OC-Freak's quick review: Acer Aspire V5-573G, i5 haswell, Nvidia GT750M and FullHD IPS.

This time I'll write a quick user review of the Acer V5-573G. I've had 15+ laptops last 10 years, so I have a little bit of knowledge at least.
Already posted in Norwegain here: Hurtigtest; Acer V5-573G, Haswell CPU, Nvidia GT750M, FullHD IPS Skjerm - Bærbare datamaskiner - Forum - Hardware.no But figured I'd post it here as well since it seems this model is rather rare in the U.S.

Specs:
i5 4200U Haswell
Nvidia GT750M 4GB DDR3
12GB Kingston DDR1600 RAM (4Gb soldered + 8Gb module - which is max RAM for this computer).
500Gb Seagate 5400rpm HDD.
FullHD (1920 x 1080) IPS panel.

Prisce 6999,- NOK (~1159 USD), which is not bad considering laptop prices here being 25-50% higher than in the U.S

First Impression:
Even thinner and lighter than expected. Very pretty and feels well built. No gaps, no visible flaws found.

Keyboard:
Good layout and almost no flex, but the key travel is very short which needs som getting used to. Backlit, and good contrast between the almost black keys and white letters. Overall I'll rate the keyboard as average, nothing more, nothing less.

Touchpad:
The surface is not smooth enough for my taste, but size is very good and buttons are not very loud. I still prefer dedicated buttons and not integrated. Acer failed with the provided driver which lack many settings, solved by installing older driver version for the elantech touchpad - still this should not be needed on an brand new laptop.

Screen:
The screen is probably the best part of the whole computer. Specifications for the screen says IPS, but I'm thinking it might actually be an A-HVA panel. Still both IPS and VA tech should provide very good viewing angles and improved colour space. And it indeed does, this is the first time I have seen an good LCD panel from AUO Optronics (previous AUO panels I've used has been pure crap). Black levels are the best I have ever seen on an laptop screen, viewing angles are good, and colour reproduction is stunning! The screen alone makes this laptop worth considering. If I have to say something negative about it; I've seen other screens with more max brightness. Still more than enough brightness, and for everyday use a setting around 75% brightness is fine.

Speakers:
Very good speakers, clear and crisp sound. Decent max volume, although I've had better. Slightly lacking bass, which is expected due to no sub. The only downside is that speakers are mounted under the laptop front and are easily blocked on your lap, best used on a flat surface.

Noise
I've been unlucky with mine since one of the two fans seems to have a vibration/noise which is present also at slow speeds. The other fan is pretty silent, so I guess I've got a defective fan. Trying to get a replacement laptop. I'll write my final judgement here when the replacement unit has arrived.

Heat:
Heat will always be present when you put this potent hardware into a very thin and light chassis, but Acer handles this very well. Thanks to the use of two fans the heat is handled well, during gaming the keyboard gets a bit heated up in the middle, along with back edge near screen hinges. the "WASD" area which is most used for gaming stays relatively cool. During stresstesting (furmark + prime) the middle of the keyboard gets uncomfortably hot, but it's very unlikely that games will put this much stress on the computer, so in reality not much of an issue. Temps during stresstesting are around the 90C mark, 92-94C for CPU, 88-90C for GPU, but they stabilize at this level and doesn't rise more, so overall a bit hot, but expected due to the thin build and potent harware. Gaming temps are in the low/mid 80s.

Performance
The computer lacks an SSD as the Seagate 5400rpm HDD slows the system down when you are used SSD speeds, thankfully it should have an mSATA slot. I'll pop an SSD in as soon as I get a replacement unit. Beside this the GT750M gives an overall score of P2476 (2451 graphics score) in 3dmark 11, making most games playable around medium settings, heavy games you'll be forced to play at low settings though. Still compared to the price and size it makes an decent gaming alternative. The i5 ultra haswell CPU does its job too, of course the quad version would perform better, but would really melt the laptop in terms of heat, so the ultra version of the i5 is just fine. And during stresstesting the computer hardly throttles, which in general is a very big problem among other manufacturers. CPU settles around 2,3GHz and GPU on 1071MHz after long time stresstesting, this is good compared to for example Asus N550JV which throttles to 800MHz during stresstesting. The only thing Id like is GDDR5 instead of DDR3 GPU memory to get slightly more performance without more added heat.

