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|  Posté le 03-05-2013 à 03:06:13   
| Review Acer Aspire V5-551-64454G50Makk Notebook and battery life
The chassis remains almost completely unchanged from the previous versions. The notebook is dressed in matte black - only the display is glossy. Higher-end materials (like aluminum) are nowhere to be found, since Acer uses plastic throughout. The Aspire V5-531 and the HP Sleekbook are no different in that aspect, however. hp HSTNN-F10C Battery
The base unit could be a bit more sturdy: we noticed a lot of flexing around the touchpad. Pressure to the left of the keyboard not only deforms the keyboard itself, but also causes the front right foot of the notebook to lift up from the supporting surface. The area to the right of the keyboard is also quite flexible - in this case, the culprit is the optical drive, which sits right underneath. The base unit is torsionally fairly rigid; the display lid unfortunately much less so. We also noticed ripple-effects when we exerted pressure on the back of the lid. The hinges are stiff and hold the lid well in position, although they can't prevent some back-and-forth bouncing. Because of the rather stiff hinges, both hands are needed to open the display lid. hp HSTNN-I93C Battery
Performance
The Aspire V5-551 is a fairly simple business notebook based on an AMD APU. It's designed for the daily tasks like web surfing, communication, office-type work, and video playback. The performance is not really adequate for gaming, as we will see later. The street price of the Aspire V5-551-64454G50Makk is currently between 380 and 420 Euro (~$500 to ~$550). Other models in the V5-551 series have a different APU (AMD A8-4555M), hard drive, and/or RAM configurations. The price ranges from 400 to 500 Euro (~$520 to ~$650). There are also versions with a dedicated Radeon HD 7650M GPU. hp HSTNN-IB2P Battery
Processor
The Aspire V5-551 is equipped with a AMD A6-4455M Trinity APU. The CPU section has two cores running at 2.1 GHz - but up to 2.6 GHz are possible when the load increases (AMD Turbo Core). According to AMD, the TDP is 17 watts - same as Intel's ULV processors and the lower-performing E-series APUs. hp HSTNN-LB2P Battery
During the Cinebench single and multi tests, the CPU frequency remained mostly at 2.1 GHz, although one or the other core would spike to 2.3 or 2.6 GHz frequently. The V5 lags behind the Sleekbook (AMD A8-4555M, Radeon HD 7600G) in the multi-threaded tests - not surprising, since the HP notebook is equipped with a quad-core CPU. The V5 is faster during the single-threaded tests because of the higher core frequency of its CPU. The V5-531 (Pentium 967, HD Graphics) performs similar to the V5-551 running the single-threaded test, but outperforms it during the multi-threaded test. hp QK641AA Battery The Pentium processor in the V5-531 runs at 1.3 Ghz but nevertheless manages to deliver equal or better performance. The V5-551 edged out the two competitors when tasked with the Cinebench 11.5 GL test - but trailed them in the Cinebench 10 GL test.
Compared to the E2-1800 APU found in the Lenovo B575e, the A6-4455M APU clearly delivers better CPU benchmarks. This is not really surprising, since the E2-1800 is clocked at a slower 1.7 GHz. The V5-551 also delivers better results running the GL tests since its GPU is more powerful. hp VH08 Battery
System Performance
During our time with the notebook, it became apparent that application starts are far from instantaneous. The culprit here is the very slow hard drive, which is also responsible for the pretty low scores the notebook achieved running the two PCMark benchmark tests: both trail the Sleekbook (AMD A8-4555M, Radeon HD 7600G) and the V5-531 (Pentium 967, HD Graphics). The results of the PC Mark 7 test are comparable to the Lenovo B575e (AMD E2-1800, Radeon HD 7340), which has a less powerful APU. hp VH08XL Battery
Users interested in the V5-551 might consider swapping out the hard drive. We used an old Solid State Disk (a 32 GB Corsair Nova V32), installed Windows 7, and ran PCMark 7 again: we were rewarded with a speed increase of 61 percent (1931 points). On average, a SSD can better the PCMark scores by 30 percent - so the fact that we are dealing with a 61 percent increase shows just how slow the hard drive really is. hp 463304-762 Battery
Acer uses a hard drive model from Seagate's Momentus 5400.6 series. The drive has a capacity of 500 GB and a rotational speed of 5400 RPM. The test results are far from impressive: CrystalDiskMark reports an average read speed of 69.1 MB/s; HD Tune 59.1 MB/s. Both results are quite unremarkable even for 5400 RPM drives.
GPU Performance
The Aspire V5-551 is equipped with an entry-level integrated Radeon HD 7500G GPU. The graphics card supports DirectX 11 and features a core clock speed of 327 MHz. AMD's Turbo Core can increase the clock speed to 424 MHz. hp 463305-341 Battery
The V5-551 outperformed the other systems when we ran the 3DMark benchmarks. This is surprising, since the Sleekbook (AMD A8-4555M, Radeon HD 7600G) has a slightly more powerful GPU with the same frequency, but more pipelines. Both notebooks score similarly when running the 3DMark 11 test. Responsible for the better test results are probably the RAM installed in the V5-551 - it runs in dual-channel mode - and on the other hand throttling, which hampers the performance of the Sleekbook. The V5-531 (Pentium 967, HD Graphics) has the lowest-performing GPU and can't keep up with the competition. hp 463305-361 Battery
Gaming Performance
The gaming benchmarks confirm it: the V5-551 is not a notebook suitable for gaming - although the APU can handle some current games as long as the resolution (1024 x 768) and details are set to low.
