Acer Aspire V5-171-6675 11.6-Inch Laptop (Silver)

Acer made a good name for themselves by providing reliable desktop computer components, and that reputation carried over when several years ago, the company advanced into providing laptops. Now after owning three of them, I have never been disappointed in the operation or reliability of any of them. This one is very small and solidly built and it has a brushed aluminum finish I really like in contrast to the nice shiny metallic finishes usually associated with Acer laptops.

So now we enter into a new era of Tablet computing and Windows 8, and it is a definite change from the previous computing we learned so well. Advancing cautiously with the help of Acer's desktop, Windows eventually revealed that it is still the same old Windows inside with a new graphical sugar coating and some new enhancements that make it very appealing for use with the new Touch Screen Tablets that are steadily gaining in popularity.

Windows 8 has your back if you still find better use for a computer than a Tablet, so this Acer has the familiar touchpad mouse built into its keyboard, but I still prefer using a BlueTooth mouse whenever possible. Additionally, many Android users may find Windows 8 is very similar to using the data provisions of their cell phones, complete with an endless number of available apps.

This little 11.6 inch wonder in electronic wizardry will always remain readily available whether I am at work or travelling. Sized the same as the newer Tablets, I consider this laptop to be better provisioned, and best of all, it sells for about half the price of a top-rated Tablet. It is provisioned with the least expensive version of a set of three new CORE Intel processor configurations that increase in cost at each level of complexity, but really don't provide enough in additional abilities to warrant a higher price over what I already have in this very basic laptop computer. This i3 runs very cool and is built into the smallest laptop frame Acer provides, and I even have a little accessory carrying case for it.

This laptop is too small to accommodate a mounted optical disk drive, but that is easily fixed since there are several external CD/DVD RW drives available at a nice price, all provisioned to plug into a laptop's USB ports for immediate use. Regardless, Acer Support provides a Recovery Flash Drive for this computer that can be plugged into one of its USB ports if a recovery to factory specs ever becomes necessary.

With a little more time researching some of the other similar laptops available from Acer before purchasing this one, chances are I would have also seriously considered the Acer Aspire One laptop. That would have saved another couple hundred $$ since it is a very close duplicate to this one. The only real difference is its slightly slower Intel processor, but it also has a smaller but more practical 320 Gig hard drive, which for all my needs is still HUGE. Either one of these laptops is perfect for students who must store and do their work on a fully provisioned computer, and there are also some AMD provisioned 11.6 Acer laptops as well at an even lower price.

This is a nice, solid, basic laptop. I've only had it for about a week, so can't speak of its longevity. Physically, it is very solid. I've noticed some laptops out there have a little bit of wiggle in the screen or keypad, but this one is solid, which is impressive for being so small and thin. They keyboard is easy to type on for me, but I have tiny hands... my larger-handed husband has some trouble, but its not his laptop. The mousepad is OK, I would prefer dedicated left and right click buttons rather than pushing the pad itself for this, but I'm getting used to it. There are a lot of USB ports for being such a small computer. I also appreciate that the screen is very clear and bright... so bright, I even had to turn it down. The screen is also wide-screen, so even though the laptop is 11 inches, it is almost just as wide as my 15 inch... I was concerned it would be difficult to read being so small, but this was not the case. The sound is weird, the speakers are on the bottom of the laptop, so if its on my lap, my lap mutes a lot of the sound... when its on a hard surface, its fine. But, I don't plan on using the speakers, I use headphones if I ever REALLY need to listen to anything anyway. Its no bother for me, so it wasn't a negative, but others might find that info useful. The computer was super easy to set up, its processor is VERY fast, websites pop up quickly. I personally don't like Windows 8, but there were plenty of websites out there (CNET mostly) that helped me download some free programs to bypass some of the annoying Windows 8 features (start screen, start menu, hot corners, etc.)... but this is to no fault of the laptop. Solid laptop and a great price. Highly recommended.

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The laptop is great when plugged into a wired network, but is honestly hopeless on wifi.The wireless card drops internet connection every 5 or so minutes, and sometimes it comes back on its own, sometimes you have to open and close the wireless adapter, sometimes you have to reboot the laptop to fix it. I have two other laptops in the same room, a dell and an asus, both work great on wifi without problems. The wi fi signal is great. I have looked online and read a few reports, wifi problems appear fairly common with Acer laptops with this qualcom wireless adapter.

Because I purchased and installed office on this machine, I am now stuck between a rock and a hard place. I can return the laptop for credit and lose the $120 I paid for office because I have to buy a new copy, or I can keep the laptop without working wireless. Some choice that is! 2 stars is generous. Dont buy this laptop if you need reliable wi fi connection.

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Okay this is a pretty capable little notebook computer. The i3 CPU will make it considerably faster than the older generation Intel Atom chips. The quality seems decent for a $450 part.

Now here's some information that can save you some grief:

1. The BIOS is set up from the factory so that you can only reach it from the Windows 8 environment. I spent the better part of an hour trying different keys and combinations in a futile attempt to reach the BIOS aggravating. The following is courtesy of user "gr8stapeoftx".

From the Windows 8 Sidebar:

Settings

Change PC Settings

General

Advanced Startup

Restart Now

Troubleshoot

Advanced Options

UEFI Firmware Settings

Personally, I don't like this setup. I Like the Bios to be agnostic of the operating system. What happens if someone decides to downgrade to Windows? Fortunately, once you reach the BIOS screen from Windows 8, you can set the bios to work in legacy mode. After that, the F2 key will get you into the bios upon bootup.

2. Getting to the internals is incredibly easy. I think it is literally just one screw to remove the bottom chassis plate. Upon removing the plate, the RAM is a breeze to upgrade. There are two slots, and one of them is populated by a 4 GB chip. You can add another 4 GB chip for a total of 8 GB. Doesn't get easier than that.

3. Hard drive now this is much more tricky. If you are looking to replace the conventional hard drive with an SSD drive like I was, pay attention. Many of the SSD drives on the market will *not* work with this computer (Sandisk Extreme, Kingston, OCZ Vertex, Crucial M4, etc.) Why? Because they are all a tad too tall at around 9.5 mm. They must be of the 7 mm variety. The Samsung and Transcend drives seem to work because they are around 7 mm.

All in all, this is a pretty good computer for your money. I wish the battery life was more like 6 or 7 hours, but the battery is not sealed, so you should be able to buy aftermarket batteries down the road.

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I am a college student, and the V5 is a perfect choice for me. the laptop is only about 2 lbs. I can hardly feel it in my backpack. The battery life is about 3 4 hours, I don't have to worry about bringing the power cord. For a 11.6 inch laptop it feels really good when I'm typing. The material that its made out of doesn't get dirty easily. The CORE I3 processor is amazingly quick. This laptop does more than what I need.

The reason why I'm giving it a 4 star is because I dislike Windows 8. it suites better for a Ipad, tablet or a smart phone, but it's a pain to work with on this laptop. The speakers are placed under the laptop, so to me the sound is a bit muffled. (I usually use ear buds, so it's not a problem) The battery is difficult to remove because you have to insert a small object (like a paper clip) into the release latch while your pulling it out.

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