Acer Aspire 5 (2022) review: Penny-pinching power, upgrades galore

As an avowed hardware head, I love a laptop that gives you a lot of options. Whether that’s a plethora of ports, a customizable RGB keyboard, or even DIY upgrade opportunities — I dig all of it. Acer gives you a lot of this stuff for not a whole lot of money with its latest Acer Aspire 5 15-inch model.
 
These big Acers are routinely best-sellers on Amazon, and we’ve seen in past years that the big screened 15.6-inch models often take the crown. I can’t blame buyers—this is a great display size perfect for side-by-side windows, with an HD resolution awesome for playing or editing video. Plus, there’s just enough room to add a little baby numpad to the right of the QWERTY keyboard. Although the model we tried was well-equipped with plenty of RAM and a spacious SSD (for a higher $699 to $799 price), the impressive specs were undercut by some real downsides.

Acer Aspire 5 specs and features

The Acer Aspire 5 15-inch has a great number of modern features, including a zippy 12th gen Intel CPU along with plenty of RAM and a spacious SSD. Unlike mid-range laptops of yore, you won’t find an option with a slow hard drive inside—these Acers are all flash-based.

• CPU: Intel Core i5-1235U (10 cores, 12 threads: 2 performance, 8 efficiency)
• Memory: 16 GB LPDDR4 (2x 8 GB SODIMMs)
• Graphics/GPU: Intel Xe Graphics
• Display: 15.6-inch 16:9 1080p IPS LCD
• Storage: 512GB M.2 NVMe PCIe solid state drive, second empty M.2 slot
• Webcam: 720p 
• Connectivity:  3x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 1x Thunderbolt 4, 1x Gigabit Ethernet, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm combo audio, 1x DC-in barrel plug
• Networking: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
• Biometrics: None
• Battery capacity: 50Wh
• Dimensions: 14.29 (W) x 9.36 (D) x 0.70 (H) inches
• Weight: 3.88 pounds, 4.54 lbs with charger
• Price: $599

Acer has said that higher-spec versions will have discrete Nvidia graphics chips and QHD screens, but for now, the only versions on the market in the US have Intel Xe integrated graphics. Additionally, the only similarly-spec’d version generally available seems to have only 8 GB RAM—half the unit we tested. The exact version we tried is, at the time of writing, is only on Acer’s online shop.

Design and Build Quality

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

I’ve tried a lot of laptops in my day, and I gotta say that on the scale from ‘dowdy’ to ‘darling,’ the Acer Aspire 5 15-inch falls squarely on the dowdy side. If you’re a sticker hoarder like me, the big grey empty spaces are simply begging for a generous coating of choice stickers.
 
The version I sampled, made of a medium-grey plastic, looks so…forgettable. I’m not of the opinion that every computer needs to be made of metal, but even then the panel of aluminum on the display’s outer shell only serves to remind of the lack of the material elsewhere. A color-matched keyboard gives it a tidy appearance, and the larger display makes room for a big touchpad and a vestigial numpad next to the keyboard.
 
But plastic can be a good thing, and I think here it’ll add a bit of durability. After all, aluminum can bend, magnesium can snap, while a lot of the time plastic just bounces back. This lends the device a feeling of durability. Plastic also helps keep the weight down to a sprightly 3.88 pounds, which used to be the weight of some 13-inch machines! At .7 inches thick at its thickest, this laptop also is decently svelte, so it should comfortably fit in a wide array of backpacks.

Keyboard and trackpad

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

Acer’s been doing mid-range laptops for a while and usually knows how to strike a good balance of keyboard quality relative to the rest of the laptop’s assets. Here, though, I found that the backlit keyboard was overly flat and very hollow-feeling. The key switches don’t make up for the short throw, either, giving each press far less feeling than I’d prefer. There’s only one backlight level, too, which was disappointing.
 
