Pros: Has some nice, hidden features of interest to the hardcore techies Mix of USB2 and USB3 ports Rather upgradeable Very powerful for the money

Cons: Missing LED indicators that most other machines take for granted 5400rpm drive and Acer Bloatware makes it feel slow Feels cheap and plasticky Infuriating Trackpad Small capacity battery

Overall Review: Pretty decent machine for the money (This is really the Aspire V5-171 6860 model) The positives: a) The CPU is the 1.7GHz version of the Core i5 UltraBook CPU series - it's not slow by any means - and it comes with virtualization/cryptographic acceleration built-in. It has the faster HD4000 graphics chip, the Quicksync video conversion circuitry, and I have yet to see it "run slow" on anything modern. b) The machine is rather upgradable. It features 2 DDR3 mobile RAM slots, and can take up to 16GB of RAM in total. The wireless card is a Broadcom dualband (not single-band) 802.11n/Bluetooth combo card and can be swapped out with no BIOS locks, and the HDD bay will take 2.5mm 7mm Z-height drives (not 9.5mm standard drives - a little annoying there) The really good feature is that it comes with 1 USB3 port on the left, and 2 USB2 on the right. If you run VMWare you will see that as a massive plus (VMWare's USB arbitrator cannot do USB3->2 Translations) c) The BIOS is minimal, but quite generous when it comes to features left on - Virtualization is enabled, as is the no-execute bit and the vt-d/IOMMU. You can run KVM straight out of the box, which is not the case in most other laptops in this price range. The negatives: a) 5400rpm drive - no, Acer. Seriously? Decent CPU and sub-par HDD? And you have to shove a massive dose of bloatware in there? You are better off getting the entitlement key from the machine and do a clean install. Better yet, swap out that HDD and get a faster, 7200rpm model...preferrably a full disk encryption model. b) The touchpad will drive you nuts - It's not well regarded by press reviewers...and for a good reason. The button is built into the trackpad, and it does a semi-awful job detecting clicks. c) Acer trimmed back the LED indicators to only power and charge activity. No HDD indication or wireless connectivity, and no keyboard "lock" indications, so you can't tell whether the machine hung or is taking a long time due to swappage. What were you thinking, Acer?! d) The Battery has some seriously short legs - I have yet to see it go beyond 4 hours. Conclusion - this is an okay machine if you like large features at a bargain basement price. It would have been a great machine if Acer charged more and actually did less cost-cutting.

Pros: This machine is an astonishing value! I'm a netbook guy, and size is a very important factor in my notebook (I carry them everywhere--if I have to ask myself "do I want to carry my notebook or not?" then the device is too big). But netbooks have really slow CPUs. The V5-171 has an actual running Core i5, at a "luxury netbook" price. 11.6" is a little bigger than I am used to carrying, but not terribly so. And the performance difference is incredible. It will even game pretty well. Shipping with 6 GB of RAM is a nice touch. Few machines smaller than 15" go above 4 GB. The keyboard types really well. The press distance on the chicklets is pretty short (shorter than, say, the chicklets on an external mac keyboard), but the feel is good and they're not mushy. I can type very fast on it. The screen is bright and clear, 1366x768 is a good resolution at this size. I was afraid for a while that the machine didn't have bluetooth, but it just ships with bluetooth "off" in software, working fine with my bluetooth mouse now. This thing is a lot like an ultrabook at less than half the price. I'm very happy with it.

Cons: It's *not* an ultrabook. At around 3 pounds, you do feel the weight on your shoulder in a carry bag. It's not bad, but it's not a feather. The 500GB drive is spacious and performs fine, but I wish I could get SSD at this price point. I will look into replacing it later. There's a reason Ultrabooks cost over twice this.

Overall Review: This is a fantastic machine, if you're looking for 11.6" and don't want to pay ultrabook prices. Highly recommended.

Pros: Low cost; 3rd gen i5 w/ HD4000; 6GB RAM; Bright screen; Decent sound; Runs cool (relatively). Small size. It's an Acer. And, it comes with Win-7, not that abominable excrescence MicroSloth calls Windows 8.

Cons: Lack of capslock LED, but, 'tis small complaint--my aging N270-based netbook has one and it NEVER prevented me from typing out a full sentence before noticing it was on, usually from looking at the screen, not the LED. Vents on the bottom do need to be exposed some way when it's on your lap (or chest), otherwise the fan cannot draw enough to keep it cool. SLOW HDD, but its not a real limitation as compared with what I've been using for the last 3 years!

Overall Review: Bought from Newegg. Liked it so much I bought another one for my 18 year old son in Oregon. His mother liked it so much she asked me it she could use it too (ended up getting her a NOOK HD, lol). Referring to the petty complaints about the touchpad--frankly I never use them--just buy a Logitech darkfield wireless mouse ("Anywhere MX", which REALLY DOES work anywhere--even on corduroy pants!) and forget the darned thing. It is a small expense when compared to the frustration of trying to use a touch pad.

Pros: Good features: Keyboard is nice Great value in CPU, RAM, HD Space, etc. The whole feature set makes it a really good value

Cons: screen - I have used it a couple times, and it is just terrible. Basically, can't adjust it vertically so that you can read the screen. Either the top or bottom is too dark or washed out. I have tried adjusting everything, but haven't been able to use it more more than an hour without getting a headache

Overall Review: I wouldn't recommend, but if you want to chance it be sure to buy from a retailer that lets you return it.