Acer Aspire V3-571-6698 15.6-Inch Laptop (Midnight Black)

I'm going to preface my review with the caveat that I bought this laptop to replace my 10+ years old(!) laptop. So basically, I'd be impressed with anything made in this decade.

In any event, I bought this after much online comparison between this and a Toshiba laptop. The Toshiba laptop had slightly better specs (one more additional USB 3.0 port and higher RAM) but the Acer laptop just looks better. And sure enough, once I brought it out of the box, I was impressed by how sleek and sexy it looks in person. Yes, it's a sexy laptop!

So, pros (asides from sexy appearance):

I'm most impressed so far with how fast it handled iTunes. Even on my husband's newer (but still old) desktop computer, iTunes take forever to load. This probably loaded iTunes in a few seconds.

USB 3.0 is fast. An album pretty much transfers instantly from my portable harddrive. If I selected 20 or so albums at a time, it probably takes less than a minute. It used to take at least two days to transfer some 5,000 songs to my iPod on my old laptop. On this computer, it took about two hours.

Sound and video both play well on this laptop. I don't need my laptop to be an entertainment center so my expectations aren't high in either regards. But from what I've used of the audio and video components, the laptop more than meets my expectations in terms of having a good sound when playing back audio and video looking crisp.

It's extremely quiet, even when the fans come on. Along with the quiet, it hasn't had issues with overheating. I've ran it for 2-3 hour periods and it's never felt slightly warmer than room temperature. It's advertised to have up to 4.5 hours of battery life and so far, that's been correct. Running a game lowers the battery life but it's to be expected and not a major issue. It's light (again, compared to my ancient laptop). I had to run up and down the stairs a couple of time with it and I barely know it's there.

Recently, I've tried accessing my work computer from home with this laptop in an attempt to debug whatever was wrong with my work computer. The laptop handled really well with running that task while installing a game and surfing the internet at the same time. I didn't notice any lags or slowdowns at all.

The only game I ran on it so far is Sims 3 and I haven't had a chance to play too much of it yet. So far, the graphics handled well and the game played smoothly for the most part. There were two times while in the game that I was kicked out to the desktop. The first time, I just pulled up the program again and the game continued right where it left off with no issues. The second time was the battery low warning. I don't know what the reason for the first glitch (maybe also battery?) was but it was no huge deal since it didn't affect the game much at all.

The cons:

I was initially put off by the Windows 8 interface. To be honest, I still hate it. But after some tinkering, I was able to make the Start screen somewhat less offensive to me by uninstalling and unpinning a lot of the useless apps. Still, I think the Windows 8 interface is a big downgrade. But I can't really blame the Acer laptop for running whatever is the newest Microsoft product and so I'm not letting stupid Windows 8 affect the product rating. Maybe one day I'll downgrade it to Windows 7.

The Charm Bar. Ugh! Another useless Windows 8 invention. I used Windows registry to suppress it but it still comes up occasionally when I hover in the lower right corner too long

I think the touchpad is a bit too sensitive sometimes. I had to turn off the one touch drag feature because it was too difficult to navigate with it inadvertently dragging a lot of the windows and icons about. Even after it has been turned off, I still get inadvertent clicks. I've already changed the sensitivity of the touchpad in the settings but I'm still getting inadvertent clicks. But I guess I'll just have to continue fiddling with the settings until I get something I'm satisfied with.

In conclusion, the only real con against the laptop would be the too-sensitive touchpad, which I'm sure is fixable with some tinkering of its settings. The Windows 8 one of the most terrible OS ever hoisted upon consumers can't really count against the laptop's rating. It's a really great computer for work, internet, entertainment (for the non-discerning audience) and light gaming. I'm really glad I got this over the other laptops I was looking through.

Even though it was a gift given I heard that it is amazing. When he connected it to his network it transferred all his desktop files easily. He is very happy with it.

Buy Acer Aspire V3-571-6698 15.6-Inch Laptop (Midnight Black) Now

I love it love it love it, not to fond of windows 8 yet but learning. This is my second Acer computer and I have found they are one of the best out there. Great sound, great graphics, beautiful styling, clear screen FAST FAST FAST Great gaming computer as well as everyday use. An A++++++ recommendation

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My son loves it! He got if for Christmas and loves it. It is very fast, does not crash, and does not over heat.

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a lot of adjusting to be familiar with windows 8 but after you get the hang of it...everything is fast and smooth and great. for a low price laptop i find it very helpful

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