Some more gaming/performance tests may be found in the Anandtech review of the similar specced 14" model: AnandTech | Acer V7-482PG-9884 Review: Everything You Need or the notebookcheck review of the V5-573G: Review Acer Aspire V5-573G-54208G50aii Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

Battery:
Not fully tested it, but it seems to be around 6 hours with power saving profile and wifi enabled, decent for a computer this potent.

Wireless performance
Good range and stability, better than the majority of laptops I've had which generally struggles already 7-8 meters from my router. Atheros wifi, personally I'd prefer an intel wifi card though.

Conclusion:
Most likely the best mid-range option available. The screen is stunningly good, the size and weight is ideal. Light enough to travel around with, and still good size for general use and even some gaming. Looks and feels good. it's not perfect, but laptops that cost considerably more are not perfect either, so this is a very good buy.

Positive:
*Stunningly good IPS/A-HVA screen
*Good speakers
*Good battery runtime
*Backlit keyboard with almost no flex.
*Very good all round performance
*Nvidia GT750M gives decent gaming performance for a laptop of this size.
*Space for mSATA SSD.
*Looks good and feels well built.
*Thin and lightweight compared to specs.
*Good wifi range/performance

Negative:
*Touchpad driver with missing settings (solved by using older driver), touchpad surface not as smooth as preferred.
*Short keystroke, which needs some "getting used to".
*Not easy to open to access HDD/memory. Many screws to remove and whole bottom plate needs to be removed.
*Keyboard gets slightly warm in the middle after long gaming sessions.
*Speakers mounted under laptop front, easily blocked on your lap.
*Power button at the side of the laptop, easy to accidentally hit it.

The laptop do not have an ODD, so make sure you do not need one or grab an external one for the few times you might need one.

If it wasn't for the fact that I got rattling sound/noise in one of the fans I'd be very satisfied with this laptop. Hope I can get a replacement laptop quick.

 

Hi OC-Freak,
I got the same laptop today and it also seems that one of my fans is defective. It makes very much noise even at slow fan speeds :-(

 

The fan at the right side behind numpad area?

If so it might be a design flaw

 

Exactly that one! In general a great laptop, but I´m just about to send mine back. Could you keep me informed about your replacement maschine?

 

I might consider just getting the money back, if this is an general issue with this laptop. Strange that notebookcheck didn't mention any noise issues in their review, same with anandtech, fans looks identical on the 14" model.

The issue could be with early production series or smoething too, mine was manufactured 20th June.

 

Acer usually uses more fans from more than one maker on each notebook- you can usually confirm this by looking at a service manual (which is not yet available for this notebook I assume).

My point being- if they chose a cheap fan that isn't exactly quiet and they use a different brand of fan on this notebook too (possibly that's why notebookcheck did not notice anything) they might be able to replace it.

Acer did replace touchpads from ELAN to Synaptics for free when there were problems with the former so hopefully they would go the same way here.

 

Ok, thats interesting. I´m not sure yet, if should reorder this laptop or get me another one.

 

Where did you get the alternative touchpad drivers?

 

I just googled and found various elantech drivers from acer, and picked one from april or thereabout, then it worked. Can't remember exact driver since I returned the laptop.

 

Update: I'll get an new one on monday/tuesday. Will be interesting to see if this one also got the fan issue.

Another thing I forgot to mention in the review is how the CPU throttles; the CPU throttles so that it doesn't exceed the designed 15W TDP. Which usually means running at around 2.3Ghz loaded by prime95. In other words; under full load the i7 model will not gain you anything since it has the same 15W TDP.

 

Great review. I don't have the problem with the noisy fan - sounds a bit weird.
Could you elaborate on the 15W TDP and no performance gain regards to I5 vs I7 AND how to install the mSATA SSD?

Kind regards,
Rasmus

 

Under heavy load both the i5 and i7 should be limited to the same speed (around 2,3GHz) since that gives a power usage of 15W, which is max for the haswell i5/i7 U models. Lighter workloads should give a higher clockspeed on the i7 of course, but under lighter loads you really don't need it.

So yeah, an dualcore i7 is almost pointless from my point of view.

I have not opened mine yet, but should be fairly easy to install. The hard part might be getting the OS installed on it, maybe clone the original HDD onto it, then try to boot from the mSATA SSD and format the original drive. Sometimes this could be the hard part. Sometimes I've had to remove the original HDD to be able to boot from the SSD, then format the original HDD in another computer before putting it back to prevent it booting from the original HDD.

