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

I don't need ulta high speeds as I don't have a very fast router (N 300 Mbps). I do need reliability, the Atheros card in my previous Asus N550JV was a very unreliable card. In fact, it ruined an exam for me for which I needed wireless connectivity.

I know it doesn't say much, as the Atheros card in my Lenovo Y500 worked fine.

 

That's the problem - 7260 is not reliable on 2.4GHz band. It works fine on 5GHz however.
Still as I said - it's not a big deal. Worst case scenario, you spend $25 on an Intel 6230 and you should be fine.

 

I've received my V5-573G yesterday, it indeed has an Intel Dual-Band 7260N. With the default drivers (which are very old btw) the connection was pretty stable. However, when I started to download with Steam, browsing the internet was slow while the speed in Steam was high and steady. I've updated the drivers with the latest ones from Intel, so far so good. Played Garry's Mod online yesterday, no lag or other problems. Browsing the internet is also very fast.

And I had another issue, my Crucial M500 240GB SSD doesn't work. I can't format it from the Windows setup, tried many things but I think it's defective. Good news is, my other laptop (a Dell) also can't format it. The Acer works great with the stock hard drive so I think it's not a defect in the Acer.

Performance wise, this thing runs very nice considering its weight and size. Borderlands 2 ran very good and all of my games run as I would want them to run. I still think the VN7 is the better looking laptop, but for school the extreme thin profile and 400 grams less weight made the difference for me. It also saved me around € 300, I've used that for a nice NEC 23" display.

All in all, I'm happy. I just want my SSD to work so I can get rid of this slow hard drive. RMAing it today.

 

I agree V5-573G is a great laptop. I'm waiting to see hot Nitro turns out to be performance-wise but v5-573G looks much more professional (it's kind of important when I'm meeting clients) and has an aluminum palm-rest (which will not change color in time).

It's probably one of the best, if not the best laptop Acer made in a decade or so.

 

Is it as good as it seems?

I'm thinking of selling my Sony Vaio SVS1511 (i5-3210M + hugely OC'd GT640M (900-1000 MHz, not sure) LE Kepler + GDDR5 version) and spend a little more for the updated version of the V5-573G. I wonder if that's a good decision according to my needs.

These are my thoughts, based on what I've read in the internet:

Positives:

• Battery life (mine's now at around 4 hours tops, a bit degraded, and it will degrade more over time);
• Better balance of general / gaming power (big leap on GPU side, small (hopefully) down-step on CPU power);
• Better sound with 4 speakers;
• Better display, brighter, better contrast;
• SATA III support, faster I/O with my SSD (I'm not sure of this one, does the Acer support SATA III?);
• Less noise during load;
• Newer hardware, more future-proof;
• Acer still has laptop division, so better future-support (drivers, firmware, even newer OS's).

Negatives:

• Plastic build over full magnesium-alloy build, which feels great on the Vaio
• Worse Connectivity (VGA port for presentations mainly, having to buy an adapter... meh)
• Lack of optical drive (not major, but can be useful sometimes to burn stuff)
• Lack of Fingerprint reader (not having to input Windows password is awesome)
• Loss of CPU power - I wonder if this makes much difference if I want to boot a VM (sometimes I do boot a VM with Linux / OSX for some alternate platform developing)

Not sure:

• Communications - Intel 6235 vs Intel 7260. I can't say the 6235 provides the most reliable connection, but I can't really complain also. I suppose I could exchange one for the other anyway since there's no white-list.
• Build / chassis quality
• Touchpad (Vaio one is great)

I don't use my laptop that much, main use is programming, office stuff, surfing and multimedia. Sometimes I play games on it (most taxing one I've tried is Guild Wars 2), hence my liking of the GTX850 upgrade. Battery life is important since I usually prefer to work unplugged.
I just wish the Acer had a more powerful CPU, and hoping it isn't that much a downgrade from the i5-3210m.

 

I had a laptop with a 3210M before this one (4210U) and I don't notice the difference at all. It will not be an upgrade, but it's no downgrade either.

 

That's good to hear.

If I may ask, what do you use your laptop for? Just to compare the workloads =).

Besides gaming, the most taxing stuff the CPU does is compiling stuff while multitasking a bit (listening to music, browser open to check stuff, full-fledged IDE for coding, Skype in the background).

