Even with all of the alternatives available, finding a budget-friendly, dependable professional laptop that is still packed with some useful features for day-to-day use may be challenging. Furthermore, if you are seeking for a laptop with gaming capabilities, your selections are quite restricted.
There are, however, certain exceptions, and the Acer Aspire 7 gaming laptop is one of them. This laptop is less than Rs 60,00, yet it is powered by AMD’s Ryzen 5000-series processor, has an Nvidia GTX 1650 GPU, and enough of storage.
I’ve been using this laptop as my daily driver for a few weeks now, and it’s been a pleasant surprise with the amount of value it provides in this price range.
Specifications for the Acer Aspire 7 Gaming Laptop
- AMD Ryzen 5 5500U processor (2.1 GHz base clock, up to 4.0 GHz max boost clock, 8 MB L3 cache, 6 cores)
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card
- 8 GB DDR4-3200 RAM
- 512 GB PCIe NVMe SSD storage
- 15.6″ FHD IPS anti-glare display.
Performance of the Acer Aspire 7 Gaming Laptop
On paper, the Acer Aspire 7 gaming laptop offers a really respectable set of specifications. Despite not being based on the current Zen 3 architecture, the Ryzen 5 5500U offers some obvious performance increases over the earlier Ryzen 5 4500U CPUs.
The Ryzen 5 5500U processor within this laptop runs at 2.1GHz and has a maximum turbo frequency of up to 4GHz. To begin, this chip allows hyperthreading, which implies that additional threads can run on each core to enhance speed. This enables it to deliver good performance in both benchmark programmes and day-to-day usage.
When combined with the Nvidia GTX 1650 GPU, this laptop can really handle gaming with respectable results. But, before we dive into the gaming performance and see what type of frame rates you can obtain, let’s take a short look at the benchmark results.
We tried a variety of benchmark apps on the Acer Aspire 7 gaming laptop, and it produced very amazing results across the board.
We pushed the GTX 1650 GPU to its limits using 3DMark’s Time Spy test, and it managed a score of 3638, topping the more costly Lenovo Legion 5i with a 10th gen Intel Core i5-10300H and the identical GTX 1650. In fact, the Aspire 7 outperformed nearly all of the laptops equipped with the GTX 1650 that we have evaluated thus far.
When I conducted the PCMark 10 extended test, the Ryzen 5 5500U showed a big performance gain. It not only outperformed its predecessors from the previous generation, but it also outperformed several Intel processors in the same price range.
The Aspire 7 gaming laptop scored 5168, which was higher than the Lenovo Legion 5i, which only got 4091 and was powered by a 10th generation Intel Core i7-10750H CPU. I also got extremely strong scores with the Cinebench R20 benchmark.
The Ryzen 5 5500U runs the Cinebench R20’s multi-thread test at 3.6GHz, giving it some breathing room before reaching its maximum turbo frequency. To save power when doing the multi-thread test on battery power, the CPU works at 1.8Ghz only.
The Aspire 7 gaming laptop scored 3063 points on Cinebench R20, which is higher than many of the computers we’ve tested around Rs 1 lakh. We saw comparable results with other apps, and the Aspire 7 gaming laptop scored well overall on our internal scoring sheet.
The Nvidia GTX 1650 was being used to its full potential. The CPU use, on the other hand, remained around 70%, indicating that there was adequate headroom to be pushed further with, instance, a stronger GPU.
Thermals on the Acer Aspire 7 Gaming Laptop
We conducted the majority of our testing in temperatures ranging from 24-28 degrees Fahrenheit, and the laptop remained quite cool throughout.
Regardless of the test, the laptop’s temperature stayed well below acceptable standards. I played GTA V for approximately 4 hours straight to check if the GPU could take the load, and it remained quite cool despite running at its peak.
During the testing, I detected no symptoms of thermal throttling, which is always a positive indicator with gaming laptops that don’t have a large chassis with complex cooling measures. Both the CPU and GPU performed admirably and managed to keep temperatures around 70 degrees Celsius during the test.
The keyboard deck did become a bit warm to the touch, but it was never difficult to use. The fans also activate when you start a resource-intensive job, such as a game, and this can be regulated using the AMD Radeon programme.
The huge holes in the bottom lid allowed the fans to draw in as much fresh air as possible, while heated air blew out of the vents on the back and side of the laptop.
The hot air coming out of the right side of the laptop was creating some discomfort for me when using a gaming mouse, but I don’t view it as a serious issue that is unique to this laptop.
Display on the Acer Aspire 7 Gaming Laptop
The 15.6-inch display on the Acer Aspire 7 gaming laptop has a native resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. It features a matte texture, which reduces hash reflections and makes it easy on the eyes. It has a good contrast ratio of 1361:1 and a peak brightness of 268.3 cd/m2.
As you can see, the display’s brightness is on the lower side. Anything less than 300 cd/m2 is considered poor and might create problems with seeing outside, particularly in direct sunshine. This is something to think about because this laptop is designed mostly for indoor use.
During my tests, I obtained an average CCT value of 7447K, suggesting that the colour temperature is on the cold side.
