Acer V3-571G-9435 review: Acer V3-571G-9435

The value of a budget laptop can be interpreted in two ways: sheer processor bang for the buck, or whether it has an attractive, functional design at an aggressive price. Hopefully, your laptop will have both, but in the case of the Acer Aspire V3-571G-9435, the value of the system's high-end quad-core Intel processor and Nvidia graphics comes at the price of high-end design.

7.2

Acer V3-571G-9435

The Good

The <b>Acer Aspire V3-571G-9435</b> has a fast quad-core Core i7 processor and powerful Nvidia graphics, matching what you'd see in a high-end 15-inch laptop for a fraction of the cost.

The Bad

Mediocre screen quality, a plastic, budget-feeling body, and poor touch-pad responsiveness keep this from being a premium product.

The Bottom Line

Budget laptop shoppers looking for pure performance for $800 should flock to the Acer Aspire V3-571G-9435, but those looking for a comfortable, easily portable laptop should look elsewhere.

The Acer Aspire V3's internal specs compare favorably with those of a higher-end 15-inch laptop, at least on the inside. A quad-core Intel Core i7 processor and very good dedicated Nvidia GeForce GT 640M graphics offer performance that normally costs well north of $1,000.

There are downsides to a budget machine, however; in the case of the Acer Aspire V3, they're the lack of extras and a generally cheap feel. No Blu-ray (just DVD) drive, a lackluster low-res (1,366x768-pixel) 15.6-inch display, a subpar keyboard and touch pad, and an overly glossy plastic chassis will keep you from discussing the V3 in the same breath as superior systems.

Those looking for a lot of power, and perhaps planning to plug in an external monitor or keyboard, should consider the Aspire V3; it's a solid back-to-school pick for students who need the horsepower. This is a pure value pick in laptops, and the aesthetic extras do suffer. Some may not mind.

For $799 you could buy a far more easily portable, better-designed laptop that may not be as powerful as the Aspire V3 is, but could provide a more sensible everyday experience: the Timeline U M5, for instance. I'd prefer a smaller laptop, even with less performance, to something with a screen and overall feel that are as middling as the Aspire V3's. You may not agree. In that case, the V3 is your ideal budget power laptop.

Piano-black glossy plastic covers the lid and matte silver plastic joins it for the inner keyboard deck of the Aspire V3. The two-tone effect looks attractive enough from a distance, but it resembles a laptop circa three years ago.

For a 15-inch laptop, the Acer Aspire V3 is actually pretty compact at 5.7 pounds and 1.3 inches thick; it's not exactly svelte like a Dell XPS 15 or MacBook Pro, but it's far from the bulkiness of a desktop-replacement 17-incher. It'll fit into a backpack, but you'd better check the dimensions of your messenger bag.

The raised Chiclet-style keyboard includes a number pad, and the whole affair feels better than most budget laptops of the past, but still not perfect. I found that keys didn't always register when I pressed down -- most likely because I wasn't putting enough pressure down on them. The keys aren't backlit, either.

The small touch pad below uses Elan instead of Synaptics drivers. It's one of the worst touch pads I've used recently. I routinely found myself accidentally opening programs or finding two-finger gestures not registering; plastic buttons beneath are cramped and not easy to press. I'd recommend using a mouse instead.

In a world of devices boasting screens with ever-improving resolution, the 1,366x768-pixel, 15.6-inch glossy display on this Acer is an eyesore. Colors are weak, viewing angles are bad, and the whole screen had a pixelated graininess that's unavoidable when you blow up a resolution meant for 13-inch laptops to this size. It looks better when watching videos or playing games, while text and Web browsing are readable but fuzzy.

A speaker bar above the keyboard fares better: I only needed to crank the speakers up to a little less than 50 percent maximum volume to fill my office. The Dolby Home Theater-branded speakers don't compare with high-end audio experiences, but for a budget machine they sound very good.

Basic expected features such as HDMI, USB 3.0, and Bluetooth are included on the Acer Aspire V3. This laptop doesn't have a Blu-ray drive, just DVD. Considering the screen resolution, that's probably a wise idea.

The Aspire V3 is a budget/midrange mainstream laptop series from Acer, spanning 14-, 15-, and 17-inch models. This $799 Acer Aspire V3-571G-9435 is the top-end configuration in the 15-inch Aspire V3 line; it includes a 500GB 5,400rpm hard drive and 6GB of RAM to go with its quad-core Core i7 CPU and Nvidia GeForce GT 640M graphics.

