Bought this unit as a budget replacement for my fairly high-powered Dell desktop which was lost during flooding. I wasn't expecting much from a $500 laptop but just needed something to get me reconnected.
Setup was a breeze, setting it to my preferences was simple, removing the (modest) bloatware from Acer was easy and I was pleasantly surprised at the quickness of the unit. The memory and drive appear to be easily and inexpensively upgradeable but it functions flawlessly right out of the box.
I wasn't paying for or expecting gaming-quality graphics but the display renders internet and video perfectly. Those that find fault with this unit must be comparing it to others costing 2 to 3 times as much. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone seeking a laptop to take care of their basic computing needs.
Very nice product for the money. Well done, Acer.
Update from 10 days later: Been using it relentlessly and comparing it to my desktop, which had far more memory, storage and graphics capabilities, and I am honestly thrilled. I was thinking of using this as a bridge-unit until I could go back to a new desktop but am seriously rethinking that. The thing that really impresses me is the boot-time. This guy goes from powered down to browsing in about 30 seconds. Not sure if that's just the SSD or newer CPU but I am loving it.
Pretty sure I'm going to start using this as my main and adding a docking station, keyboard/mouse (of course), monitor, a bit more memory and storage, and just rolling with it. Disclaimer: I am not a gamer and I understand this machine won't do complex graphics.
Update 2: Just to see if it would work, I installed a $65 16GB memory card to bring the total RAM to 20GB, the maximum Acer allows for the unit (it comes with 8GB but you have to remove a 4GB card to upgrade). It worked flawlessly and it is now far zippy-er than my Dell. From what I've read, the extra memory allows it to run cooler and hopefully adds to its service life.
Update 3: (I promise this is the last). Thrilled with this little budget-monkey. Restart time, 25-30 seconds. Startup from shut down (not sleep), 12-15 seconds including pin-entry time. Kicking it up to 20GB memory really helped. For anyone that wants to try this stunt (and possibly void the warranty) all it takes is a plastic spudger (google it) and a small Phillips head screwdriver to take the back of the laptop off. 16GB memory cards are readily available from Crucial and Memorystock, usually on Amazon.
The video that gave me confidence to try it was on YouTube but it showed how to add a hard drive, not a memory card. Older Acers had a removable panel over the memory but on the Acer Aspire 5 A515-54-51DJ, you have to take off the whole back. Don't even try it if you are confused about which end of a screwdriver to use or never read instructions.
A final note about some of the drama-queen reviewers that complained that "it gets so hot" or "the fan sounds like a 747 taking off": Just because it's called a laptop doesn't mean you should use it on your lap covered with your fleece blanket blocking the air vents. Use mine on my desk and on the rare occasions that the fan kicks on under heavy use it makes a gentle whirring sound, barely noticeable.
If it died tomorrow, I'd buy another.
Loving it
Update 4 (OK, I lied): After upgrading the memory and performing every performance-enhancing trick I could find on the internet with Windows, apps, settings and everything else, I started testing my budget computer. The most comprehensive free test I found was from UserBenchMark and I was kinda proud of the results. The test results can vary depending on the state of the computer but here was my best test (the others were pretty close):
"Overall this PC is performing way above expectations (95th percentile). This means that out of 100 PCs with exactly the same components, 5 performed better. The overall PC percentile is the average of each of its individual components. This PC is likely operated by a technical master!"
Did you hear that? I'm a technical master! All kidding aside, this $500 budget unit is working so far above my previous desktop that I'll never go back (sorry, Dell). I read that the average laptop only lasts 3-5 years before needing replacement. I'm OK with that and my next unit is definitely going to be a graphics-improved version of this machine, hopefully Acer.
Totally pleased.
Update 5: (from 8/19/2020). I installed a Samsung 860 EVO 500GB SSD (available here for about $69) for more storage space a couple of weeks ago. It went flawlessly. Well, except for the part when I buttoned it all up and it showed to have "no battery". Oopsie. Took it back apart and found that I hadn't pushed the battery connector completely in. Closed it back up, problem solved. If I recall correctly (I did this late at night after a few adult beverages) something had to be done to let the system recognize the device. Me and google had a few chats and I had a brand new 500GB drive D.
There's a very good video on how to install it on YouTube. Just search "Aspire A515-54 How to Install an Additional Hard Drive". There's a clear statement at the beginning of the video from Acer that if you mess up, it's on you, not them. You'll only need a very small phillips head screwdriver and a plastic pry-tool (spudger) to open the back and remove/replace components. Acer ships the spare drive mounting bracket and screws with the laptop. Hopefully you haven't misplaced it. Others are available but they can only be the size of the ssd, no larger.
One issue that I haven't resolved yet is that the Acer doesn't automatically put things on drive D yet since it's not a system disk. I can copy large files onto it from drive C easily, but but the system doesn't use it yet. I googled up on it and there is a way to merge drives C and D through something called "partitioning". It looks simple enough and I will do it as soon as I have time to spend a few hours researching the process (do we smell update 6 brewing?).
Still thrilled with this little Acer budget-monkey and it puts my wife's thousand dollar Dell XPS 9360 to shame in terms of performance. Totally pleased.
Update 5a: Semi-interesting wrinkle. Before I went to fumbling around to the the partitioning settings, I decided to create a system backup on a flash drive. Just in case I totally messed up. Didn't work. The flash drive was unacceptable to Windows 10 as a backup device. But Windows happily informed me that it could do the backup on drive D (oh, so NOW you recognize it, eh?). So I went ahead and did that but now I have my backup on an internal drive in the very machine I'm trying to keep protected.. Not completely useless but certainly not protected away from the laptop. Still investigating.
| Standing screen display size | 15.6 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| Max Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
| Processor | 3.9 GHz core_i5 |
| RAM | 8 GB DDR4 |
| Hard Drive | 256 GB SSD |
| Graphics Coprocessor | Integrated |
| Chipset Brand | Intel |
| Card Description | Integrated |
| Graphics Card Ram Size | 2 MB |
| Wireless Type | 802.11ac |
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 1 |
| Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 3 |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 5 Hours |
