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Acer Aspire V3-371 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £430
inc VAT

The Acer V3-371-380A has a pleasing design and great battery life, but the screen is below average

Budget laptops rarely have distinctive designs, as manufacturers abandon creativity for cheaper materials and a low price. Acer’s Aspire V3-371 bucks that trend with a genuinely attractive look, which immediately elevates it above its rivals.  At just 1.5kg and 1.7cm thick, it’s also very portable.

The white lid is very subtly textured with patches that shimmer and shine as you move it around. It looks like it’s made from quality material even if it actually feels like plastic. With the lid closed, the small ridge between the bottom of the lid and the back of the laptop makes it easier to see the status lights, letting you know if it’s switched on, asleep or charging whether you have the screen open or closed.

USB ports are in rather short supply, with just two on the right edge and only one USB3-compatible connector. There’s a full-size HDMI port and a gigabit Ethernet port here, too. On the left there’s an SD card reader and a combined 3.5mm headset port. The built-in speakers are relatively loud but unsurprisingly lack bass presence and sound a little tinny. Music and speech was clear, though.

When open and in use, the Acer Aspire V3-371 looks and feels a little toy-like thanks to cheap, slightly shiny plastics and an unsatisfyingly shallow keyboard. Typing for long periods gets a little tiresome because the keys bottom out so quickly, but we at least didn’t have any problems with missed keystrokes.

The all-in-one touchpad isn’t great. Tapping and physically pressing the mouse buttons are fine, but multi-fingered gestures were cumbersome. This is because there’s a dead zone where the touchpad won’t respond until you’ve moved your two fingers around half a centimetre, which we found a little irritating. We’re hoping this is a driver issue that may be fixed in the future, but wouldn’t count on it. Even worse, sometimes the touchpad failed to respond for seconds at a time. Acer tells us this is a known issue that requires a part to be replaced, and that models on sale in the UK do not have this problem. 

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Core specs
ProcessorDual-core 2GHz Intel Core i3-4158U
RAM4GB
Memory slots (free)2(1)
Max memory16GB
Size327x228x19.7mm
Weight1.5kg
SoundRealtek HD Audio
Pointing deviceTouchpad
Display
Screen size13.3in
Screen resolution1,366×768
TouchscreenNo
Graphics adaptorIntel Iris Pro 5100
Graphics outputsHDMI
Graphics memoryShared
Storage
Total storage500GB hard disk, 8GB SSD cache
Optical drive typeNone
Ports and expansion
USB ports1x USB3, 1xUSB2
BluetoothYes
Networking802.11n Wi-Fi, gigabit Ethernet
Memory card readerSD
Other portsNone
Miscellaneous
Operating systemWindows 8.1
Operating system restore optionWindows 8.1 recovery
Buying information
Parts and labour warrantyOne-year RTB
Price inc VAT£430
Detailswww.acer.com
Supplierwww.johnlewis.com
Part numberNX.MPFEK.052

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