The lowest-end 15-inch Acer Aspire V3 models cost $479 and come either with a 1.9GHz AMD quad-core A8-4500M processor, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and AMD Radeon HD 7640G graphics, or a 2.4GHz Intel Core i3-2370M CPU, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and integrated Intel HD 3000 graphics. So, what you're getting here is the fully loaded model of a budget laptop line, hence the top-end guts and less-than-impressive design details.

The best part of the Acer Aspire V3-571G-9435 is its CPU: the quad-core 2.3GHz Intel Core i7-3610QM is an upper-echelon processor like those seen in more expensive laptops, including the 15-inch MacBook Pro and Dell XPS 15. It's an extremely fast processor, considerably speedier than a traditional dual-core Core i5 and exceptional at multitasking. In this price tier, you won't find many laptops that pack such a wallop.

Also impressive are the Nvidia GeForce GT 640M graphics, all 2GB of them, under the hood. These aren't the GTX-level graphics you'd see in a screaming-fast $2,000 laptop, but games played exceedingly well: Street Fighter IV ran (albeit at 1,366x768-pixel resolution) at 96.4 frames per second, while the much more demanding Metro 2033 ran at 17.3fps. Dirt 3 ran at high graphics settings (again, at 1,366x768 pixels) at 76fps.

Can the Acer Aspire V3 play games? Absolutely yes, but can it play top-notch games as well as a dedicated gaming laptop? No, it can't. Still, these graphics and that Core i7 CPU are the reasons this Aspire V3 will be tremendously appealing to budget PC shoppers.

Juice box
Acer Aspire V3-571G-9435	Average watts per hour
Off (60 percent)	0.28
Sleep (10 percent)	0.58
Idle (25 percent)	7.35
Load (5 percent)	40.05
Raw kWh	35.62
Annual power consumption cost	$4.04

You wouldn't expect a big, thick budget high-powered laptop to have good battery life, and this Aspire V3 managed 4 hours and 23 minutes in our video playback drain test. That's actually not bad, but laptops such as the Dell XPS 15 ran for 6 hours. Yes, you can can achieve longer battery life in a laptop this high-powered, just not in this budget model.

Acer offers a standard one-year warranty on the Aspire V3-571G-9435. Acer's Web site has plenty of support options, provided you know the product name and serial number of your laptop.

If you're shopping purely for under-the-hood performance, the Aspire Aspire V3-571G-9435 has some of the biggest bang for the buck currently available. Just be advised that the chassis and overall laptop quality, including the screen, are far from top-end.

It's an excellent pick for a value-minded shopper who needs power, but here's the question I pose you: would you rather have a more easily portable machine with better battery life that can still do most tasks very, very well? If so, I'd suggest the Acer Timeline U M5, a similarly priced laptop that's far thinner and more versatile but lacks a quad-core CPU. If you feel that's a problem and don't want to spend over $1,000, well, the Aspire V3 awaits you.

Street Fighter IV (in fps)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Native resolution, 2X AA, V Sync Off

Maingear EX-L 15

162.4 

Acer Aspire V3-571G-9435

96.4 

Dell XPS 15

73.1 

Sony Vaio S1511AGXB

51.5 

Find out more about how we test Windows laptops.

System configurations:

Acer Aspire V3-571G-9435
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) w/ SP1; 2.3GHz Intel Core i7-3610QM; 6GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,333MHz; 2GB Nvidia GeForce GT 640M / 128MB (Dedicated) Intel HD 4000; 500GB Toshiba 5,400rpm

Maingear EX-L 15
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) w/ SP1; 2.7GHz Intel Core i7-3820QM; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,333MHz; 2GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 675M + 64MB (Dedicated) Intel HD 4000; 750GB Seagate 7,200rpm

Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch w/ Retina Display (June 2012)
OS X 10.7.4 Lion; 2.3GHz Intel Core i7-3610QM; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 650M + 512MB Intel HD 4000; 256GB Apple SSD

Dell XPS 15
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) w/ SP1; 2.1GHz Intel Core i7-3612QM; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,333MHz; 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 640M LE / 64MB (Dedicated) Intel HD 4000; 750GB Toshiba 5,400rpm

Sony Vaio S1511AGXB
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) w/ SP1; 2.1GHz Intel Core i7-3612QM; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,333MHz; 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 640M / 64MB (Dedicated) Intel HD 4000; 750GB Seagate 7,200rpm