Acer Aspire V5-471-6569

As the less expensive counterpart to the Acer Aspire V5-571-6869 , the Acer Aspire V5-471-6569 is characterized by less robust specs and hardware, particularly its older "Sandy Bridge" processor. This is a budget-priced desktop replacement that predictably isn't the quickest performer on the market, but its shortcomings are forgivable given its low price. And, to Acer's credit, the Aspire V5-571 is a well-designed system with a streamlined aesthetic that doesn't betray its affordability.

Design and Features
The attractive and svelte V5-471-6569 measures 0.9 by 13.5 by 9.6 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.32 pounds?small and light enough for it to be easily mistaken for a pricier ultrabook. Although the system's all-plastic construction isn't as classy as that of, say, the Sony VAIO E15 (SVE15116FXS) , which is splashed with touches of brushed aluminum, the V5-471-6569 pulls off the look nicely, with a minimalist "smokey black" finish that isn't quite as busy as the crosshatched "Trax" pattern on the Toshiba Satellite C655-S5542 .

With a maximum resolution of 1,366 by 768, the V5-471-6569's glossy 14-inch display does a fine job of displaying images as well as text. It's good enough for 720p, so watching movies with its built-in DVD?RW drive is easy on the eyes. The Dolby Advanced Audio v2 software helps boost the volume of the speakers enough so music and dialogue can be audible to a few folks in a small room, but don't expect an immersive audio experience without the help of an external set of speakers.

Though handsomely designed, the V5-471-6569's tiled keyboard is only so-so in terms of functionality. For the most part, it's a smooth typing experience, but the space bar only registers a keystroke when pressed directly in the center. The unresponsiveness persists with the touchpad. It incorporates the left- and right- click buttons onto the touchpad's surface, which makes the simple acts of clicking and scrolling difficult and led us to accidentally click on and drag icons and files on numerous occasions. If you intend to use a separate keyboard or mouse, then these issues will rarely appear on your radar. For everyone else, though, it's worth noting that typing and clicking on the V5-471-6569 can be frustrating.

The V5-471-6569 features a decent selection of ports for a budget system. Its left side features dual USB 2.0 ports, a USB 3.0 port, a headphone jack, a full-size HDMI port, and a LAN/VGA combo port. Although the full-size HDMI port eliminates the need for a dongle when connecting the system to a larger display, the same cannot be said of the LAN/VGA combo port, which is devoid of functionality without the included Y connector. Since the Y connector must be used even when only one of the two ports are needed, this curious shortcoming can be somewhat cumbersome. Meanwhile, the right side of the V5-471-6569 sports the aforementioned optical drive, and the front features a card reader (MMC, SD).

Given the V5-471-6569's price, it's hardly surprising that its 500GB 5,400rpm hard drive comes with a sizable amount of preloaded software. Some of it can legitimately be categorized as useful (namely Microsoft Office Starter 2010), but you'll very likely find yourself deleting most of it, particularly the desktop links to eBay, Netflix, Skype, and Nook for PC. The usual lineup of bloatware makes an appearance, including WildTangent Games, Fooz Kids, a Bing Bar, and Windows Live Essentials, as well as a trial version of Norton Online Backup. Acer has also included some proprietary software as well, like Acer eRecovery, Backup Manager, Acer Games, and so on.

Performance
The V5-471-6569's 1.4GHz Intel Core i3-2367M processor caused it to predictably lag behind other similar systems that come equipped with faster "Ivy Bridge" processors?the exception being the Fujitsu Lifebook LH532 , which also uses the Core i3-2367M. The Acer's PCMark 7 score of 1,653 accordingly was slightly behind that of the Lifebook (1,802) and, to a more pronounced extent, its other competitors, save for the Intel Celeron-equipped Toshiba C655, which was unable to run the test.

Likewise, the V5-471-6569 in comparison to its peers with multimedia performance. It completed our Handbrake video encoding test in 3 minutes 31 seconds, landing within striking distance of the Toshiba C655 (3:02) and the Acer V5-571 (2:59) but falling considerably short of the class-leading Sony VAIO E15 (1:39). The Aspire V5-471's also fell behind the rest on CineBench R11.5 with a score of 1.20, outpaced even by the Toshiba C655 (1.25) by a narrow margin. It took the Aspire V5-471 8 minutes 25 seconds to complete our Photoshop CS5 test, which was faster than the Fujitsu LH532 (12:16) but nonetheless markedly slower than the other systems, including the Lenovo IdeaPad U310 (4:40).

Like competing systems, the V5-471-6569 sports integrated Intel HD Graphics GPU's, so it coulnd't cross the 30 frames-per-second (fps) playability threshold in our gaming tests. Its performance in both Crysis (13fps with medium detail settings at 1,024-by-768 resolution) and Lost Planet 2 (14fps with medium settings at 1,024-by-768 resolution) was average for this type of laptop, with even the Sony Vaio E15 falling short of 30fps (with 28fps and 27fps, respectively). The V5-471-6569 fared somewhat better in 3DMark06 (3,483 at medium detail settings and 1,024-by-768 resolution; 1,805 at native resolution with 4x anti-aliasing enabled), ahead of the Satellite C655 (3,135 and 1,756, respectively) but nipping at the heels of the Lifebook (3,902 and 1,972, respectively).

The V5-471-6569's removable four-cell 2,500mAh battery clocked in at 4 hours 47 minutes in MobileMark 2007, falling 13 minutes shy of the five hours claimed by Acer. It nonetheless outperformed the Vaio E15 (4:34) and nearly broke even with the V5-471-6569 (4:51), while falling slightly short of the Lifebook (5:01) and ending well behind the current champ, the Lenovo U310 (6:44).

Budget-priced desktop replacements typically don't engender high expectations, and the Acer Aspire V5-471-6569 performs admirably for what it is. Despite its less-than-stellar performance and the tactile issues surrounding its keyboard and touchpad, one can hardly wag a finger given the laptop's good design and sub-$500 price tag. For users willing to shell out the extra cash, our Editors' Choice for entry-level desktop replacements, the Sony VAIO E15, is better and more nimble. But if you're budget conscious and willing to accept some shortcomings, the V5-471-6569 is a decent choice.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Acer Aspire V5-571 with several other laptops side by side.

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