For the budget-conscious shopper for whom laptops with all the latest bells and whistles may be too expensive, a functional system can be had for much less, with premium features trickling down after a few months. Case in point: The Acer Aspire E1-510P-2671, which features Windows 8.1, a touch screen, and a slim design, but sells for hundreds less than most new systems. Sold through Wal-Mart for $448, the Aspire E1-510P-2671( at Amazon) is a budget-friendly laptop for those who need a PC for home or school, but don't want to go broke buying it.
Design and Features
The Aspire E1-510P-2671 follows a long tradition among low-priced systems, with a fairly bland design and plastic construction. It comes in Clarinet Black, which is just like normal black, but with a smooth, matte finish. The plastic construction is fairly stable, though you will notice some flexing if you lift the laptop by a corner or type with much force.
Acer has outfitted the Aspire E1-510P-2671 with a 15.6-inch touch display, with basic 1,366-by-768 resolution. The hinge supporting the lid and screen is pretty sturdy, but if you use the touch screen often, you may find yourself having to readjust the display, as it doesn't hold up well against the taps and swipes.
The chiclet-style keyboard is full-size, with a numeric pad and comfortable layout, though there are a few quirks. The Enter key and the key above it combine into an old-fashioned L-shape, though they are separate keys, and the arrow and function keys are smaller than those on the keyboard proper. The multitouch touchpad offers gesture support and physical mouse buttons, though not everyone will care for the button bar that combines the right and left mouse buttons.
Similar Products
Dell Inspiron 15 (I15RV-6190 BLK)
Toshiba Satellite C855D-S5104
HP 2000-2b19wm
The Aspire E1-510P-2671 isn't terribly heavy for a 15-inch laptop, weighing only 5.85 pounds, nor is it particularly thick, measuring just 1.05 by 15 by 10.1 inches (HWD). Surprisingly, despite being slim for a budget-class laptop, there's still room for a tray-loading optical drive (DVD+-RW dual-layer). Along the sides are several ports and connectors, with two USB 2.0 ports on the right, and a USB 3.0 port (with charging capability) on the left. Also on the left side of the system are VGA and HDMI outputs, a jack for Gigabit Ethernet, and a headset jack. On the front, left corner of the system is an integrated SD card slot, and a Kensington lock slot lets you physically secure the laptop when using it in public places.
There's 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 for wireless connectivity. While the 500GB, 5,400rpm drive should offer plenty of storage space, Acer loads the system with a fair amount of bloatware and other preinstalled apps. There are proprietary programs, like Acer Scrapboard (for organizing photos and clippings), Acer Docs and Acer Remote Files (file syncing and sharing), and month-long trials of both McAfee LiveSafe security and Microsoft Office 365. But it doesn't end there; you'll also find the start page littered with apps like Evernote, StumbleUpon, Spotify, Music Maker Jam, Netflix, and Hulu Plus. There are several apps for ebooks and news, like Kindle Reader, Zinio Reader, Next Issue (mag reader), and NewsXpresso, and links to sites like Ebay and Amazon. As a general rule, most of these preinstalled apps can and should be removed upon first setting up the machine, if only so that you don't have to deal with them twice. Acer covers the Aspire E1-510P-2671 with a one-year warranty.
Performance
Budget laptops can be sold at lower prices because they can be made for less, using bargain-bin components. The Aspire E1-510P-2671 is outfitted with a 1.86GHz Intel Celeron N2920 dual-core processor and 8GB of RAM. It's not a particularly impressive processor, but for the user who types up a few papers and mostly frequents Facebook, it will do the job.
In performance tests, the Aspire E1-510P-2671 offered middle-of-the-road performance. Its PCMark 7 score of 1,585 points is better than competitors like the HP 2000-2b19wm (1,087 points) or the Toshiba Satellite C855D-S5104 (1,343 points), but it falls behind the Editors' Choice for budget laptops, the Dell Inspiron 15 (I15RV-6190 BLK)( at Amazon), which scored 2,117 points and is cheaper. Similarly, the Aspire E1-510P-2671 offered better multimedia performance than the HP and Toshiba laptops, completing Handbrake in 2 minutes 43 seconds and Photoshop in 11:36, but it still fell behind the Dell I15RV-6190BLK (Handbrake 2:23; Photoshop 9:04). None of the laptops in this price range offer the sort of performance that would lend itself to photo and video editing, or to graphics-intensive applications like gaming.
The Aspire E1-510P-2671 does offer best-in-category performance in one area—battery life. In our battery rundown test, it lasted 6 hours 4 minutes, significantly better than Acer's own estimate of 4 hours for the 37-Wh, four-cell battery. The nearest competitor was the Toshiba C855D-S5104, which fell a full hour behind (5:02).
Conclusion
When your budget is tight, there aren't a lot of options on the laptop aisle, but the Acer Aspire E1-510P-2671 is one of the better value-priced 15-inch laptops we've reviewed. While the Dell Inspiron 15 (I15RV-6190BLK) is still our Editors' Choice for the category, due to its better performance and lower price, the Aspire E1-510P-2671 is a good alternative with enough battery life to take you through the day.
The Acer Aspire E1-510P-2671 offers a touch-capable budget laptop with great battery life that won't leave you broke.
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