This is not a $800 laptop, people need to keep that in perspective. Yet for $379 it is a fabulous buy. After a day of playing with it, two things stand out, the keyboard and the screen quality. The layout of the keyboard is similar to that of a much more expensive laptop, with a full numerical pad on the right. The positioning of the touchpad offset to the left takes a bit getting used to, but makes sense when one realizes that the keypad is only occasionally used. The feel of the keys is good, although after a couple of years I’m not sure they would hold up well with a typist who pounds the keyboard hard (such as a non-touch typer).

My expectations were the LCD would not have the most crisp picture, but so far the images are clear and bright. I have a two year old 20″ Acer monitor, and the notebook has a better picture.

A few misc. comments:

-The wi-fi card seems faster than other devices I have on my home network. This is an anecdotal observation, not from a real through-put test.

-The touchpad needs a lot of configuring. Out of the box it seems slow to react. Playing around alot with the controls help, but so far I have not set it to personal perfection yet.

-The physical presence is quite attractive, but it has a pretty big footprint (due to the large keyboard). The specs say it weights about 5.8 lbs., which I have no reason not to believe, but it feels heavy.

-Written documentation from Acer is bare bones, and there is no backup disk.

-Connection ports on the sides of the notebook are too close to the front. If you were hooking up monitors (espcially to the HDMI port) and a bunch of USB devices the notebook would look like a rats nest. It would not interfere with typing, but ain’t going to be pretty. There are no ports in the rear.

-Case seems well built. The only part of the physical shell that looks weak is the plastic strip running across the bottom of the LCD. When I pulled off the protective clear tape, the strip separated from the LCD a bit. The plastic dropped back into place without a problem, but this part of the build is sub-standard

-Hard drive does not appear to be the fastest one I’ve ever seen (using the testing program in Win 7), but is made by Hitachi, which gives me a level of comfort.

Rating: 4 / 5

With a price tag of a netbook, this fully-fledged notebook is a steal. I purchased this notebook as a desktop replacement, and so far it has been a pleasure to use. The 15.6 inch display is very bright, which makes text and images a pleasure to view on the laptop. The build quality on the notebook is top notch. Nothing on the laptop feels cheap, and is what you would expect from a mid-range product. One feature I particularly liked about this product is that Acer opted for a non-glossy finish on the lid of the laptop. I can easily handle the notebook without worrying about greasy fingerprints covering my computer. The large keyboard with the much needed number pad makes typing a breeze.

I have no qualms on the other features of the laptop. The inclusion of HDMI and gigabit ethernet is a big plus. Wireless works flawlessly on the laptop. I can easily connect to the wifi network in the house. Sound quality on the Acer is better than I expected. Obviously, sound on the laptop lacks bass, but otherwise sounds great. The processing power of the Acer isn’t anything to boast about, but is more than adequate for common activities such as web browsing, viewing movies, writing papers.

Pros:

-Nice design and build quality

-Value

-Plenty of features

-Keyboard

Cons:

-A tad bit on the heavy side

-Battery may be lacking for prolonged usage away from power source
Rating: 5 / 5

A relatively good working computer, it would suit the needs of many. It can multitask without much problem (including downloading while still on the internet, playing music, etc), and the spacious screen is fantastic, displaying the entirety of a web page without left-right scrolling. The keyboard is spacious, and the touchpad, oriented slightly to the left, is just out of the way of resting palms, which prevent accidental “clicking” while typing.

The initial battery life is about 3-3 1/2 hours, and charging takes no time at all. Granted this is the way with many new computers, and I fully expect it to slow down in the near future.

My only problem with this computer is its AMD processor. As a gamer, I cannot do as much as I previously could before getting this computer. This computer was designed for the average computer user in mind.

All in all, a good computer, as a college student, I fully expect it to fulfill my needs of web browsing, paper writing, etc. And the add-ons of Windows 7 (the sticky notes, Microsoft Works as well as a trial version of Microsoft Office, etc) will allow for me to be able to keep more organized in my studies.
Rating: 3 / 5

Its a good starter Laptop that was sent well packed by Amazon (the place, I always trust for my big and small shopping needs). I would give this LPC 3.5 out of 5 ratings.

Though I’ve just recieved this PC here is my first hand impresssion and opinion about it -

BUILD – This Laptop showcases a well-build body thats made up of tough Plastic with a contoured dotted touch which makes it non-glossy and figerprint resistant. Extended numeric key-pad is an added advantage, though I feel that the keybaord would get dirty very fast as it may accumulate dirt and other stuff within its key spacing. As someone pointed out earlier, missing are the LED indicators for Number / Caps lock key.

PROCESSOR – AMD V 120 single core with 2.2Ghz clockspeed, well complements to this LPC, and you can take my word on it… It’s the coolest one. No overheating problems so far, for above 2.30 hrs of operation with Internet, Media player, PDF and MS Paint all running in parallel.

LCD – This came to me as the most surprising feature, This laptop features a wide 15.6″ LED-backlit LCD that is really very crisp, clear and bright . Another thing that impressed me a lot is the steadyness/stiffness of its LCD BEZEL, unlike Dell LPC’s, it really holds to its place to what ever angle you may want to set. Also there is a webcam and a mic which I haven’t used yet.

O/S ISNTALLATION – The LPC came pre-installed with Windows-7 Home Premium and it was really very easy to configure (or should I say, Finalize) the installation though it took the system about 15-20 mins to get fully functional.

WIRELESS INTERNET – The wireless internet access was satisfactory as I couldn’t find any edge over my old Dell D600 LPC with Intel Pro 2915 Wireless Mini card.

OTHERS – This system comes with 3GB DDR3 RAM,out of which hardly 2 GB is available for you to run your Apps. The HDD capacity is claimed to be 250GB but available/visible Lot is only 218GB. The sound quality of the inbuilt speakers is good.

To sum up, Acer Aspire AS5251-1805 seems to be a good, above average, entry level Laptop PC with an attractive price tag that most can avail.

Thanks for reading…
Rating: 3 / 5

Nice laptop – just received it. Probably rates 5 stars. but still too new to tell.

All the features I could ask for for such a cheap price. My initial experience:

- HD screen displays great pictures and video.

- Setup with wireless took all of 10 min.

- Speakers sound better than my other 3 laptops(Lenovo T61, MSI, HP).

- Skype video calling works fine.

- seems to run cool so far (my HP Turion laptop gets very hot)

- not much of ‘bloat’ware that I needed to get rid of

Rating: 4 / 5