The Aspire 5’s keyboard isn’t helped by the design of the whole laptop, which uses the rear edge of the display to slightly prop the computer towards you. In theory, this could make for a more comfortable typing experience, but in my time with this Acer, it meant that I couldn’t help but notice the substantial deck flex while typing.
 
The big trackpad is, thankfully, better to use. I can gripe about the occasional accidental input due to my palms hitting the sides of the big pad, and sure it’d be nice to have something with a smooth glass panel instead of plastic. But in use, scrolling, gestures, and clicking worked great thanks to the Precision drivers at work under the hood.

Display and audio

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

Acer’s gotten a lot of mileage out of the gold “Full HD 1080” sticker that comes glued to the corner of this laptop’s screen—they’ve been using that as a standard resolution for years. Here, the Aspire 5 has a screen that gets the job done, and is usually bright enough for indoor use. Colors look good to my eye, and the matte coating helps cut out annoying glare. That said, if you frequently work in bright, sunlit rooms, or like to take your laptop outside, you might find that the screen’s LED backlight a little lacking.
 
I can’t say the laptop’s down-firing speakers left a huge impression but for the occasional YouTube video, they worked well. They have a decent amount of bass, and don’t distort the sound much at max volume. If you’re looking for a well-rounded audio experience, the Acer Aspire 5 doesn’t deliver it, but I’ve also heard laptop speakers that are so much worse.

Webcam and microphones

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

Zoom frequently? The Acer Aspire 5 might not be the pick for you. Although its marketing materials brag about some advanced noise reduction, the 720p webcam won’t make you look amazing. In a café, I ended up looking like a grainy, soft mess. Even in a bright room, I found that my face was lacking in detail. If you were hoping for Windows Hello facial recognition, you won’t find it in this laptop.

Likewise, the internal dual microphone system is fine in a pinch, but if you’re concerned about looking and sounding your best, you’ll want to invest in a headset and maybe even a standalone webcam.

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

Connectivity and expansion

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

While many other laptops are soldering down RAM—and even the SSD in some cases—this Acer Aspire 5 feels old-school in the best way possible. Undo a handful of Philips head screws on the bottom and you can get access to the computer’s two M.2 slots, one of which is unused in the stock configuration. RAM is likewise in a socket, with two 8 GB SODIMMs letting you upgrade to your heart’s content.
 
While it might not be important to many people these days, if you’re a student starting a media-heavy major like filmmaking, the ability to add more RAM or SSD space later on might be extremely beneficial. What also might be handy is the inclusion of a Thunderbolt 4 port, which can make docking at a desk super simple and provide a bunch of high-speed I/O with the right adapter. Moreover, Acer included three USB-A ports, all at 3.0 speeds (one provides phone charging power as well), a full-size HDMI, and a headset jack. For charging, there’s a DC barrel plug, which goes with the included 65W power brick, but charging over the Thunderbolt’s USB-C port is also possible.
 
Wireless isn’t skimped on, and the Acer Aspire 5 includes Intel Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. Internet connectivity worked as expected, but if you’re ever in a situation gasp without Wi-Fi, it even has a good old-fashioned RJ-45 ethernet jack.

Performance

Intel’s 12th-gen chips are simply fascinating. Compared to yesteryear’s dual- or quad-core choices, much of 2022’s Intel Core lineup throws a ton of cores at you. The Acer Aspire 5 I tried came equipped with the mid-range Intel Core i5-1235U, one of the latest laptop chips. While it brags a 10-core, 12-thread design that will raise eyebrows, in reality this chip is a split between two strong “performance” cores and 8 wimpier “efficiency” cores. Threadripper, this ain’t, but for tasks that require a lot of threads, it works well enough.
 
The only downside here is that because the Core i5-1235U is limited to 2 of the brawny-type cores. The Aspire 5 gets shown up by AMD Ryzen laptop chips, which in the case of the HP Pavilion Aero 13 featured here, has 8 full-power cores onboard.

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

Rest assured that in day-to-day tasks like video chatting, working in the browser, or loading up Office, the Acer Aspire 5 will be more than adequate.
 
