Acer Aspire 5633WLMi review

1 of 2

Gallery

Verdict:

Acer's Aspire 5630 isn't as smart as the Sony Vaio, but it's one of the better-looking notebooks here and a bargain at this price.

Review Date: 19 Feb 2007

Price when reviewed: £649

Supplier: http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk

Reviewed By: Simon Handby

Our Rating 5 stars out of 5

User Rating

ExpertReviews Award

The Aspire's unusual silvery green colour isn't our favourite.

Although it's quite large, it's reasonably thin and not too heavy. The good keyboard has a sensible layout and additional media and short-cut buttons are positioned around the edges. Usefully, there's a dedicated € key. The base remains cool even during heavy use, making it comparatively comfortable to have on your lap.

The reflective 15.4in widescreen display is the best here, with an evenly lit and crisp picture. It's not the brightest, but its contrast is good. The lid is very flexible but the screen panel seems to be well protected from pressure. Above it is a 1.3-megapixel camera.

PERFORMANCE

The Aspire's graphics processor can't match the Evesham Quest A425's Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 or the PC Nextday's ATI Radeon Mobility X1600. It isn't really suitable if you intend to play games, but it's OK for older titles and is capable of running Vista's Aero interface.

Although it's the cheapest notebook in this test, the Aspire 5630 achieved the best overall score in the Shopper application benchmarks. Its battery was also very impressive, lasting for nearly four hours in our light-use test, and recharging to 95 per cent of its capacity in just one hour 16 minutes, which is perfect for a quick lunchtime turnaround in the office.

VERDICT

This affordable notebook is easily a match for several of the more expensive models. It has a great screen, plenty of storage and is fast in Windows. Although it isn't highly portable, it's not too heavy and has a good battery. It's excellent value for money if you don't plan to play modern games.

Prev Next