Review: Updated Acer Aspire V5-573G with GTX 850M

Received my Acer Aspire V5-573G-54208g50aii last Friday, been testing it over the weekend. Keep in mind that I did NOT own the previous model with GT 750M. Here we go...

Reseller: amazon.de
Price: 799 Euros
Specs: i5-4210U - GTX 850M - Full HD IPS Display - 1000GB HD + 8GB SSD - 8GB RAM - Windows 8.1 included


The Fantastic:

1. Noise: This laptop absolutely SHOCKED me with how quiet it runs. When surfing, using Microsoft Office and watching YouTube videos, I basically had to kiss the keyboard to hear anything, even then I barely couldn't hear a thing! What absolutely blew my mind was how quiet it ran while gaming. The first I time loaded up a game, I thought Optimus didn't work and the integrated Intel graphic chip was handling the game. It was so freaking quiet, I had to mute the ingame sound and ask my roommate to be quiet so I can hear the fans. Even then I only could hear a quiet buzz/whir. Just WOW. What an amazing job from Acer. And trust me, coming from someone who owns a Clevo P150HM, I am very sensitive when it comes to noise


The Great:

1. Display: The display is amazing. Colours look amazing, the screen is very bright and viewing angles are just out of this world. This is my first IPS display and I must say I am very impressed. Only negative I noticed: When you turn down the brightness to lowest setting, it becomes a little bit hard to differentiate dark colours: Dark blue looks blackish, black looks brownish, etc.

2. Sound: One of the best I have ever heard on Laptops. The speakers support Dolby Digital Home Theater which comes with 4 predefined settings: Film, music, games and language (which I assume is for things like podcasts). Unfortunately these 4 settings don't adjust dynamically, which means you have to switch them manually whenever you start a game or movie. Another thing I didn't like is that the speakers are located at front of the laptop, just under the palm resting area. It is very easy to muffle the speakers when you move the laptop around or put it on your bed/lap.

3. Size/Weight: Super slim and fairly light. The power adapter is a little bit bigger than a pack of cigarettes.

4. Chassis quality: Plastic on the bottom. Metal (?) on the top and palm area. Looks awesome and doesn't feel cheap. Very easy to clean and doesn't attract as much dust and fibers as rubber.


The Good:

1. Gaming: Runs most older games in Full HD and max settings, newer games not so much. Here are the games I ran over the weekend:

Diablo III: Full HD + max settings, I got 57-61 fps on average running around in Act II.
DotA 2: Full HD + max settings, I got anywhere from 39-81 fps watching a replay.
Tomb Raider: Ran the ingame benchmark on max settings with FXAA and without TreesFX in 1366 x 768, got 43 fps on average.
Tera Online: Got anywhere between 20 and 40 fps on Full HD and max settings.

Overall: I am little disappointed with the gaming performance, My Clevo P150HM with GTX 580M and i7-2670QM (which I bought in 2011) is still faster. The CPU seems to bottleneck too much.

2. Hybrid HDSSD: Not much to say except that the HD works very quiet. Also, you don't get 1000GB, only around 890GB. Temperatures were around 42C.

3. Temperature: CPU never went over 70C while gaming. While surfing and doing Office stuff, the CPU remained between 40-50C. But it gets quiet warm on the surface. while surfing the Keyboard surface gets noticeably warm. During gaming the middle of the keyboard gets uncomfortably warm. Palm area remains cool though. GPU was hovering around 50-65C during games.

4. Acer Support: At least here in Germany, Acer is known for quality support. From what I read, Acer repairs borken notebooks and sends it back to you within a week on average.


The Bad:

1. Windows 8.1: You are basically stuck with it, since Acer doesn't offer any Windows 7 drivers. And I don't have time to spend hours on the internet to look for work arounds.

2. Bloatware: Quiet a bit of bloatware. The thing is that a clean install is very hard to do. This notebook has no DVD drive, so you need a Windows ISO to make bootable USB. Unfortunately, the Windows 8.1 OEM version on this notebook makes you ineligible to LEGALLY download one. All you can do is either buy a new Windows or borrow one from a friend. You can reset your notebook with Acer recovery, but it also installs all the bloatware.

3. Drivers: Acer drivers are quite outdated. The newest Geforce driver doesn't recognize the graphics card. Hope they fix that.

4. USB ports: The USB ports are super narrow. You need quite a bit of force to plug something in. Everytime I do that, I am scared I might break something.


The Ugly:

1. Keyboard: My biggest gripe with this notebook and the reason why I will be returning this notebook. I work as a writer and the keyboard just drives me insane.Key travel is almost non-existent. You won't get any feedback whether your key press registered or not. Typing fast results in many grammar mistakes. The keyboard layout also doesn't seem to make sense. Why is for example the right Shift-Key bigger than the left one? Don't most people use the left Shift-Key to make capital letters? Also, why does the backlit always turn on whenever I boot up the notebook? Shouldn't be "backlit off on start up" the default setting?

Just to be clear: I think the keyboard will suffice for most users. But when you spend 80% of your day typing stuff, it is just a horrendous experience.


Summary: All in all, the Acer Aspire V5-573G is probably the best Multimedia/allrounder notebook you can buy at this time (in my opinion). I don't think there is another Multimedia notebook that can compete with it directly in the immediate price range. Too bad, the keyboard is unusable for me. Else it would be my dream notebook. What a shame!

 

Thanks for the review. Good job.

 

yes. great job with the review. indeed, the CPU does seem to be a brake for the GTX850M. in the review over at notebookcheck, the new V5 573 scored around 10-20% slower than other laptops with the GTX850M. this is still impressing for a NB with such a good screen and for a price starting at just 700€ (without OS). I wished someone could give a review of the version with the i7-4510U. its still "only" a dualcore, but the CPU is noticable faster (or should be). but atm you can only get the V5 with the i7-CPU in a version, where you have to by a SSD with it and the OS. and at the pricepoint of 1000€, the competition starts to grwow really strong.

a V5 with i7-4510U without OS and "just" a HDD for 800€ would be very interesting.

 

Hello,

Thanks for full review. Its very helpful to me because i want to buy Acer Aspire V5-573G.

Thanks

 

Can you get this laptop in the US?