 

Hi OC-Freak,

When you get your replacement, let us know when you open it up to replace the HDD with a SSD. I'm curious to know if it is upgradeable as last year's model. Is it just screws and clips, i.e. no glue holding it together? I've tried to compare the V5-571 (last year's) with the 573 and the old one has a panel to access the RAM but this year's doesn't. Is the HDD still under the right palm rest (so you need to remove keyboard etc to access it)? And you say it is mSATA not regular SATA?

You said there is one soldered RAM module but another 2 slots that can be upgraded? The one I have been looking at is the lower spec one so it only comes with 4GB RAM, not full HD display, no keyboard backlight (I think).

 

The new one arrived - same fan issue. So that's a bummer

1: Not going to open it yet at least, but you can check the innards at notebookcheck review.
2: it has 4 Gb RAM soldered and only one slot, so 12Gb is max.
3: It should have one regular 7mm SATA HDD bay (NOT 9.5mm) AND one mSATA slot.

 

They say that ThrottleStop 6.0 solves that problem.
Do you think that might help for your laptop?

 

My laptop is now heading for acer facility in Germany for fan-noise investigation. They brought it all the way down there to test it/repair it instead of using a local service company. Not exactly sure why.

 

Acer had quality issues with service and support because they had used multiple companies - some better some worse. Not all were properly stocked and they had no control over how qualified the technicians were.

At one point they gave up on all local companies and created one or two European Service Centers (Czech Republic and Germany)- this has improved service and support immensely.

 

Hi OC-Freak,

any news on that fan-noise investigation? I'm interested in buying a V5 but this noise problem (if persisting) would be a show-stopper...

Regards
bufferlow

 

The new fan is better, but still not noise free. Only noticeable in a silent room, so big deal.

 

@OC-Freak Im about to buy this laptop, but i couldnt find any forums or reviews about it.
all I want to know if the laptop will handle heavy gaming?
and whats your opinion on acer service? are they good .. bad??

 

what games do you have in mind that you want to play? as far as service goes, I think it would be better if you purchase an extended warranty from the store that you are going to purchase it if you don't want to wait for Acer or ship your unit out to fix or replace it if ever you encounter some problems. the good thing about extended warranties is that you can replace the defective unit immediately in-store with no questions asked. just immediate replacement of any laptop of your choice with the cost difference of the notebook purchase of course.

 

I'm also interested in this laptop's suitability for heavy gaming. Will it handle playing WoW every day (25man raids) and playing the latest games (not necessarily on the highest details)? Or will the heat become too much of a problem?

 

Hi, I'm interested in this laptop. I currently own an Acer and mine runs very hot even on idle.

How does this model handle heat? Would I be able to keep it on my lap without discomfort while browsing via WiFi or doing MS Word, Excel work?

Also, it seems like the processor is the weakest link of the system, does it bottleneck the system?

 

Hi,

I bought the same laptop few months ago and I'm also interested in adding the mSATA SSD alongside with my default 500gb HDD. The model code is NX.MCEED.024 on my laptop, meaning it's the i5-4200U and Nvidia 750m model with 8Gb RAM. I haven't yet opened the laptop, so I sent email to the store where I bought it from and asked if the laptop has an extra mSATA slot, and if it would break the warranty etc.

How's your SSD upgrade going? Too bad for your fans to bust like that, I haven't had any problem with mine. :/

- Fallenz -

 

I ended up selling mine and getting the Asus N56JR as even after fan replacement it was not silent at low fan speeds. At higher fan speeds it was normal.

The asus has worse speakers, a lot worse screen (the IPS screen of the acer is awesome) is heavier and thicker. But asus N56JR has better GPU, better keyboard and touchpad, good cooling/no unusual fan noise. So it's a matter of loose something, gain something.

Also asus N56JR doesn't have mSATA, so I replaced the HDD with a 512Gb SSD instead.

Acer V5-573G is great if you get one without the noisy fan issue.

 

Just for you to know. There is a program called " Notebook Fan Control" where you can control the Fans of he Acer.
This offers you a complete silent (passive) office work and surfing as well as movie watching!
When gaming the fans of course ramp up!

 

Yeah it's true. Nice that you got yourself a working decent laptop. My retail store just answered that they don't know if it has free mSATA port and adding an SSD will break the warranty, and they suggested replacing HDD with SSD (I don't see why that doesn't break the warranty ) and use USB 3.0 HDD. Only problem I see there is that it's not really efficient to install big softwares like Vegas Pro on removable storage. Oh well.. I guess I'm still opening the laptop and looking for mSATA port!

Thanks for replying to an old thread!