One test where 12 threads works to this computer’s benefit is when running the multi-core Cinebench R15 test. It’s in a multi-core task like this where the 10-core design of the i5-1235U gets to work, outpacing a last-gen i7 laptop by a nice margin.

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

Recent Intel chips have also been given a bit of a boost in the graphics department, and this processor features an Intel Iris Xe chip. The punishing 3DMark test is a great way to contextualize the latest integrated GPU performance. Although the limited number of execution units puts it as a disadvantage, and Intel’s Xe tech hasn’t improved substantially since last year, the Aspire 5 is a solid middle-of-the-road performer.

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

While the 3DMark scores aren’t incredible to consider, I had a decent time working with esports games and older AAA titles on the Acer Aspire 5. Forza Horizon 4 played well enough dialed down to medium settings and 30 FPS, while Rocket League happily settled in at 60 fps maxed out. You’ll probably want to skip today’s most demanding games, but for indies or lingering impulse Steam purchases, the Acer Aspire 5 is good enough.
 
Need to export HD video into a bunch of different formats? This Acer might be a decent budget choice for the aspiring content creators out there. Its cores go to work to really take on exports, as we saw in our Handbrake test. Crunching a full HD Blu-Ray rip into a format for an Android tablet took a little under a half-hour. You can thank Intel’s well-optimized Quick Sync Video hardware, which speeds up some video-related tasks.

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

Battery life

Given the screen size, you might think that this Acer packs a bigger battery. After all, top-tier 15- and 17-inch models routinely bump up against the 99Wh mark in order to give as much runtime as possible. Well, this is one of those areas where you get what you pay for. Acer put a small, 50Wh battery pack inside the Acer Aspire 5, and although that helps keep the weight down, the penalty you pay is a shorter time away from a wall outlet.

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

In our video rundown test, the Acer Aspire 5 routinely struggled to hit the 6-hour mark. That’s simply short, especially considering the job of all of Intel’s efficiency cores is to keep the laptop running, well, efficiently. If you’re coming from an old, tired computer that only lasts a couple of hours it’s not so bad but this is far from the all-day battery life you can get in competing laptops.

Software

The Acer Aspire 5 comes with Windows 11 Home onboard, and a few…uh…bonus pieces of software preloaded. The worst of the included bunch is Norton Security Ultra. I knew something was up as soon as I plugged in my trusty hard drive full of test software–Norton immediately, unhelpfully asked to scan all 3 TB of data. Uh, no thanks!
 
Other than that, unless you go opening random included apps, you should avoid any other obnoxious pop-ups. Digging around I found a link to a League of Legends coaching website, PhotoDirector, Aura Privacy, and a few others. Then again, Windows 11 itself comes with enough random links like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram built-in, so much so that it’s hard to tell what Microsoft added, and what’s Acer’s doing.

Conclusion

I think that Acer has put a lot of great stuff into the Aspire 5. If you want a big screen with plenty of RAM and SSD space for not a lot of money, this could be a great pick. DIY upgrades can also keep your Aspire chugging down the road, which I wish more laptop makers would consider when designing mass-market models like this. There are some clear downsides, however. The weak battery life and mediocre display and keyboard marred the experience.

But when writing this summary, I can’t help but feel that the Aspire 5 is less than the sum of its parts. You miss out on so much of the modern PC experience—from Windows Hello biometric log-in to a touchscreen to all-day battery life. These are minor additions that can truly change the way you use your computer.

At the $600 price, it’s stuck between some cheaper big-screen options (Dell’s Inspiron 3000 15 starts at $449) that, for an average user, might offer an indistinguishable day-to-day experience. Then if you can stretch your budget, you’re nearly in premium laptop territory (HP Envys and refurbished MacBook Air M1s can both cost as little as $849). If it were me, I’d wait for a sale or Black Friday to get one of these Aspire 5 15-inchers on discount. For $600, I think you deserve something that feels less like a throwback and more like a computer built for 2022.