Fredrick Awino

Dell Precision 7730 Review

The Dell Precision 7730 is Dell’s newer entry into the workstation market. Dell have invested in redesigning their workstation and it’s time to see whether that investment has paid off. Even though the Dell Precision 7730 is more compact and more well-designed than its predecessor they still look very similar, and it can be hard to tell the difference between the two. Still, the Precision is part of Dell’s high-performing workstation line and in this review, we want to see whether it stays true to the name it carries.

When it comes to the workstation market, laptop companies are doing all they can to grab a bigger piece of the market. Albeit small, there’s a lot of money in the workstation market due to the high prices of the devices.

Technical Specifications

CPU Intel Core i7-8800H 4.3GHz
GPU Nvidia Quadro P3200 6GB
RAM 16GB DDR4 2666MHz
Motherboard Intel C246
Storage Samsung SSD M.2 PCIe NVMe 512GB

Physical Form and Shape

Compared to its predecessor the Dell Precision 7730 does very little to differentiate itself. Apart from the slightly more compact case, pretty much everything from the touchpad to the keyboard has remained the same, even the arrangement of the ports is the same. 

The form factor of the laptop is still bulky which we find normal for a laptop labelled as a workstation. This does make it harder to carry around and transport, but that is to be expected with a laptop in this category. Workstations are made with power in mind so the form factor is a small trade-off if you’re truly using the device for its internals.

As far as workstations go the Dell Precision 7730 looks in line with most of them. It looks boring on the outside, with a hard plastic finish which luckily doesn’t leave much room for fingerprint stains, even though some may be visible.

Most of the ports are positioned on the back side of the laptop instead of the sides which indicates that this laptop is meant to be connected to more peripherals and maybe even to an external monitor despite the large screen on the laptop itself.

Display

17.3 inches is a big enough display to satisfy any work-related needs and means more space for more applications opened at the same time while allowing for easier multitasking in terms of switching between apps. However, Dell offers more screen options in the different Precision configurations. However, make sure to avoid the cheapest option as the screen doesn’t do the laptop justice, with its poor viewing angles and overall low visibility.

There’s also a 4k IPS option if you feel like spending the money on it, but it’s significantly more expensive. 

Battery life

One of the worrying aspects about the Dell Precision 7730 is the battery life. This laptop has a battery of 92 Wh, which is slightly smaller than some of the competitors on the market like the ThinkPad. Even though the battery size is in line with the industry standard of a workstation, size and capacity do not always directly correlate to longevity and good battery life.

With the brightness set to 50%, the battery lasted around 5 hours with web browsing but we do have to keep in mind that the Dell Precision is a really powerful laptop that can pack quite a punch. So the battery life is expected to be shorter than less powerful laptops on the market which is quite normal.

Keyboard and Touchpad

A keyboard is one of the most important aspects of the laptop especially if you want to work directly on the laptop without a stand-alone external keyboard. It’s close to a full-sized keyboard with a Numpad on the right side of the laptop and most of the keys are full-sized instead of the slim, thinner buttons such as the CTRL and ALT on most laptops.

The touchpad looks pretty old-school, with three physical, clickable buttons. Overall it’s quite small and if you like working on the touchpad alone you might find it a little cramped. It’s also positioned a little on the left, instead of the centre which might make it harder to use both the touchpad and keyboard at the same time. Still, the laptop has a lot of connectivity options, with it being a workstation and all so if you find the touchpad hard to use, connecting an external mouse is always an option.

Performance

It’s no surprise that the Dell Precision 7730 performs very smoothly even in heavy applications, due to its beefy internals. Do note there are many configuration options available, and we opted for the one listed in the Technical Specification table in the first section of the review. Furthermore, the laptop performed well in both real usage scenarios and benchmark software such as PCMark.

The processor and GPU have excellent performance easily handling anything you can throw at them. Do keep in mind that running the laptop without a power source and only on the battery will result in approximately 20% less power and performance even though the laptop is quite powerful.

Verdict

Overall, the review unit for this review was worth the price. Even though it’s more expensive it has a premium design with lots of ports and connectivity options, with great performance on both benchmarks and everyday usage scenarios. There are a lot of configuration options so make sure you choose the configuration that fits your needs and budget. 

When it comes to the battery life it isn’t exactly the best on the market and when using the laptop on the battery without a power source connected, the performance of the laptop is significantly hindered. The inclusion of a fingerprint reader would have been a nice addition to the price of the laptop.