Those looking for an inexpensive, gaming-capable notebook should take a look at the Aspire E1-571G (Core i3-3110M, GeForce GT 620M) or the Packard Bell EasyNote TS11SB-250GE (AMD A8-3520M, Radeon HD 6620G + Radeon HD 7670M). Both notebooks have no issues playing most current games - and they sell for less than 500 Euro (~$650). hp 463305-362 Battery
Emissions
The fan of the V5-551 is on at all times and always audible. Working with the notebook thus gets annoying fairly quickly. We measured 33.7 - 36.2 dB during idle - both the Sleekbook (32.3 - 32.9 dB) and the V5-531 (31.9 - 34 dB) are less obtrusive. Subjected to medium (3DMark 06 is running) and high load levels (stress test - Prime95 and Furmark running in parallel), the noise level increases to between 38.2 and 41.9 dB. Both the Sleekbook (37.3 - 41.7 dB) and the V5-531 (36.4 - 40.1 dB) are equally noisy. hp 463305-751 Battery
During idle, the chassis of the Aspire never exceeds 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit). Under load, temperatures increase to between 24.9 and 40 degrees Celsius (76.82 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit). Both the Sleekbook and the V5-531 get warmer during idle - but the temperatures are still acceptable. Under load, the V5-531 gets warmer than the V5-551, the Sleekbook stays a bit cooler. hp 468815-001 Battery
During the stress test (Prime 95 and Furmark running in parallel for at least one hour), the CPU speed is not consistent : we saw fairly substantial frequency fluctuations for both cores from 900 MHz to 2.6 GHz. After about 10 minutes, the frequency settled around 1.3 GHz - although we could still observe spikes in either direction. The maximum frequency at this point was 2.3 GHz. At the beginning of the stress test, the GPU achieved its Turbo-induced maximum of 424 MHz. hp 468816-001 Battery After a few minutes, we saw drops down to 327 MHz, after 10 minutes the GPU stayed at that speed for good - save for the occasional spike back up to 424 MHz. After about 25 minutes, we saw occasional drops to 200 MHz. When we repeated the stress test while the notebook was running on battery power, the CPU ran at 2.1 GHz, while the GPU remained at 327 MHz. hp HSTNN-151C Battery
Following the stress test - with the notebook plugged in - we repeated the 3DMark 06 benchmark: the resulting score of 3714 points (CPU: 984 points) is lower than what we saw after a cold start. Although it appears that the notebook might be hampered by throttling in high-load scenarios, we don't think that it is really any issue, as the results of the tests and benchmarks overall are right where we would expect them to be. The CPU temperature leveled off at 54 degrees Celsius (129.2 degrees Fahrenheit) with the notebook connected to external power. hp HSTNN-CB70 Battery
Speakers
The stereo speakers of the V5-551 are located on the bottom. They definitely lack base and also sound rather tinny. The pre-installed Dolby Advanced Audio software does improve overall sound quality - but we still strongly recommend headphones or external speakers if premium sound is required. hp HSTNN-CB71 Battery
Energy Management
Power Consumption
During idle, we measured a power consumption of between 8.3 and 11.5 watts. The V5-531 needs even less - 8 to 10.5 watts. Under medium load (3D Mark 2006) and high load scenarios (Prime95 and Furmark) the V5-531 (28.4 to 33.9 watts) is again more frugal than the V5-551 (32.6 to 38.9 watts).
Battery Life
hp HSTNN-OB71 Battery To check the battery life in idle mode, we use the Battery Eater Reader's test: the display brightness is turned all the way down, the power saver profile enabled, and the wireless modules turned off. The Aspire V5-551 lasted 5 hours 26 minutes - ahead of the Sleekbook (5 hours even) and the V5-531 (5 hours 9 minutes). To determine the battery life under load, we run the Battery Eater Classic test with the screen set to maximum brightness, performance profile enabled, and wireless modules all turned on. The notebook shut down after 1 hour 18 minutes. This time around, the V5-551 lags slightly behind the competition - the HP lasted 1 hour 27 minutes, the V5-531 1 hour 36 minutes. HP ENVY dv7 Battery
For our WLAN test, we set the screen brightness to 150 cd/m² and enable the power saver profile. A script then visits various webpages every 40 seconds. After 3 hours 19 minutes, we had to plug the notebook back in (HP: 3 hours 20 minutes, V5-531: 3 hours 24 minutes). The notebook was able to play back DVDs for 2 hours 34 minutes - enough for very long movies. The V5-531 (2 hours 39 minutes) lasts slightly longer, however. For that test, we set the display to its maximum brightness, deactivate wireless, and use the power saver profile - unless the playback is not smooth enough, in which case we choose a higher profile. HP ENVY dv7t Battery
The Acer Aspire V5-551 features a display with a very high contrast ratio in a slim chassis and is protected by a 24-month warranty. The overall impression is marred by a very sluggish hard drive and an overly annoying fan. Performance also suffers because of the slow hard drive.
Users requiring a system with a more powerful CPU should take a look at the Aspire V5-531. We don't really see a reason to recommend the HP Pavilion Sleekbook 15 above the V5-551 - it's more expensive, has no optical drive, and no Gigabit Ethernet. HP ENVY dv7z Battery Battery life is also not any better. Compared to the Sleekbook, the Aspire V5-551 simply offers more for the money. |
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