Acer Aspire V3-571G-9435: The Value Proposition
by Jarred Walton on July 4, 2012 4:25 AM ESTAcer V3-571G: Just How Bad Is the LCD?
We’ve made it a habit of pointing out just how bad a lot of laptop LCDs are, and sadly (but not surprisingly) Acer’s V3 laptop does nothing to buck the trend. We’re not even hoping for something like Apple’s Retina MacBook Pro here; I’d setting for just getting a better resolution than 1366x768 on a 15.6” display, and improved contrast would be icing on the cake. The LG LP156WH4 panel sadly provides neither. First, let’s see the results.
You get very poor contrast, poor maximum brightness, and weak colors. Note that we’re reporting color accuracy after calibration—run any of the laptops without using calibration software and hardware and you’ll get a Delta E consistently in the 15-25 range. (That might seem horrible, and it is, but it’s basically the same thing you get with every single tablet right now so keep that in mind.) Viewing angles are also really poor, with massive color shifting when you view the display from above or below.
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But Can You Do Anything About It?
With all the bad aspects of the LCD, I got thinking: can you replace the panel with something better? As luck would have it, I have one of my favorite LCDs from the past several years ready for just such a test, the AU Optronics B156HW01v4. This particular panel comes courtesy of LaptopScreen.com, and you can even purchase your own for just $86 right now. (The original LP156WH4 costs $65, if you’re curious—and LaptopScreens has it in glossy and matte variants if you’re interested; the B156HW01 v7 is the glossy equivalent of the v4 as well, if you prefer glossy.)
I have to say, having had two cracked LCDs on laptops during the past five or so years, the improved availability of replacements (at very reasonable prices!) is definitely welcome. Even better news: the B156HW01 fits perfectly into the Acer V3 chassis. You can see the disassembly process in the following gallery—I used an old credit card to help pry the plastic chassis apart.
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That’s all great news, but sadly there’s not a happy ending to this particular story. Despite a rather complex disassembly process (and the very real potential to break off some plastic clips), even though everything fits the final result was a failure. The original display is a budget 1366x768 panel, and as best I can tell Acer uses a data cable that doesn’t support higher resolutions properly. With the B156HW01 installed, you can boot up the laptop without trouble and even select the 1920x1080 resolution within Windows, but every other column of pixels ends up being white.
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Update: The technical explanation is that, much like single-link DVI vs. dual-link DVI, there are single-channel LVDS cables and dual-channel LVDS cables. Single-channel LVDS can support up to 1366x768 (1280x800), but anything beyond that requires dual-channel LVDS. That means if you get a laptop with a 1600x900 display, you can upgrade to 1080p without needing a different cable, but for laptops like the V3 that ship with a native 1366x768 panel you will likely need a different cable. The single-channel LVDS cables have eight missing (empty) wires for the second data channel, which is why every other column ended up blank. Unfortunately, I haven't had any luck finding a compatible cable for the newly launch V3-571G. If you're feeling really adventurous, you could always try to roll your own.
If you can find an appropriate data/power cable, you should be able to get the 1080p display to work properly, but I have to send this laptop back to Acer so I’m not going to spend any more effort on the attempt. In general, you should be able to replace an LCD in a laptop with any LCD that runs at the same or lower resolution (and has the same form factor—note that there are at least four different form factors/mounting mechanisms just for 15.6” screens), but for higher resolution displays you will need a laptop that is designed to support such displays. If you buy a laptop where the manufacturer supports multiple resolutions (e.g. Dell’s XPS 15z can be configured with either a 1366x768 or a 1920x1080 display), you should be able to make the upgrade as well, but ideally you’d just buy a laptop with a quality display in the first place.
When I see 1920x1200 tablets from ASUS and Acer hitting the market, or ASUS’ 1080p Ultrabooks—not to mention Apple pushing their Retina displays on all of their product lines—I keep thinking, “Maybe we’re finally going to see the end of low resolution displays.” After all, go shopping for a new HDTV and you’ll see that no one even bothers with 720p these days and the only HDTVs that aren’t 1080p (or higher) are on clearance. So why is it that our laptops are still stuck with such a low resolution? If you care about displays, my recommendation is to make sure to let your wallet do the talking, and encourage friends and relatives to do the same. (/rant)
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JarredWalton - Saturday, July 7, 2012 - link
It's not an "assumption" that chiclet is better, but I can't think of one thing about the old style "floating island" keyboard that is better to this new "floating chiclet". That's not to say that this keyboard is perfect, but as I note in the review, I did a fair amount of typing on the V3 and the keyboard is certainly usable without severe complaints by me -- someone that writes 5000 word articles for a living. Is it equal to some of the older ThinkPad keyboards? Not really, but I'm not sure ThinkPad has ever done a perfect keyboard layout with a 10-key either, outside of the W700 line. For a 15.6" keyboard with a 10-key, the layout is just about perfect, even if the key action could be improved.pullmyfoot - Saturday, July 7, 2012 - link
You guys should do a review of the Samsung Chronos 7 700Z5C. I just got one and its the perfect laptop IMO without breaking the bank.70% aluminum construction
A above average screen at 1600x900
1TB 7200RPM with 8GB SSD express cache
Rest of the specs are the same if not slightly better than this Acer.
apmon2 - Saturday, July 7, 2012 - link
Given that so many Laptops still seem to be sold with crappy screens and that good replacement screens can be got for less than $100, it would be great if AnandTech could write more about this.If you could write a separate article on how to switch laptop screens and what you need to consider, as well as review the different available after market LCD screens, perhaps more people would choose to switch their screens and not suffer from their crappy display.