If the battery life doesn’t bother you, the Dell Precision 7730 is a great option for a workstation that can handle anything you throw at it, as long as it’s connected to a power source.

 

Dell Inspiron 15 5585 Review

The Dell Inspiron 15 5585 is Dell’s entry into the Ryzen market, bringing great performance and results for budget-conscious users. This model is the AMD replacement for the Intel model of the same laptop, however, the AMD version comes with more than just a CPU replacement.

Overall, the chassis of the laptop, battery life and the general performance of the laptop differ from its Intel counterpart, the Dell 15 5584, as our review will show. This laptop targets the budget audience who wants a good everyday performing laptop, for a lower price. 

Technical Specifications

CPU AMD Ryzen 7 3700U 2.3 – 4 GHz  Zen+ Architecture
GPU AMD Radeon RX Vega 10 – 2048 MB
RAM 16GB 1200 MHz RAM
Motherboard AMD Promontory
Storage WDC 512GB SSD
Connectivity SD Card Reader, USB 2.0, RJ-45, Noble Lock, AC Adapter, USB 3.1, USB-C, HDMI, 3.5mm audio

Physical Form Factor

Dell Inspiron 15 5585 is a good-looking laptop at first glance. If you’ve ever laid your eyes on a Dell XPS this laptop might remind you of it as soon as you look at it. This is done on purpose, and it’s a plus as XPS laptops are very good-looking. You wouldn’t notice that it’s a budget laptop unless you open up the lid, where the budget design comes into play.

The plastic on the insides of the lid is of a very noticeable lower quality than the one on the outer parts of the laptop, and the insides feel empty and not as firm as they could have been. This is especially noticeable when you rest your hands against the keyboard when the plastic starts feeling a little bendy. It’s unfair to compare this laptop to the build quality of the XPS especially when we look at the price, but there’s always room for improvement. 

One plus with the chassis is that there are no noticeable creaking sounds when using the laptop, which can be noticed in some of its counterparts and competitors.

Display

When it comes to the screen, the Dell Inspiron comes with an LG IPS 15.6-inch screen which at least in size, is pretty much the standard for the budget laptop category. If you’re looking for a laptop that will allow you to work on the balcony or somewhere outside in direct sunlight, you may be a little disappointed as the laptop comes with a display that’s below average in terms of outdoor brightness when compared to similar laptops on the market.

However, viewing angles are absolutely great and even better than what we’ve seen on other laptop displays previously. Some of the display settings can be toyed with, so the not-so-vibrant colour default colour scheme can be modified to make the laptop colours look more lively if you prefer to have them that way. 

Battery Life

At first glance on paper, the 42 Wh battery may seem incapable and small, but that’s certainly not the case when we put it to real-life use. When measured in a WLAN running time test the Dell Inspiron can reach up to 7 hours of uninterrupted battery run time. If charging time is an important factor to you, the laptop can take your battery from 0% – 100% in about 2-2.5 hours which is a little below average but still in the normal range.

Some ultra books in this price range can charge the battery in less than 2 hours, but this isn’t a factor that, at least according to us, is a deal-breaker. 

Keyboard and Touchpad

All of the keys on the Dell Inspiron are backlit, which makes it perfect for working in a dark room, especially at night. Size-wise it’s not a desktop-class keyboard but it’s still comfortable enough for people with bigger hands or fingers to be comfortable enough typing for a longer period. There are no dedicated Page Up and Page Down buttons, and the arrow keys are much smaller than normal, which can make it a bit harder to work with applications such as Excel where a lot of data is involved. However, the keys are firm and people who do a lot of typing will surely appreciate it.

The Touchpad comes with invisible keys and has one line in the middle at the bottom of the touchpad to differentiate between right and left-click. It’s all plastic and it feels accurate and smooth independent of the speed at which you are moving your cursor. One downside of the touchpad is the weak click feedback which is insufficient at times and can make it a hassle to work where a lot of clicking is involved. 

Speakers

We don’t have many expectations when it comes to speakers on a budget laptop, but the integrated speakers on the Dell Inspiron are good enough when talking about bass reproduction and depth of sound. The only downside is the lack of good enough maximum volume which can struggle to fill even a smaller room. If you are using the laptop for multimedia and the occasional movie or tv show, it should be more than good enough.