-fallenz-

 

I bought this laptop (V5 573G) 3 weeks ago and it's the best laptop I ever had in my life so far... Gotta love the screen!

Was playing BF4 on medium - no problem, get the cooling pad for this cause it might be hot.

The first thing I did with this laptop was to open up the back-lid of this laptop and insert a msata SSD from Kingston (120 GB) and installed OS on that drive. Now I boot my laptop less than 10 sec.

Everything runs super fast and it was so easy to install that msata. Worth every penny.

This laptop costed me only 650 Euros. It was so cheap and works perfectly so far. No screen bleeding, no problem with fan noise, the only downside is the touchpad which is not that good but Im fine with that, I always use my external keyboard and mouse anyways...

btw: the battery is 6.5 h, that's pretty sick for a 15 inch laptop!

and once again: Full HD screen with IPS technology, you won't find it on many laptops, this one is a keeper!

 

Hi!

I'm on to buy this laptop, so I have some questions.
Does this notebook get hot during normal use? And what about the quality of this notebook, I've heard a lot of bad experiences about Acer (their support, guarantee, quality of products) and because of that I don't know whether should I buy this laptop or not.
Would you recommend me this Acer one?

Thanks

 

I will be completely honest with you:

I have heard the SAME story from other people and I was also just like you before - afraid of getting an Acer but that experience changed totally when I got my first laptop ever in my life back in 2010:

An Acer Aspire 4820 T (TimelineX)

And I NEVER had any problems at all with this laptop and I was playing League of Legends, watching movie, streaming, studying and everything with that one and never had any issues at all. Didn't even have to contact the support. The only reason why I bought a new laptop was because my mom's laptop (an Asus) broke down so I wanted to give the 4820T to her and buy a new Acer for myself (win-win-situation).




Ok, back to the topic regarding this Acer V5-573:

You will NEVER expect any problems with the heat if you just run this laptop for all the normal stuff (that means everything except gaming). I always touch the frontal place area above F12-button to check how hot it will get and that's perfectly cool during normal use.

Only when you run gaming, it's getting hot due to the GPU (GT750M) is located in that area but this shouldnt be any problem if you are using a laptop cooler.Imagine how thin this laptop is, that's the only reason why it's getting hot during gaming but after been using the cooling pad, the heat decreases alot! I recommend you to use it, shouldn't be any problems as long as you use it.

So once again: I don't know why people saying that Acer is bad blah blah blah but maybe I'm just very very lucky to have both my Acers working properly running like a horse (and I use it 24/7 since Im a student and a League and BF3-gamer). It seems strange since alot of people saying that V5-575G has problem with the fan noise (I didn't get this problem, it's so quiet, I hear nothing), some other said that they got screen backlight bleeding (I didn't get this problem either).

Had only owned 2 laptops in my life and both of them Acers - Both been working perfectly. So you make your own decision, Im just telling you about my own experience.


PS: If you buy this notebook, don't forget to buy a msata SSD (120 Gb is just so cheap: costed me only 80 euros, worth every penny) and it tripled the speed of this laptop! Not only that: since Windows is using SSD now, my standard HDD is almost always at rest so you will never hear the spinning sound of the harddrive. Your laptop will be super quiet and fast.


Normal standard HDD speed in this laptop:


The extra additional msata SSD where I installed Operative system on, it was btw very easy to insert that into the back of this laptop:

 

Hello, everyone. Thanx for the info you share here, but I couldn't find anything on my question anywhere. I would like to know if I can place msata SSD disk as a second disk in this v5-573g notebook? So my system would be on msata ssd and the file archives will be on factory placed hdd? Thank you all for your answers!

 

If you look at page 3, you'll find:

BTW, I did the same. It's great having a 120gb ssd for anything speedy you need and the hard disk for media etc.

For anybody interested in or worried about the touchpad - I almost didn't buy the notebook due to comments about the touchpad on notebookcheck, this thread and elsewhere (and I had nowhere to test it in person). But I did and boy am I glad I did. While the touchpad isn't the greatest in the world, I've used far worse. Double tapping for right click (which I'm used to using) works perfectly as does two finger scroll.

The only downside is image ghosting which is present in all IPS screens but this is the first one I've really noticed it on. But it's nothing too bothersome - only visible on say a blue or violet background after you've had a program with a static image (like a web browser's toolbar) open for a long time.

 

Yes, thank you for your reply! But it's not clear to me if it was installed additionally or replaced the factory supplied hdd? Sorry, maybe my english is not that good.

