Acer Aspire E1-472G-6844 Pro Reviews

If you were considering the E1 for a budget buy, ask yourself: are these compromises that you can live with? Maybe you'll get used to the touchpad's quirks after a few weeks, and you don't care what Frankie Muniz's ugly face looks like on Netflix, as long as you can get online, write that report, and play some Hotline Miami. Then the Acer Aspire E1 might be for you. But with better-priced rivals out there, the competition is steep. Frankly, you might be better off finding a budget laptop on which it's easier to scroll up and down.

The Acer Aspire E1 may have some of the latest hardware from Intel and Nvidia, but it remains a laptop that’s rooted in the past. A lackluster display, poor battery life and a thick, bulky chassis make the E1 feel as if it was designed a few years ago. In today’s era of sleek Ultrabooks, it feels positively archaic. We might be able to tolerate the Aspire E1’s shortcomings if it was affordable, but our review unit’s $599 MSRP seems a lot to ask. For instance, ASUS offers the 15.6 inch X550LB for $659, which wields the same CPU as the Acer, a larger 750GB hard drive, along with a faster GT 740M graphics chip for not much more. Nvidia’s GT 820M GPU is the brick tied to our review unit. While quicker than Intel’s graphics chip, the difference between the two isn’t exactly night and day, and it’s still not sufficient for serious gaming. This puts the Aspire E1-472G is an uncomfortable position, as the system isn’t inexpensive enough to be considered a bargain, but also not quick enough to be a regarded as a powerhouse. While a few buyers may be attracted to this laptop’s combination of small size and moderate performance ability, we think most will find it to be an unsatisfactory compromise.

The Acer Aspire E1-472G-6844 is a mid-range laptop with the construction and performance of a less expensive system.