Performance

This laptop certainly isn’t a beast when you look at the tech specs on paper. Especially when you look at the integrated GPU. However, this is exactly where the AMD Ryzen with Integrated Graphics shines. It easily outperforms its Intel counterpart, the Core i7-8565U where the CPU performance is similar, but the Ryzen simply outclassed it in GPU performance. The laptop can handle everyday tasks with ease and multitasking is a breeze. If you are a casual gamer, rest assured that you can jump on a gaming session of Rocket League, CS Go or Fortnite without any visible trouble.

Verdict

The Dell Inspiron 15 5585 comes with plenty of power for everyday tasks and can handle them without much trouble. On the outside the build quality is very decent, even premium, whereas the overall chassis on the laptop, especially when the lid is open looks very cheap and plasticky.  There are a lot of connectivity options on the laptop with modern ports such as USB 3.1 and a USB Type-C. 

 

Asus FX 503 Gaming Laptop Review – Simple On The Outside But Packed With Surprises

Asus is well-known when it comes to making gaming laptops with peak performance ratings and great looking on the outside. When looking at the FX 503 from the outside, you wouldn’t necessarily notice it’s a gaming laptop straight away. It has four slanting streaks from each corner that converge into an ASUS logo in the middle. We’re not going to lie; the overall design of the laptop makes it stand away from other laptops in the room.

What’s great about the outside design of the laptop is that even though it’s great looking, the gaming aspect isn’t emphasized physically on the outside. The design is very subtle, and it would be hard to tell it’s a gaming laptop unless you open it and notice the red outlines of the buttons on the keyboard and the GTX sticker next to the touchpad. We love this, as it makes the laptop very easy to bring into an office meeting when you’re not gaming. Nobody would know that it’s a laptop meant for gaming, so you should feel perfectly comfortable bringing it into an office meeting with a room full of people.

A Surprisingly Handsome Tinder Date

The ASUS FX503 is one of the laptops that looks much better in person than in any picture online. When you see and hold the laptop in your hands, that’s when you can truly appreciate how good and sleek it looks for a gaming laptop.

Furthermore, it’s packed with different ports and connectivity making it great if you have a lot of different peripherals you want to use with it. You can practically connect anything to it, but let’s go over the ports and connectivity options just to grasp how good this laptop is. On the left side, you will find several ports, including the charging point, an HDMI port and several USB ports. Whereas, the right side of the laptop is packed with a Kensington lock which is a really good safety feature, especially if you’re into the habit of leaving your laptop in the car, an SD card reader and another USB port.

A little miss? But they don’t take way the amazingness of  ASUS FX503

The only ports missing are a USB-C port and a Thunderbolt port. We feel that having these ports would have done wonders for the futureproofing of the machine, and it would make it a much better workhorse for people who work daily with these ports. Furthermore, the lack of modern ports means that the user would have to connect other devices through a dongle which is a hassle, but for what the laptop offers it’s so far so good.

ASUS has made ventilation one of the priorities with this laptop which is great because gaming laptops can overheat quite easily which further hinders the performance of the machine. Below the keyboard, you will notice a bunch of lines strewn across the lower body of the laptop, and this is done with the single aim of having better airflow.

As soon as you open the laptop it’s noticeable right away that we’re talking about a gaming laptop. The keyboard buttons are all outlined with the easily recognizable ROG red colour, clearly stating that a gaming beast is hiding beneath the hood. Even though the red colour is almost overused in the gaming world, it’s subtle enough to not bother you if you’re not a fan of it.

ASUS FX 503 Specs

CPU Intel Core i7-7700HQ @ 2.80GHz (6MB cache, TurboBoost up to 3.8GHz)
RAM 4GB DDR4 2400MHz
GPU NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 4GB GDDR5
Storage 128GB M.2 SSD + 1TB 7200RPM HDD
Display 15.6″ LED-backlit FHD (1920×1080) 60Hz Anti-Glare Panel with 45% NTSC
Connectivity and ports Integrated 802.11 AC (2×2) Wi-Fi
3 x USB 3.0 port(s) Type A
1 x RJ45 LAN Jack
1 x HDMI, Support HDMI 2.0
1 x SD Card Reader
Sound and Audio Built-in Stereo 2W Speakers & Array Microphone
ICEpower Technology
1 x Combo Audio Jack (Mic + Headphone)
Battery 4 Cells 64 Whrs Polymer Battery, 180W Adapter

Performance – Can It Handle The Heat?

