Acer Aspire V5-171 Notebook Review: The Death and Rebirth of the Netbook
by Dustin Sklavos on November 21, 2012 3:01 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Acer
- Ivy Bridge
- Aspire V5
- Ultraportable
- Notebooks
Display Quality
You knew this was coming. Budget notebooks are still stuck in a world of dismal TN panels, and the Acer Aspire V5-171's is among the worst. I'm also not a fan of glossy finishes on displays, and the V5-171 suffers from a glossy bezel. With all that said, I do think a 1366x768 resolution is reasonable in an 11.6" form factor. Also keep the price in mind; an IPS panel isn't something you should be expecting this far south of a grand.
No surprises here, the V5-171's display is a decent one in a bad crop. I honestly feel like this speaks less to the quality of the V5-171 than to the lack thereof of notebook displays in general. Hopefully with the proliferation of tablets and higher resolution panels, this is something that will finally start to improve over time and trickle down into less expensive notebooks.
Battery Life
The bad news isn't really going to end here for the Acer Aspire V5-171. Keeping with the low price tag is a low battery capacity; a 4-cell battery with a paltry 37Wh. It allows the notebook to stay light, but you're not going to see dynamite battery life here. This is one place where Atom is always going to beat Ivy Bridge, unfortunately.
When I bought the V5-171, I also grabbed 8GB (2x4GB) of Samsung DDR3L-1600 along with a 128GB Samsung 830 SSD. I figured it would be worth seeing if the slightly reduced power consumption of these components could improve the questionable battery life of the notebook, and as it turns out, they do somewhat.
Relative battery life proves there was probably more Acer could've done to eke out better running time with the V5-171. You're looking at a three hour movie, and about four hours of useful life surfing the internet at 100 nits. Adding the SSD and DDR3L helps the notebook incrementally, but it's not a major swing. Really what the V5 needs is a bigger battery.
Heat and Noise
In reading other reviews of the Acer Aspire V5-171 (remember I was researching this bad boy for myself before relaying this information to you), I saw a lot of complaints about heat and noise, and some forum users even talked about reapplying the thermal grease to the CPU. Whatever they were complaining about hasn't materialized in the system I bought, though; Acer may have quietly fixed the thermal grease issue when they refreshed the line with Windows 8, or it may have been blown out of proportion. Either way, noise is a non-starter at idle or load. The fan is almost always running, but it's very low and quiet, and the V5 benefits spectacularly from having a substantial side vent.
Those thermals pretty much speak for themselves: the V5-171 is able to run incredibly cool given its small chassis. Surface temperatures remain very comfortable, and I've found I've been able to use it while in bed without worrying about the venting getting smothered by the blankets.
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Impulses - Sunday, November 25, 2012 - link
The interface would only bottleneck large sequential transfers (to/from a USB 3.0 drive that's fast enough, for instance), it wouldn't hamper an SSD's biggest strength (random I/O which makes the OS & programs more responsive).PaloAltoWorldView - Friday, November 23, 2012 - link
So this is basically the $550 Windows version of Acer's $199 Chromebook. That's almost a 3 for 1.Evil_Sheep - Friday, November 23, 2012 - link
I'm actually in the market for something exactly like this --- having read this review, this Acer actually ticks a lot of boxes but surely there's something out there from the competition with better than a mediocre 4hrs internet surfing. Doesn't cut it for me when my Asus UL30A from a few years back gets 10hrs...4hrs is so 2005.Impulses - Monday, November 26, 2012 - link
Yeah, something with a larger battery and a better display wouldn't necessarily have to be much more expensive... Or inversely, aa thicker ultrabook with cheaper build quality but better battery life and a lower price tag. That middle market is vastly undeserved, and I gotta think it'd mostly intentional.The whole ultrabook initiative is about pushing brands and the consumer upscale... I'll eventually fall victim to it as my old Acer netbook is getting very long in the tooth but I'd really want something higher res.
GOMAB357 - Monday, November 26, 2012 - link
I am debating between this and the 11.6 inch Asus Vivobook. The Acer has more muscle, but the Asus has a touchscreen, which is great for Windows 8, and a much better design. What do you all think?profdre - Wednesday, November 28, 2012 - link
Never buy ASUS, bad quality (had a UX32VD Zenbook with several issues) and almost non-existent service (they couldn't repair the Zenbook) and now I still have to wait for weeks to get my money back.batguiide - Sunday, December 9, 2012 - link
Sharea website with you ,
( socanpower. ca)
Believe you will love it.
laptop battery,CPU fan,AC power adapters.DC power adapters and laptop keyboard.
I bought two. Cheap, good quality, you can
go and ship with there.
dave92029 - Monday, December 10, 2012 - link
Funny, how reviewers like the $549 Acer and hate the $199 Acer Chromebook that utilizes the same shell and say the Chromebook is cheap looking..If the reviewer thinks this is a deal @ $549 then the Chromebook version is a steal @ $199.
People seem to think that paying more for something makes it better. I'm very happy with my Chromebook and the FEW compromises that I need to endure for only $199. LMAO
ragefury32 - Wednesday, January 2, 2013 - link
Actually, the extended battery is available. Considering that Acer used the same chassis design for 4 distinct products (Aspire One AO756, Travelmate B113, Aspire V5-171 and the Chromebook C700/710), some ot the Travelmate B113s (TMB113s) shipped overseas arrive with the 5000 mAH battery to go with their Core i5 based models.Google for the Sanyo AL12X32 battery (Acer part ID NP.BTP11.008).
Acer US won't sell you one, but a certain well known US hardware vendor does have it...and it's not that expensibe)
noseratio - Sunday, June 23, 2013 - link
My V5-171-9661 only shows SATA II (3Gb/s) speed with Samsung 840 Pro SSD. Latest BIOS v2.15, AHCI, latest Intel RST drivers. Could someone please confirm or refute?