Acer Aspire 5332 15.6″ HD LCD Notebook, 2GB, 320GB, Intel Celeron processor T3100, DVD Multi drive, Webcam, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

A. GILL

at 9:25 pm

I’ve been through a couple of Acer’s bargain offering laptops, and to be honest

im getting fed up with it. I was first lured into the 5 series of machines due

to the price and affordability, but also because of what they offered. It seemed,

and probably still is a good deal for the money. Here is what i liked about it:

== PRICE ==

As above its very good value for money. Quite affordable and is a bargain i guess.

This is a laptop remember, and not a netbook so the value is definitely there.

== DESIGN ==

For the price you wont be getting anything like a Macbook, but the design is not bad.

Colours were not to my taste, a bland black and grey, but the laptop does like nice

with rounded edges, sort of elegant in a way, i had no problem looking at it everyday.

== SPECS ==

Connectivity is great, including b/g/n wireless card, gigabit ethernet, 2 USB ports, VGA output,

and a microphone and headphone port. The 15.6 LCD which has HD resolution surprised me a bit.

It is 16:9, with a res of 1366×768 dpi and can play 720p content. Movies and photos did look very nice.

The intel graphics accelerator can run the HD content just fine. Not really a gaming machine, but i doubt

you would want to on here. The 2GB RAM and 320GB HD should be fine for what people would like to do using this

machine. The intel celeron looks a bit weak on paper but coupled with Windows 7 and 2GB ram it runs fine.

Included VGA webcam was low quality, but was useable for odd skype calls etc. One DVD multidrive plays and burns

CDs and DVDs as it should. And the OS is Windows 7 64bit which is fantastic i think, allows the celeron to work

at full 64bit support and as you may know Windows 7 does seem a bit lighter on resources than its predecessors.

== PORTABILITY ==

It weights 2.7kg and is pretty easy to carry and use on the go. The wide range of

connectivity options make it suitable for connectivity and use on the go.

== BATTERY LIFE ==

Only 2.5hrs which again looks bad on paper. But you do have to bear in mind the price. Also, this can

easily be improved within Windows by lowering screen brightness etc, could extend it up to or around 3hrs.

== CONCLUSION ==

A very good machine for people on a tight budget. Offers good value for money. Looks nice and is quite

a nice laptop to use for every day use, albeit it being for light use anyway. I would have to give it 3/5.

This is because i have went through 2 of these, on both occasions they broke down. Acer support did repair

them, but again they broke, this time outside the warranty period, and they quoted me £70 to repair it.

As a result i never bought one of these bargain machines again. I now have a Sony Vaio, and an Apple

Macbook, both of which have extra warranty and have yet to break down. Its going to cost more, but in the

end the experience will be better, maybe pay for itself within a few years.
Rating: 3 / 5