This laptop answers everything I wanted from a laptop: Good Processor, Graphics card of some sort, Decent Ram, Some Upgradability, Touchscreen with HD screen, backlit keyboard, USB C, ports other than USB C, Thin, Metal form factor. This laptop is great but it can be even better if you are capable of opening it!
I purchased 1.5tb worth of SSD storage (500GB NVME[Must support SATA], and 1TB 2.5") and added it to the system. You will have to get your own NVME Screw. That upgrade alone made it very fast and allowed me to take full advantage of the I7 and GTX1050. While there are better laptops now, In 2019, it was one of the only thin computers with this combination under $1000. RAM is not upgradable, but 8GB should be sufficient for the lifespan of the laptop.
The USB C port is not thunderbolt 3 and requires the dock/dongle to support VESA DisplayPort Alt-Mode to output HDMI. The ACER dock ADK621 is a good fit for this laptop and works with no issues. Bluetooth and Wifi worked great.
Battery life is decent, with me usually averaging 6-7 hours at college taking notes or studying online but 2-4 hours if I am gaming or doing Photoshop or Premiere work. The key to achieving the battery life I am achieving is making sure only the apps that need to use the GTX1050 are allowed to use it. Most of my daily applications like Discord, Microsoft Office, File Explorer, Groove Music, Photos App, Chrome, Steam, and other typical services are set to use the Intel graphics only. If you do not set these restrictions, you will have a terrible battery life as your computer will try to use the GTX1050 for everything. When a Windows 10 update had wiped all the graphics settings I had set, I went from 6-7 hours to 1-2 hours. This is something that can be applied to any computer with a graphics card you buy.
I did have an issue where the fan shroud started grinding on the fan and it made the laptop loud. This is a common problem with Acer laptop fans of this time it appears. Luckily it was in warranty and they fixed it in less than 2 weeks. I have not had thermals problems since. I will say that the repair process was not done very well as I could see that they had ripped a speaker cable but fixed it with tape, and I received my laptop with some additional scratches, but I could not determine if it was their fault or the shipping. They also formatted my hard drive. They mentioned on the chat that it would be a possibility but didn't think they would have since the hard drive I sent them was the factory hard drive that was only ever used to download a cloning software to copy all the factory data to the SSD. Other than this hiccup, I had no other issues with this laptop.
As for the included software, It does not have too much bloatware, but the few Acer apps aren't annoying. They don't do too much except for the Acer Care Center which will check for driver updates and do battery and hard drive tests upon request. Amazon Alexa is ok but seems to be limited compared to the phone, echo variants.
The included Pen is excellent and works great, it has pressure detection and can make your 15.6" screen a Canvas. The pen uses a non-rechargeable but replaceable AAAA battery. Spare tips are included. The Dolby Audio is good. The speakers are loud and the headphone jack is very clear too. The charger is 90W and charges the laptop in 3 hours from empty. It is not type-C, but you can get a Type C charger if you find one with high enough wattage. The backlight is white only, but at least it is present. The keyboard also feels nice to type on. I like the shortcut that allows you to turn off the backlight. It's useful if you are trying to pay attention to the teacher and aren't using the laptop immediately but don't also want to close it. You can still see the image if you shine a light on the screen. If you forget, it will return the normal by moving the cursor. The brightness adjustments seemed flip as the hollowed sun means to brighten and the solid sun means darken. The touchpad is ok, but not the most premium feeling. The fingerprint scanner is a little slow but works well most of the time. Sometimes if you log in with a pin instead, you won't get another option to use the fingerprint sensor until you restart the computer(Not Sleep/Hibernate). I am unsure if it is an issue with windows or the bios.
I am completely satisfied with this laptop and would recommend it to anyone looking for a good College computer that can boost a little more when gaming. This is a cousin to the ACER Nitro Spin 5 and has the same specs but just a different color. If you don't want to look like a gamer, this is the better option!
| Standing screen display size | 15.6 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| Max Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 Pixels |
| Processor | 4 GHz core_i7 |
| RAM | 8 GB DDR4 |
| Memory Speed | 1.8 GHz |
| Hard Drive | 1000 GB HDD |
| Graphics Coprocessor | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 |
| Chipset Brand | NVIDIA |
| Card Description | Dedicated |
| Graphics Card Ram Size | 4 GB |
| Wireless Type | 802.11ac |
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 1 |
| Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 3 |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 10 Hours |
