Purchased this laptop as a 'family' machine for use mainly by the kids, and it fits the bill perfectly.
This is one of the least expensive machines available with a Core i3 processor, and at the Amazon price it's a steal! Performance is more than adequate for anything other than hard-core gaming, and multimedia playback (iPlayer etc.) is smooth and glitch-free. In fact, for most purposes it feels almost as fast as my vastly more expensive Core i7 HP EliteBook (this has an SSD drive, lots of RAM and was configured for speed above all - cost four times as much as the Acer).
The screen, often a weak spot on cheaper machines is large, bright and very clear with a pretty good viewing angle. I'm slightly less keen on they keyboard and trackpad, which are OK, but below the standard of more expensive machines - and I suspect that the keyboard might suffer if used as an everyday software development machine as my HP is. The keyboard has a full numeric pad, which is slightly unusual for a laptop.
Battery life is OK. Actually, the machine, being a Core i3, is very power efficient, but the supplied six cell battery is too small to give a really good battery life. Our mixed usage (lots of iPlayer, which is fairly power intensive) gets about 2.5 to 3 hours on a full charge using the 'balanced' power profile. I'm sure that for light 'office' style use on a more aggressive power optimization profile this could be brought to about 4 hours, but probably not much more.
Machine set-up is very straightforward. I spent an hour or so removing much of the Acer software 'bundle', to the benefit of performance. The bundled software is not very intrusive, but I think many users would be just as happy without it.
Objectively, as a laptop, this is middle of the road. It's more than fast enough for most purposes, but build quality is slightly lightweight. However, it does everything that machines at double the price can do, and on that basis, it's easy to forgive the use of slightly lower grade materials here and there. Very highly recommended at the Amazon price.
| Brand | Acer |
|---|---|
| Package Dimensions | 50.4 x 31 x 6.6 cm; 3.4 Kilograms |
| Item model number | LX.R4F02.025 |
| Manufacturer | Acer |
| Color | Black |
| Form Factor | Laptop |
| Standing screen display size | 15.6 Inches |
| Processor Brand | Intel |
| Processor Type | Core i3 |
| Processor Speed | 2.4 GHz |
| RAM Size | 3 GB |
| Hard Drive Size | 320 GB |
| Hard Disk Description | Hdd |
| Optical Drive Type | DVD SuperMulti, DVD |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Home Premium |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 4 Hours |
| Lithium Battery Packaging | Batteries packed with equipment |
| Lithium Battery Weight | 1.28 Kilograms |
| Item Weight | 3.4 kg |
