Acer Laptop Aspire 5 Intel Core i7 8th Gen 8550U (1.80 GHz) 8 GB Memory 256 GB SSD NVIDIA GeForce MX150 15.6" Windows 10 Home 64-Bit A515-51G-89LS

Pros: Bang for buck seems solid, but haven't used the device yet. Will follow up on performance. See cons.

Cons: Items is listed as Upgrade As You Wish indicating that the hard drive and ram are easily replaceable. I had already intended on upgrading the M2 SSD to a 500GB and was also planning to include a mechanical HDD for storage. Upon opening the HDD storage compartment, I was surprised to find that the connector to interface the 2.5" HDD to the board was missing and that the M2 slot was not accessible. Thankfully, the entire back comes off rather easily once all the screws are removed. From there you can access the M2 slot fine. I also located the spot where the HDD connector connects to the board. Ordered the connector from a competitor website for $14 which is part 50.GP4N2.004. Keep in mind that the bracket to hold the hard drive in place and corresponding screws were also missing. Ordered those as well 33.GP4N2.002. Considering it was listed as Upgrade As You Wish, but required the purchase of 2 additional pieces and some extra leg work caused the 2 egg drop straight away.

Overall Review: I hope posting these struggles will help others be more aware of what they're buying before the receive something they didn't expect.

Pros: Solid feel Turbo boost from 1.8Ghz to 4.0Ghz Full keyboard with numpad Smooth trackpad Initial battery life seems pretty good Relatively thin Upgradeable RAM and extra SSD (still not attempted this)

Cons: Only a 256 Gb hard drive. The good part is that there is an easily expandible storage bay. Some bloatware (amzn, netfilx, norton antivirus (does seem to be intrusive - will probably switch to a more lightweight antivirus), xbox)

Overall Review: When i purchased the laptop, I was concerned by other reviews about the screen colors/resolution, build quality, track pad. I have not experienced any of these issues - possibly if you are a graphics designer you may need better screen colors. I am an engineer and do some signal processing and medical image processing and it seems to be very capable. The turbo boost from 1.8 Ghz to 4.0 Ghz is great. The chassis is very solid and does not seem to be flimsy plastic. I hate chicklet keyboards, but these have a good amount of travel, so they have a good typing feedback. I thought the trackpad offset from center would be an issue, but it becomes natural since it is centered on the keyboard. M.2 SSD is fast (~500MB/s from website) Micron_1100_MTFDDAV256T. It would have been nice to have a >=2000MB/s M.2, but that is probably not going to happen at this price level. I bought this right before cyber Monday at $630 and am very happy with the price/performance. Even at the original $800 price tag, this would be worth the money.

Pros: Seems like a good product when it works.

Cons: Unfortunately it's failed 2x in the last 9 months - it simply won't turn on. It was used about 6 hours and then it wouldn't turn on anymore. I returned it to Acer and the process was pretty streamlined w/o incident. They said they replaced the HDD. I used it 3x (~5 hours) over the next week and then it sat on my bookshelf for a couple months. It doesn't turn on again (plugged in, green light on the xformer). I will RMA a second time and see if Acer can't resolve the issue; then I will update this post.

Overall Review: I've generally been satisfied with Acer products, and this laptop was working to my satisfaction for a brief period. This "double-failure" has me apprehensive about future purchases though.

Pros: -Good hardware (i7 8th gen) for the money

Cons: -Battery died after just a couple months. The acer warranty said I'd have to ship it away for repairs, but as a CS student I couldn't wait that long. So I had to order and replace the battery myself.

Pros: Really fast, nice for gamming and light

Cons: Have to buy a bracket kit to improve the memory

Pros: Very happy with the power and speed of this laptop for the price tag.

Cons: The onboard display failed two months after purchase. The timing of the failure did not coincide with any software installations or system updates. Peripheral HDMI displays function normally. After a phone call with Acer support and a number of methods to try to restore functionality, it was recommended to us to send it for repair. It is very disappointing to see this kind of failure so short into the life of a laptop.

Overall Review: If you buy this laptop, be sure to hang on to all packaging for a few months in case you need to return/replace it.

Pros: Really fast-it takes only 5 seconds to boot up. Solid build.

Cons: Screen colors do not look vibrant.

Overall Review: It has been a couple of weeks since I bought it and there has been no problem so far.

Pros: Everything about the Hardware is absolutely great for anyone that will be using this as a casual web browsing machine, or basic business productivity.

Cons: The Software.

Overall Review: I had the worst experience I have ever had with a new machine. This shipped with what I believe to be a driver the continually caused a blue screen of death (BSOD) Brand new, out of the box. -Take the wrapper off -Hit the power button -Battery dead... no big deal... plug it in -Hit power button and windows boots -Initial setup begins, and windows starts asking me what my name is and so on.... -about 40 seconds into the setup... BSOD IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL -okay.... must be a glitch..... nope... again and again within 15 seconds of booting. I was able to fix the issue with a fresh install of windows, but cmon.. really Acer?? Had this been in the hands of any average pc user, they would have no choice but to RMA and possibly recieve another laptop with this same software error. I am extremely displeased with the state this product was shipped in, and would love those 3 troubleshooting hours back.