 

It doesn't replace the SATA drive, it's an additional mSATA port.
Check out the photos in this review- mSATA is near Wi-Fi, on the opposite side to the SATA drive.

 

Thank you greatly! Now I understood! You're the best!

 

Hi,
I'm considering buying this laptop in 54208G50akk configuration that is available in Germany, but i'm wondering if it has got an IPS panel? Seller says, that it has got a FHD screen but says nothing about IPS. Is every FHD panel in 573g an IPS?

 

All the Acer V5-series with full HD have IPS screens. And yes, that one you mentioned: akk has also IPS as aii. Dont worry, just buy it! The one you talking about is black in color isn't it? Def. an IPS.

 

Yes, it's black with an i5 and 750m. So i guess it's decided Thank You

 

Ok, I just received my 573g today and I'm forced to do clean windows 8.1 install. Is there any obligatory acer software that i need to install, e.g. hotkeys? Or is there anything worth install? And is there any way to set maximum charging point to 80%? Thanks in advance

 

Launch Manager is pretty much obligatory. As for the battery charge limiter - it's not going to happen. Unlike Lenovo, Acer doesn't provide software like this and I don't know of any alternatives.

 

That's a bummer... Besides drivers in download section I see programs like: Launch Manager, Live Updater, USB Charge Manager and ePower. So I need only the first one?

 

You can skip Live Updater and ePower.

As for USB Charge Manager- it is reasonably useful for some people and completely useless for others. I know I wouldn't have any use for it but you have to decide yourself- see here.

 

Thanks, everything is working properly. I've got two more questions about 573g. Is there any posibility to on/off keyboard backlight beside fn+f9? My last laptop had light sensor and backlight was working only in poor light conditions, but I don't see any in Acer. And next question, how can I permanently turn On numlock? Now I have to turn it on after every boot/reboot.

 

I don't know about the former (although I doubt it's possible), as for the latter - check BIOS settings. There used to be a setting there regarding NM Lock default state. I'm not sure if it's still there and I can't check (I'm hiking in the mountains without the laptop )

 

Maybe at least i can change time to turn off backlight after my last tap? As for the numlock, there is no such option in uefi (old bios).

 

Again, I've got a problem :/ After I've installed acer epower management, intel's display power saving technology keeps turning on after every reboot. Am I the only one with this problem, and is there any solution? I've tried deleting epower and it helps, but I think there is a reason Acer made that program and it should help achieve better battery results

 

Hi,
I have a problem with image retention/ghosting. On my V5 IPS screen I can see faint ghosts of high contrast icons and other elements. It's especiially noticable on metro UI. When I go to metro I can see faint representation of windows icon along with battery and internet signal icons from the desktop. It disappears after a few minutes.

I also did this image persistence test Retina MBP (rMBP) image-retention test and after 10minutes I can see the checkboard retention... Has anyone else experienced this problem?

 

I have the same problem:

Does everybody have this? You can try the above mentioned image persistence test but you've probably noticed it already during normal use (if you have it)...

You could try AutoHotkey. I set my capslock to mute using this program

Interesting - mine is always turned on (or at least I've never noticed it not being turned on).

 

Like I said I have it. You don't have to keep a taskbar for a long time. 10 minutes and it's visible on other images. My first unit had extreme image retention. Now I'm testing another unit as we speak and it seems like ghosting is much less visible, but it's there. I don't think it affects all IPS screens, because people who exchange Macbook pro retina LG panels (affected) for Samsung panels report they no longer see image ghosting. Samsung panels (PLS technology which is a Samsung's variant of IPS) seems to be free from image retention problems.

I even tested my old Samsung VA technology PC monitor and it too showed some barely visible ghosting. I guess it affects most non-TN panels, but has different degree on each unit. I wonder why PLS panels are free from this problem, though...

 

I've decided to take a refund. I've been given 2 replacements and while they were IR free during first days of usage, both developed it quickly afterwards. After some research on the internet it appears that most IPS panels used in laptops are prone to this issue. The only panel free from IR is reportedly PLS (a samsung variant of IPS), but I don't know any other brand that it's used for other than Apple Macbook Pro.

I'm done with IPS laptops. After a brief time with Acer I can report that the quality of IPS used in laptop is nowhere near as good as IPS PC monitor. My both Acer units had backlight bleeding, discoloration, purple mura, not to mention the quality of black during watching movies at night was comparable to TN panels.... And now this IR issue... Bye bye IPS. I much prefer a good TN panel with worse viewing angles, but without aforementioned issues.