Calman Ultimate was used to assess the display of an Acer Aspire 7 gaming laptop.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the display only supports a refresh rate of up to 60Hz, which is not ideal for a gaming laptop. Given the low price, I’m willing to overlook it for this one, although gamers may be disappointed because most games are best played at 144Hz.
And because the GTX 1650 GPU in the laptop can push a number of titles above 60FPS, it would have made it more enticing and simple to suggest.
That is not, however, my main complaint with the display. Using the Portrait Displays C6 HDR2000 colorimeter, I obtained a DeltaE colour deviation of 6.21, with maximum DeltaE values reaching 20.59. Not only does the laptop fail the aim of DeltaE values less than 4, but several colours, such as Blue, are drastically wrong.
All of this implies that the Acer Aspire 7 gaming laptop’s display isn’t suitable for color-sensitive tasks. Despite the fact that the laptop’s performance may support picture and video editing tools, I strongly advise against utilising this display for any professional work.
In fact, I advocate using an external monitor even for everyday media consumption such as watching videos, movies, and TV episodes. You’ll get far better images, and it’ll be a worthwhile investment in the long run.
Battery Life on the Acer Aspire 7 Gaming Laptop
The Acer Aspire 7 gaming laptop features a 3-cell 48Whr battery with a potential duration of up to 11.5 hours, according to the firm. We weren’t able to replicate identical results during our tests, but the laptop still has a fairly long battery life.
The Ryzen 5 5500U, with a maximum TDP of 25W, is also there, and its 7nm design makes it more battery-friendly.
I tested the battery life of the laptop using PCMark 10’s battery benchmark and got some encouraging results. The Aspire 7 lasted 5 hours and 9 minutes on PCMark’s Modern office test, which replicates battery life for normal work.
It outlasted both the ASUS TUF Gaming A15, which is powered by the Ryzen 7 4800H, and the HP Omen 15 2020, which is powered by the Intel Core i7-10750H.
I augmented the PCMark test with some real-world usage of the laptop. As I previously stated, I used the Aspire 7 gaming as my regular notebook for a few weeks, and the laptop routinely tolerated me for more than 5 hours at max brightness.
That’s a really good score for a gaming laptop. In comparison, the ASUS TUF Gaming A15 barely lasted roughly 2 hours throughout our tests.
Naturally, your mileage may vary based on the type of job you will be doing on the laptop on a regular basis.
With my usage, which includes researching and producing stories for the website, web surfing, Bluetooth music listening, viewing some YouTube videos and Twitch streaming, and so on, I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t have to grab for my charger as frequently.
This leads me to assume that the Aspire 7 gaming laptop may also serve as your go-to while you’re out for a day of class, for example.
Keyboard, trackpad, and I/O on the Acer Aspire 7
The Acer Aspire 7 gaming laptop comes with a backlit chicklet keyboard with a number pad incorporated. The backlight has no adjustable brightness settings, so it’s simply a plain white light that you can flip on and off. The keys are flat and smooth, with enough of room between them. The keys have a short stroke and a distinct pressure point, making them highly enjoyable to strike.
It’s a really comfortable keyboard with responsive buttons and more travel than I anticipated. Unlike those with shallow or squishy keys, there is no audible click, but you can feel them operate.
It’s quite simple to get used to, and it’s an excellent typing keyboard. If you don’t plan on purchasing a specialist gaming keyboard, it’s also completely adequate for gaming.
Acer has managed to provide us with a plethora of ports on this chassis. Two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, a USB Type-C port, an HDMI output, and an Ethernet socket are located on the left side. It’s worth noting that the Type C connector on this device does not support DisplayPort over USB-C or Power Delivery 3.0.
Another USB Type-A port, a combination headphone/microphone jack, and a power connector can be found on the right side. As you can see, there’s a good number of ports here, but there’s no SD card reader, which would have been a lovely inclusion.
Design And Build Quality Of The Acer Aspire 7 Gaming Laptop
The chassis is completely comprised of plastic, which is unsurprising given the budget. It does not, however, have a cheap feel about it. Of course, it isn’t as great as many other notebooks in this price range from rivals, but I wouldn’t consider this a negative. It’s not the lightest machine in the world at 2.15Kg, but it’s on the right side of travel-friendly and quite portable.
In terms of appearance, the Acer Aspire 7 gaming laptop is an average gadget. It’s not going to turn any heads, but that doesn’t mean it’s a poor option.
The laptop is well-made, and it has no real stability difficulties, despite the apparent flex on the lid and the significant dips you’ll encounter if you press too hard on the keyboard deck. It has a serviceable build quality and should be fine as long as you don’t abuse it.
Verdict
So, to summarise my review, the Acer Aspire 7 gets a lot of things right. For Rs 57,000, you’re essentially getting a very useful laptop that’s ideal for day-to-day tasks and has the gaming capabilities to handle FHD gaming. However, Acer might have utilised a better display on this laptop.
It’s severely uncalibrated out of the box, lacks sufficient brightness for outdoor use, and has a restricted 60Hz refresh rate that left me wanting more. Except than that, I don’t have anything to complain about. Yes, it’s not an ultraslim laptop, and it’s not visually appealing, but it more than makes up for it in terms of speed and value.
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