This could even benefit those buying high-end laptops, if it becomes common to order the laptop with the cheapest display and then replace it with a high quality on later on, just as it is common to order the cheapest HDD and then replace it with an SSD.
E.g. Lenovo charge $250 for the full HD screen upgrade on the Thinkpad T530, whereas the screen costs less than $100 if bought separably. One also then has a better choice, be it matt vs glossy, IPS vs TN, high colour gamut or not, rather than the one choice offered by the manufacturer.
jabber - Saturday, July 7, 2012 - link
I'd like to see an article on what the costs are to the manufacturer for screens.Basically what does a standard 15" TN glossy 1366x768 screen cost compared to -
15" TN 1600x900 (glossy/non glossy)
15" TN 1920x1080 (glossy/non glossy)
15" IPS 1600x900
15" IPS 1920x1080
I havent included 16:10 as I don't wish to hope for too much.
JarredWalton - Saturday, July 7, 2012 - link
The manufacturers don't disclose their costs for individual components, so it's impossible to say what they pay. I've had one manufacturer insist that what we pay for an LCD on, e.g. LaptopScreens.com, is less than they would pay. That seems unlikely to me (if you're ordering 10,000 LCDs, you're not going to pay more than if you're ordering 1 screen, are you?) but they do note that there's also difficulty at times in procuring the required number of displays. My hunch is that LaptopScreens probably marks up the LCDs they sell by 10% over what they pay, and large manufacturers pay a bit less than them. But I could be wrong.chromatix - Saturday, July 7, 2012 - link
I have a 14" display from *1994* that can manage 115 dpi without much trouble. Bear in mind that 14" is the tube diagonal, not the display area, and that this is a fairly bog-standard "fishbowl" monitor. Driving it at 1152x870 results in the aforementioned 115dpi.Coincidentally, this is also approximately the density of both of my much newer flatscreen monitors, which are of course meant for viewing at a greater distance than a laptop. It is also the density of the roughly 2000-vintage ThinkPad that I rescued from the office scrap pile recently - with 1400x1050, the screen is excellently configured for coding, even if the viewing angles and colour reproduction are awful by modern standards. (It's very useful to have lots of *lines* of code on screen at once.)
My 2006 17" MBP pushes the density up to 130 dpi with 1920x1200. I have to go back to my 2000-vintage PowerBook G3 to get down to 100 dpi.
Meanwhile, a 15.6" laptop display with less than 1400 pixels across is going to be 100 dpi maximum. At laptop viewing distances, that's like putting standard definition up on a 50" TV - you can see the pixels without even trying. Antialiasing is a wonderful thing, but it has limits to what it can hide. On an old PowerBook it was forgivable because it was the best thing available (and the panel was decent) - but today, and with contrast numbers that make flip-up sunglasses look good...
Surely someone out there knows how to make a laptop with good build quality, good ergonomics, a big battery and a good screen, and doesn't mind reducing the performance a bit to suit the price? I don't even care if it's two inches thick, as long as the screen and the body aren't shiny - I would prefer to see my code and my game rather than my own ugly mug.
That's another point - thinness is vastly overrated. Comparing my PowerBook G3 to my MBP, they are the same depth, the MBP is 21% wider (15.4" vs 12.7") and the G3 is 70% thicker (0.98" vs. 1.7"). They're not much different in weight - the G3 is 2.8kg, the MBP is 3.1kg. But it's the MBP that feels "bigger". It also feels considerably more fragile to pick up - I feel the need to grab it by both sides, rather than levering it up by one side, even though intellectually I realise it's probably strong enough to withstand such treatment, and my other hand might be otherwise occupied.
Meanwhile, I still have a lot more difficulty putting both the MBP and my 15" AlBook - a total of 2.1" thickness - in the same bag, than I do just putting the G3 in. Part of that is, I think, because the G3 is more rounded at the edges, so it doesn't catch on things so easily. Little details like that - and thermal performance - matter a lot more than being thin. It's even worse when important functionality (such as recording dual-layer DVDs, or being able to replace the battery, RAM and hard disk without risking ruining the whole machine) are sacrificed in the name of the holy measurement.
Iketh - Sunday, July 8, 2012 - link
YEA SILVA!!!!!QuantumPion - Monday, July 9, 2012 - link
I got an Acer laptop last year with sandy bridge core i5 and nvidia GT 540M for $450 after instant rebate. The display sucks but $450 for a laptop fully capable of playing Skyrim and Battlefield 3 is hard to beat.DotNetGuru - Monday, July 9, 2012 - link
Just wanted to drop a comment to show my appreciation for this great review.Very well done. Thanks!!
rudolphna - Monday, July 9, 2012 - link
I actually just picked up the Trinity A8-4500M version of this laptop for $529 on newegg, and I have to say, though the screen isn't that great, overall it's a great deal for the price. I'm certainly not going to complain about the amount of horsepower I managed to get for $530. I also did order a Momentus XT 500GB, and 8GB of Corsair DDR3-1600 that should arrive tomorrow to hep up the performance a bit more. Once that's done, I doubt there are any other laptops on the market with this kind of value.