Acer's Aspire 5551G: AMD's Budget Gaming Laptop
by Jarred Walton on November 27, 2010 12:00 AM ESTConclusion: A Great Price for a Laptop You Can't Buy
So throw out all the standard warnings regarding Acer laptops: they don't have the greatest build quality, consisting almost entirely of a plastic chassis; the keyboard is at best tolerable and at worst an object of pure hate; quality control and customer opinions on Acer usually fall on the "you get what you pay for" side of the fence. All of that is a given, and the 5551G-4591 doesn't do much to change those assumptions. I personally think it looks a lot better than the Aspire designs from the past couple of years, but that's not really saying much.
Perhaps the biggest problem with the 5551G-4591 is that you can't buy it right now. Maybe it will come back in stock, and maybe it won't, but after our experience with the 5740G I suspect that this was a limited run laptop. Now that we've seen an attractive Athlon II P520 CPU paired with a good midrange GPU in the form of HD 5650, all at an amazingly low price, we can't recommend it—not because we don't want to, but because it's not in stock. Ugh. Of course, I wish the 5740G with 5650 would make a comeback as well; then you could choose between a $630 AMD setup and a faster CPU (but generally similar gaming performance) Intel system for $750.
Given the availability problem, let's look instead at the AMD dual-core platform. In terms of CPU performance, the single-threaded speed is way up relative to the quad-core P920, and it actually looks to compete quite favorably with old Core 2 Duo CPUs on a clock-for-clock basis. Looking at the MacBook Pro 13 figures, the P520 wins some and loses some in the CPU benchmarks relative to the P8600. The problem is that P8600 launched a full two years ago, which means in the mobile market AMD remains way behind if we only look at their current products. Without apples-to-apples comparisons (i.e. Core 2 with 5650) we can't say for sure who leads in battery life, but really the comparison is pointless as Core i3/i5 has been shipping for almost a year with improved performance and similar battery life relative to Core 2 Duo.
At present, the AMD mobile CPUs have a tough time competing with Intel; there's not much else we can say. They're "fast enough" and will handle most tasks fine, but if you switch between even a basic Core i3 laptop and an AMD laptop you'll notice the Intel CPU is more responsive. For gaming, though, it doesn't matter as much. Outside of a few titles, the GPU is the far bigger concern, and here we can at least give AMD props: the HD 5650 continues to put out good numbers, often beating NVIDIA's new GT 425M (provided you're not CPU limited). So AMD's eight-month-old architecture gives NVIDIA's brand-new 400M a run for the money, particularly in the midrange. NVIDIA continues to play the Optimus card, and if you have any interest in battery life it's definitely a winning technology; it's unfortunate that Acer didn't enable switchable graphics with the 5551G, but HP at least provides the feature in their Pavilion dv6z line.
If you're looking for similar laptops you can actually find online, the HP is one of the easy to find alternatives; you'll pay an extra $70 or so once you add in the HD 5650. On the other hand, that $70 gets you 6GB RAM, the newer P540 processor (2.4GHz instead of 2.3GHz) and better battery life, so $700 (with the current instant rebate) is easy to recommend. Another option comes from Acer-owned Gateway, and the NV53A36u is going for an unbelievably low $550 right now. Personally, I give the 5551G the styling advantage, but if you don't mind the look of the Gateway NV lineup the price is amazingly affordable. You also get a 2.1GHz tri-core N830 and switchable graphics thrown in for good measure.
Looking to the future, AMD's Brazos should do fine competing against Atom/ION netbooks, and it might even encroach on ULV territory, but without (laptop) hardware in hand we can't provide any final determination of where AMD will stand in another six months. For now, AMD can't get an outright win in most mobile categories, but the one area where they do very well is pricing. For under $500, you can find many AMD-based laptops; sure, $50-$100 more gets you an Intel setup, but while CPU performance and battery life may improve the graphics side is still generally in favor of AMD—and let's be honest, a 15% or larger price increase can be significant if you're on a budget. We just wish we could get a bit more TLC from manufacturers for AMD's platforms: better build quality, use their switchable graphics, and give us something larger than a default 48Wh battery and we'll be a lot happier (provided the price doesn't climb into the $800+ range, though there's flexibility depending on what else you get).
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TekDemon - Monday, December 6, 2010 - link
Acer notebooks are very obviously built to a price-point...they're the only company I know that'll actually ship laptops with only one speaker to save that extra dollar. I know that doesn't apply to the Timeline but there's still plenty of penny-pinching in the build.And it does matter since in reliability studies they don't fare all that hot compared to companies that put more effort into good build quality.