Oh, and does it support SATA III?

Thanks in advance!

 

Nothing to cpu intensive.

I use it for gaming, Java coding (but that's at a beginners level), Photoshop, Office, web browsing, watching movies. I'd say it's about the same level of performance as the 3210M, but that's my guess. I don't know what the benchmarks say.

Not sure about the SATA III bit. But I think it does support SATA III/6 Gbps.

 

Core i5 3210 us faster across the board.

 

Our use-cases are similar then. I don't play benchmarks, so as long as it doesn't feel any slower than the i5-3210m I guess it should be alright. The Vaio should support SATA III as well as its hardware does, but there's something blocking it in the UEFI or something. I hope the Acer doesn't have the same forced crippling.

Yeah, I know it is a bit faster across the board, but I was wondering if it was noticeable while using the computer normally. And well, if the Acer overall is a great machine, as it looks above its peers in the sub-800€ price range.

 

I can tell you it doesn't feel slower. I need my SSD in it though, the default hard drive is not fast.

 

I feel you. SSD is a must for me in it, I'm still pondering whether I sell my Samsung 830 along with the laptop and get a MX100 or keep the 830 and save some bucks.

How does the build quality feel? Solid, well-built?

By the way, there's a good translated version of the review here.

Thanks for the information so far, it helps a lot.

 

The base of the notebook feels solid. The screen is not a disaster, but it's not rock solid in my opinion. Overall, it's well built considering its price and thickness but it is definitely not a ThinkPad.

Just handle it carefully and it will hold on well over the years is my guess.

 

A bit of extra information for those who want to buy this laptop: I think it's end of life already, well at least in The Netherlands. You can buy it here at only 1-2 shops these days, a few weeks ago you could buy it at 10+ shops. I also got one of the last few ones at the shop where I ordered it. I think the Nitro is the successor.

Explains why there still is no V7-482PG refresh.

I have received a new SSD today (Crucial M500 240GB), installed it and this time it works great. This notebook is very fast with the SSD, I have no complaints about speed at all.

 

It's impossible to get this in the UK right? Does any NL shop ship to the UK? Would there be problems with that? It's basically impossible to find a laptop at this weight with this combination of reasonable graphics, screen quality and size.

NL has the Qwerty keyboard layout, so at least the base keys are the same...

 

I'm not sure if NL shops ship to the UK, they mainly ship to NL and Belgium.

 

Wow.... I see everyone is talking about the NEW V5 573G and Im sitting here with my old V5 573g which I bought January this year.

Still happy with my precious little friend

Even though it's only 4200u processor, 750M graphic card, but hey, I only play League of Legends and CS:GO so Im happy with this I take care of my laptop so it still looks like new. And then again, we have a new Acer V Nitro coming out soon so it doesnt matter if you have old or new V5 573G anymore. Nitro will be the new "flagship" among the ultra thin laptops.

 

I agree, I love this laptop. The battery life and the screen are amazing.

I can also say, the Intel 7260N works very good in this laptop. No complaints here, but you have to use the latest Intel drivers.

 

I would really appreciate if somebody could describe the "feeling" of the keyboard.
I've never had a laptop before and I'm using a cheap keyboard on my desktop, but it has a nice feedback.
I want to know if the keyboard is good for long writing sessions.

 

@fanboy555

This is not going to help you in any way. Quality of keyboard is one of the most subjective things to judge because it almost exclusively the matter of personal preference (apart from obvious faults like flex of course).

I would recommend you go to a store and play with the notebook.

 

Yes, I know. The problem is that no store has this laptop, I can only order it online.
Does anyone know the length of the key travel (in mm)?

 

Can someone comment on the 2013 vs 2014 model, especially screen quality?

From the notebookcheck review, Review Acer Aspire V5-573G-54208G50aii Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews
and Acer Aspire V5-573G-54218G1Taii Notebook Review Update - NotebookCheck.net Reviews the only big difference seems to be the GPU and the tempretures. Is that all?

Also, about 5 days ago this: https://geizhals.at/eu/acer-aspire-v5-573g-54208g50aii-nx-mq4eg-005-a1135286.html was in stock for 700 euro, any idea if/when it will be back?

