For a couple of months I've looked for a powerful laptop which allowed me to work and study,
while also being suitable for graphic intense activities.
This is it.
The Acer Aspire V15 is a 15.6 inches notebook that came out last year and became available
in June.
Taking a look outside, you'll notice the top cover is made out of this brushed plastic
that really looks and feels good, and surprisingly enough is pretty difficult to scratch: after
all the journeys it had to bear recently, we were only able to cause this minor scratch
on one side.
The computer is overall solidly built: the keyboard is responsive enough, and I can easily
type on that for hours without getting tired too much.
The touchpad is placed on the left, which happens to be unfortunate to me as I often
click in the wrong place out of habit: other than that, it does it job, and it's handier
than the mouse in some situations on Windows 8.
Oh and by the way, the computer currently runs Windows 8.1: it runs fine most of the
times and the lack of a start menu isn't the disgrace that many people claim it to be.
The included software also brings some Acer utilities and a couple of other apps, but
they are not intrusive and you can safely uninstall most of them.
The profile of this laptop is surely not among the thinnest: the machine is 14x12 inches
in lenght and 1 inch in height, being also 2.5 kilograms heavy.
That's not the most suitable size for carrying it around, so be fully prepared if you plan
to use it outside.
The Aspire V15 mounts an Intel i7 processor: specifically, you'll find the i7-4510U clocked
at 2.6 Gigahertz, which is a solid choice for almost anything you throw at it.
The GPU is the NVIDIA GeForce 840M, with 2 Gigs of dedicated VRAM with a grand total
of 4.
The computer does also have a second integrated video card made by Intel, but we all know
you shouldn't even consider that one.
To complete this list of specs, take also into account that it provides 8 Gigs of DDR3
RAM: memory can be increased up to 16 Gigs, but you'll probably be totally fine with 8.
Everyday usage is pretty much perfect whatever you employ it for: common activities like
Internet browsing and text editing are more than okay with hardware like this; you surely
won't be able to make it lag while reading news or watching videos on YouTube.
Other than that, I mainly use it for programming and photo and video editing: the 15 inches
screen is definitely not the best for neither, but you can get work done if you wish.
I've not tested it for gaming, so I can't judge, but I guess that if it handles Adobe
Premiere like a boss it can handle most of modern games just fine.
The display is not the diamond point of this laptop: it is not Full HD, as it just stops
at the resolution of 1366x768, and I've found myself questioning the color accuracy more
than once.
However, it gets pretty bright if you need it, and it will provide acceptable quality
and sharpness when watching videos or movies.
Speaking of media reproduction, I personally don't like the audio, which sounds muffled
most of the times and it's absolutely inadequate if you plan to use it for video editing.
I simply find myself using headphones all the time if I really care about what I'm listening
to, but you can also get by with a USB speaker.
On the other hand, battery life is top-class: it lasts more than 4 hours with heavy use
with programs like Photoshop, and up to 14 in power saving mode with light usage like
web browsing.
You can totally expect to use it safely for a full day of work or, as I do, to get stuff
done while commuting.
The rest of the hardware includes a WebCam, a DVD reader and burner, 2 USB 2.0 and 1 USB
3.0 ports, HDMI, VGA and Ethernet ports, and finally an SD slot.
That's pretty much the standard offering of a laptop these days, but 3 USB ports are not
always to be taken for granted, and the HDMI really comes handy sometimes.
To sum up: if you're interested in a laptop that offers top of the class performances
and battery life, that offers a nice build quality and a big screen, you'll be right
at home with this choice.
However, if you value audio and screen quality, you might reflect a bit before buying this
one.
So that was it, if you have any questions or curiosity definitely feel free to ask in
the comments below, and don't forget to subscribe if you enjoyed this video.
I'm Gio, from the Nerd Herd, and I'll see you next time!