keyboard. They are positioned as a stereo system, but the manufacturer decided not to stop there and provided them with the Home Cinema function, which is implemented through the standard Realtek driver.
Users note that the sound quality extends to the audio output, which honestly produces a range from 40 Hz to 15 kHz. And if you compare the sound quality on the active speakers connected to the audio jack of the laptop, then it is no worse than an external entry-level sound card from Creative E-MU 0204USB. This is a serious announcement by Acer in the multimedia device market.
About the "goodies"
All potential buyers will be interested to know that the concept of "weak components" is completely absent for the entire line of Acer Aspire V3 laptops. Specifications for all devices begin with a description of the Intel Core i processor. Depending on the modification, you can find Core i3, i5 and i7 processors, under which the manufacturer installed the appropriate sets of RAM, the volume of the latter varies in the range of 4-16 Gigabytes.
The video adapters installed by the manufacturer begin with the GeForce GT 640M gaming line. Judging by the numerous reviews of satisfied owners, Nvidia GeForce GTX 760M video adapters are very common, which work in conjunction with the integrated Intel HD Graphics 4600 adapter and can be hardware disabled to save battery power.
Most laptops have modern SSDs with capacities from 120 to 240 GB. Seventeen-inch devices are equipped with two hard drives: SSD-and HDD-drive. And this is for the entire Acer Aspire V3 line. The laptop BIOS is protected from failures and is duplicated by an additional chip, as is implemented on gaming computers.
Work autonomy
Many potential buyers are never interested in the autonomy of high-performance laptops, because a priori these are two mutually exclusive factors - either performance or autonomy. Unless we are talking about Acer Aspire V3 series laptops. The battery in all devices is guaranteed to prevent the device from disconnecting for two hours at a constant load of the processor and video card of no more than 70% - this is the majority of dynamic games.
Watching the video will allow you to use the battery resource for up to four hours, like any laptop of this class. However, users note that it is not possible to extend the device’s operating time from a single charge by disabling wireless interfaces, since their consumption is negligible compared to the basic components. If you turn off the discrete video adapter in hardware and lower the screen brightness, you may be able to win twenty to thirty minutes of battery life.
Positive points
Many owners of Acer Aspire V3 devices will appreciate the characteristics of wireless interfaces. All laptops have a Wi-Fi module from the well-known brand Qualcomm Atheros, which, according to IT experts, is considered the most stable in the world today and never depends on overheating or transferring large amounts of information. Also, all mobile systems are equipped with a modern Bluetooth 4.0 module with support for all available technologies that comply with this standard.
The wired interface for connecting the Internet or local area network is gigabit and is implemented on the basis of the well-known Broadcom company. The manufacturer, when installing components, prefers only well-known brands that provide their products with a long warranty period. So, Kingston RAM modules have a lifetime warranty, and Japanese Toshiba hard drives are limited to five years of operation.
All users, without exception, are very pleased that the manufacturer installed in all models of the Acer Aspire V3 series a modern webcam with a resolution of 1.3 megapixels, FullHD support and video recording speed of up to 60 frames per second.
Features Features
Quite interestingly, the manufacturer entered with equipping laptops with an operating system. In most cases, the buyer is offered a laptop without Windows, however, each of these devices comes with a recovery disk, from which any owner can deploy the mentioned operating system on his device.
Some modifications, on the contrary, have a licensed system with a sticker on the case, as is implemented for all Acer Aspire V3 572g devices. Responses of owners assure that such a solution is absolutely necessary in a business where the law on the use of licensed software is distributed. Also, many users note that the manufacturer keeps up to date, and always provides its devices with modern operating systems - the current Windows 10 64-bit completely replaced the predecessors.
Service and Repair
Since all powerful systems need high-quality cooling, the user in no way can avoid problems with the dustiness of the internal components of the laptop. The first sign of contamination in such devices is the heat and the terrible sound made by the fan, which is not able to clean the system from debris. Having taken care of the placement of powerful components, the manufacturer did not at all think about maintenance and repair. For example, the Acer Aspire V3 571g laptop needs to be disassembled completely, to the motherboard, to get to the dirty fan.
There are several options for solving the problem. Many owners trust cleaning professionals, giving the device to an authorized service center. Those who wish to save on maintenance can do this with a vacuum cleaner. It is enough to blow ventilation openings at the inlet (bottom of the laptop) and the outlet (on the left panel of the device) of the cooling system. The main thing here is to pay attention to the cleaning procedure, purging the laptop once a month.
Finally
As you can see from the review, buying a laptop Acer Aspire V3 will appeal to many users. Indeed, for most buyers, it is the price that decides whether to be a purchase or not. Just in price, a budget device is able to compete with more expensive players in the laptop market. Performance also plays a significant role for customers - here Acer surprised everyone by providing its devices with modern components of an elite class. In addition, the buyer will receive many more modern technologies that are hidden in a chic and well-protected case.