 

What about the network connection? Does anyone have 1000mbps spped by LAN? My device seems to have only 100 mbps speed by LAN, however Lenovo Y50 with the same network adapter has 1000mbps. Is that a driver issue (I updated it to the latest version), or motherboard?

 

Did you check the adapter options in the device manager? Are you sure it's the same adapter? That's a weird thing to be artificially limited.

Wish I could tell you more, but I do not have the laptop :\

 

Yes, I'm pretty sure it's the same adapter, it surely can do 1000mbps speed. Network adapter has an option 1Gpbs full duplex, but nothing changes when I choose it instead of auto-negotiation. My room-mate with Lenovo Y50 has 1000mpbs connection from the same router.

 

Check with a different Ethernet cable, sometimes if the cable was bent enough times it gets damaged and some wire might not be making contact anymore.

 

The cable seems all right.
Can it be that the switcher has only on gigabit LAN and all the rest are 100mbps?

 

Not really, the chip in charge of switching has to support 1Gbps even for one port and if it does there's no difference if one port is 1Gbps or all of them (unlike routing switching does not put load on the chip handling it).

To be safe you can test a different cable with a different port and see what happens.

 

I have seen the 2013's screen in the store, and I have a 2014 model. The screens are the same to the eye. Awesome bright screen, great viewing angles. It does have some backlight bleed if you are in a dark room.

I'm still very satisfied with my purchase, this thing is really fast and the GTX 850M performs great even though it's a DDR3 version. I have bought a ShaggyMax screen protector because I'm afraid in a full bag the bezels will scratch if they come in contact with the aluminium palmrest. The 17" MacBook Pro version of the ShaggyMax covers the whole screen including the bezels. Also, I was afraid typing would be a nightmare on this laptop, but actually i quite like it.

 

Hey, I checked the network with different socket and wire and I actually got 1gpbs speed. However, when the same wire is plugged into the socket that I've been using so far I got only 100mpbs. So it's actually the switch problem.

 

That's a good news after all - for once you can use a different socket but more importantly the notebook (which is by far the more expensive piece of hardware) is OK.

 

Hello,

are there any reviews, which compare the i5-4210U and the i7-4510U V5-573G?

Is it possible to "unlock" the full turbo with battery and power cord?

 

This:
Intel 4510U vs 4210U

 

Does the i7 run with full performance or will it be throttled like the i5?

 

Sorry, you have to wait for an answer from someone else.

 

Got my V5-573 refresh this week (4210u & GTX850m)

and the right fan, under the numpad has a whirring noise on all fan levels, when the laptop is idling, there is no noise because the fans arent spinning, but when doing light work, the fan will spin up to the first level which is very quiet, but mine has a whirring/buzzing sound which makes it very very annoying when in a silent room.

Anyone else have this problem and know to how to fix?

 

I had the previous version of the 573G (4200U and 750M) and returned it because of the whirring sound ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yArUwhWbo7E).

Based on the good experiences of people here with the new version, I traded my old 573G for the new 573G. Before doing so I asked whether the owners of the updated 573G had the same noise. Vlad7777 was so kind as to make a recording, on which the sound was not audible.

I now have the updated 573G and, while the whirring is much less, it is still there. Recording: Vocaroo | Voice message

I noticed that the sound is not audible when the fans spin a little bit quicker, so I'm trying to manually edit the fan speed ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/536084-fan-control-utility.html). It's fun tinkering with it, and I can always return it later this week if it doesn't work out.

( Does anyone else their fan under the numpad make an audible whirring noise, especially when it is spinning very slowly?)

 

Mine sounds the same, the whirring is really only noticeble on the lower fan speeds but as I will mostly be using the laptop for light work, it would annoy the very quickly so I returned it and now in debating whether to get a new one and hope that the whirring is gone completely or go for a different notebook entirely.

The adress for the V5-573 are 85 for CPU and 79 for GPU fan but the fans are interlinked in a way, didn't have that much time to tinker around with it. But that's what I found out so far.
Also I used "notebook fan control" and it doesnt really have support for 2 fan laptop configs so it didn't really work out that smoothly.
Also every 5 or so second, the fan would spin to it's first level even though temps are in the cool. (not a problem with the laptop, but with the software i used)

Other than this whiring sound from the fan and the bad touchpad, i find nothing wrong with this notebook and I would highly recommend it to people.