MadMan007 - Saturday, November 27, 2010 - link
I think it's interesting that much of the article, when talking about the laptop overall, goes on about pricepriceprice but then you want a better LCD too, and even quantify it to the opint that the pricepriceprice advantage would be washed out by a better LCD. Not that AT has as much pull as lame mainstream places like CNet, PCWorld etc but maybe if you started making it clear that better screens at a higher price is a good thing, rather than going back and forth between 'great price' and 'bad screen,' manufacturers might take note.JarredWalton - Saturday, November 27, 2010 - link
I didn't think I really said much about the LCD in this review. I mention it as being average in the intro, and I have our standard LCD test page where I show how it's no better than other budget laptop LCDs, There's definitely a place for good LCDs, but honestly putting a high quality LCD into an AMD-based laptop like this is pretty pointless. If you're willing to pay $100 more for a quality LCD, you'd probably want better build quality, better battery life, and a faster CPU as well -- all of which you can find in something like the Dell XPS 15.When we're looking at what is essentially a pure budget build, I'm okay with the mediocre LCDs; I don't like them, but I don't expect them to increase the cost by 15 to 25% just for the display. Basically, budget notebooks costing under $650 with standard LCDs is acceptable.
I think you're referring to the quote at the beginning, where I reference the Toshiba A660D conclusion. Keep in mind that the A665D/A660D originally cost over $800 (it's now $680 for the A665D-S6059 at Newegg), and at a price of $800 I expect a lot more. I suppose I could edit the quote, but I didn't want to do that. Hope that clarifies things a bit. :)
Stuka87 - Saturday, November 27, 2010 - link
The Hardware Monitor graphic is missing from page 6.Instead I just see: [HWMonitor]
JarredWalton - Saturday, November 27, 2010 - link
Fixed, thanks. I put that in as a placeholder (we add the text into the content engine and then add images) and missed replacing it. Oops.silverblue - Saturday, November 27, 2010 - link
Acer's best AMD model seems to be the 5553 which, despite not really being a step up, does offer switchable graphics. That in itself may gift it better battery life with that anaemic 48Wh battery.In any case, the CPU in the 5551 is a few months old now; it would be good if you could find a laptop with a Phenom II P650 (runs at 2.8GHz and sports a 25W TDP), though it's a new model so I doubt it's readily available.
KingstonU - Saturday, November 27, 2010 - link
Great job on the review, you guys cover and discuss all the aspects that I want to know about when shopping for this kind of laptop. I recently bought the TimeLineX which is almost this exact laptop but with Core 2010 CPU and a much bigger battery for $850 CA. Cures almost all of the problems with the model in the review. Very happy with my purchase and look forward to more laptops like this in the future.aylafan - Sunday, November 28, 2010 - link
While I do agree about the love/hate relationship with the keyboard and poor LCD screen. Overall, I still think the Acer's Aspire 5551G is better buy than the 5740G I owned before. Maybe, not in the processor department, but pretty much in everything else.I've played around with a similar Acer laptop model at Wal-mart and the build quality feels much better than the plastic gemstone design of the 5740G. The 5740G has poor battery life, it had an annoying beep each time I unplugged the power adapter, it weighed more than other laptops in its class, the Western Digital hard drive kept freezing so I had to install quietHDD, the touchpad buttons were stiff to push down, etc. There were just too many annoying things with the 5740G. All these flaws pretty much killed my expectations of the laptop.
Now, the TimelineX 4820TG is on a whole different level. I've had no problems with it and the build quality feels more sturdier than the 5740G that I owned before. It's given me around 6 hours of battery life. it's extremely thin, weighs only 4.65 lbs, has a Core i processor, it looks professional, it has switchable graphics, etc. and best thing is that it's only around $800. Here is my review. http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/499204-acer-a...
While, you may argue that the TimelineX is just a better version of the Acer laptop you just reviewed. Every little improvement changes the whole experience.
Akaz1976 - Sunday, November 28, 2010 - link
Would love to see a Acer 3820TG-7360 (i3/HD5650/4GB/$700) review . Recently i have had good experience with acer sub-notebooks.Acer seems to be the only one targeting decent variety in optical drive-less (sub 4lbs) notebooks. I have an 1820tz which is awesome for what it does (essentially a netbook size/batterylife but basic laptop type power). Its great for wife/kids even work related travel. And for the price it only needs to last half as long as a 'business' laptop (to cost same amount annually).
The 3820 ( provides excellent portability and performance. Apparently (i have not received mine yet) it delivers 8hrs of battery life and <4lbs for travel (i can carry it at a conference for full day without having to have a powerbar or wreck my shoulder) yet i can play BFBC2 at medium in my hotel room in the evening.
Akaz
PS. I think laptop makers need to really evaluate the role of optical drive in modern always connected/Saas/USB key world. Even as a gamer i rarely need optical drive (bless steam). For work i have never need optical drive as everything is installed at the start (even then many software are downloaded rather CD installed). All it does is add cost and weight.
Dug - Sunday, November 28, 2010 - link
I just bought a timelineX 4820TG for under $790 and my only complaint would be the speakers. But at 4.5lbs and getting over 6hrs batter life, I can forgive this. The keyboard is not bad at all.I'm not sure why anyone would by this over the 4820TG. Plus I can overclock the video card without any problem and without any obnoxious noisy fans.