 

Haha. I thought I would be the only one mental enough to use some program found tucked far away in the web for a sound that most people wouldn't even hear.

(For me, CPU is 86/88, GPU 89. At least the temps... maybe you mean the fan levels.)

 

I dont remember the temps exactly but they were below 90 for both gpu and cpu.
I meant that the adress in the EC(embedded controller) were 85 for cpu and 79 for gpu.

How does the program you are using working? it's a really old program so i understand that the support isn't the best, but there are programs to read and write to the EC directly but the changes dont "stick" so it's not that useful.

if you find a way to change control the fan manually and effectively, please post it here.
I would post my .config for "notebook fan control" if it wasn't so buggy

 

No I mean the addresses that hold the temperature. I am still looking for the EC addresses that hold the fan level.

If I keep the laptop, I'll probably be using a program that launches at startup and checks the EC value, and 'skips' the first fan level (instead using a slightly higher fan speed). I might even write the program myself... I'm a bit of a electronics/programming hobbyist, so it should be fun.

(But I have 4 days to decide whether to keep it so I might not get that far.)


Edit: CPU/GPU levels are indeed 79/85.

 

if I get a replacement i'll probably try to figure out to how control the fans. Or hope that someone makes a program *wink wink*
I think most laptops begin spinning the fans too early, I like how apple does it where it gets hot before it gets loud, as miniscule as it might be, it also saves a little bit of battery to not spin up the fan doing light work.

 

That's a good point. The 4210U should be able to handle temperatures up to 100C. Although having such a high temp. would greatly reduce lifespan, having the CPU idle at 50 instead of 40 shouldn't be a problem. So completely negating the first fan level is probably the best bet.

I'll keep you updated on my progress.

 

I think i figured out My previous problem with the notebook fan control program.
I mentioned that the fans are somewhat linked together and i think that setting a certain speed on the gpu fan Will also set a speed for the cpu. And since i never configured the gpu temp readings, it caused issues

 

I was at the store today to see if the display models had the same whirring fan noise, i looked at 5 different ones, all with different configs but the same Shell and cooling system nontheless.
1 out of 5 had clear whirring noises while the other ones either had a very low whirr or it was more muted, i couldnt do any extensive testing as I looked like a real weirdo going from laptop to laptop and putting my ear to the vents.
From what i can tell, it's luck of the draw, some people probably wont even hear the whirr, depends on how anal you are. Also its Always the right fan

 

But they all had some amount of whirring?
(I'm very anal about these things. Freud would be proud.)

I haven't had much luck with the fan control by the way. I can't find the EC auto/manual toggle.

 

It would seem that way, I think that if you are lucky to have bad ears, you won't even notice it. I think it's a manufacturing error, could just be the design of the right fan, as the sizes arent the same. And people who claim to not have a whirring fan probably just don't really care which is good for them.
Hopefully someone can prove me wrong and say for sure that the right fan when spinning slowly doesn't have a whirr/vibration noise(different from the sound of air moving).

 

Update: I'm returning the laptop today.
May have another go and order another one, not sure yet. Since Maxwell/Broadwell are coming out in the next couple of months, Acer may make another refresh, hopefully without the fan noise. Until then there really isn't an alternative (especially since I already have a mSata SSD I want to use).

The only option I found is the MSI Ghost GS60, but that's 300$ more expensive.

 

Well, seems like the V5-573G's are still better than the new Nitros. You have a thinner case with Aluminium, a replaceable battery and more power for the price (gtx 850m instead of 840m on 799$), no Full HD screen. Really sad the Nitros are replacing the great V5's. Plastic and soldered battery is a huge no go. Maintenace is also much harder. Why did Acer a successor that is worse than its predecessor?

 

I'm not sure Nitro is meant to be a successor - it's most likely a completely new product line and regardless of some warranted criticism (which I also voiced), it's an interesting one and judging by interest in it, it might be a success for Acer.

That said it doesn't seem to be a series that is meant to replace other ones, more like add to portfolio. I guess we'll see but I agree with your sentiment - v5-573G can't be replaced by any of the current Nitros.