It doesn’t matter how good a laptop looks unless it brings some serious gaming performance to the table. Looking at the technical specs it’s clear that this laptop is no slouch. But, it’s time to see how those specs translate into real-world usage.

The 128GB M.2 SSD packs some nice performance, and even though it isn’t the best performing SSD on the market, it’s more than enough for an everyday user. You will notice the speed of the SSD especially if you’re transferring from an HDD. It’s a night and day difference. The only downside is the small amount of storage at 128GB, but the 1TB 7200RPM HDD is a good addition. It allows you to store the larger files on it. We advise you to keep only the most important games and apps on the SSD for faster booting and better performance.

It’s powered by an Intel Core i7-7700HQ which packs quite a punch. It scored a 741 in Cinebench which is what we would usually expect from a machine with internals such as the ASUS FX503. In Unigine Heaven it scored a min FPS of 8.5, a max FPS of 96.5 and an average FPS of 50.4. With is with x8 AA, 1600×900 resolution and Ultra Settings with turned of tessellation. The performance is not astounding, it but’s perfectly acceptable and good for the parts it has.

Verdict

The ASUS FX503 is a decent laptop with great performance for the internals it carries. Physically it’s a stunning machine which can work great in both office and gaming scenarios. It has good connectivity options even though it lacks USB-C and Thunderbolt support. The Storage options are good, it has an SSD for the apps you want to boot right away.  A 1TB 7200RPM HDD for storing movies and media files accentuates it even more.

Sound-wise the speakers perform greatly for a mid-range laptop. It has a good depth of sound, but the bass is a little lacking. This is expected from a laptop, however, especially for a mid-range one. Furthermore, the keyboard buttons are tactile and comfortable to use for a longer period which is always a big plu. Keyboard user friendliness always mean a lot especially when you’re gaming for hours on end. Overall, the ASUS FX 503 is a laptop we can easily recommend if you’re looking for a decent mid-range laptop. The icing about the laptop is that even with its  great features, it does not send buyers  breaking the banks.

Asus ZenBook Flip 15 Q535 Review

With the Zenbook Flip Q535, Asus has managed to combine several devices into one. The Zenbook is a tablet and laptop, 2 in 1 with enough power for gaming and everyday tasks. Where once convertible laptops failed to meet the demand of modern applications and gaming, today the newer generation of processors, in this case, the Intel Core i7 – 8550U blasts through tasks and applications with ease.

The Zenbook also comes with a nice build quality, something that we will discuss further in detail in the review below. While the i7 may be the forerunner in the long list of technical specifications, the other details are meaty, and nothing to scoff at either. 

Technical Specifications

CPU Intel Core i7-8550U 4 x 1.8 – 4 GHz, Kaby Lake Refresh
GPU NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile – 2048 MB, Core: 1493 MHz, Memory: 7000 MHz, GDDR5, Nvidia 382.53, Nvidia Optimus
RAM 16384 MB  DDR4-2400, 8GB soldered
Motherboard Intel Kaby Lake-U + iHDCP 2.2 Premium PCH
Storage 256GB SSD + 2TB HDD
Connectivity 1x USB 3.1 Type-C Gen 2, status LEDs, volume rocker, power-on switch,  SD card reader, 3.5 mm audio combo, 2x USB 3, HDMI 1.4, power input

Physical Form Factor

When it comes to the physical form factor of the laptop the most striking feature is the fact that the laptop can completely fold to turn from a laptop into a tablet. This is a great feature, especially for people who work on the go. Having the capability of turning your laptop into a tablet with one move is great for productivity, meaning you can handle tasks more easily on the go.

The second thing you will notice about this laptop is that it’s made out of aluminium. Overall, the colour is something of a dark grey, which is reminiscent more of black, than grey. In terms of quality, the aluminium holds up nicely to pressure tests, including both the bottom base of the laptop and the display lid. We tried applying pressure pretty much everywhere, and the only place the laptop showed signs of giving way to the pressure we applied is the middle of the laptop, and even then only slightly.

If you are a fan of opening the laptop with one hand, in the case of the Asus Zenbook that would be pretty much impossible due to the sturdiness and stiffness of the hinges, which is understandable as the hinges need to support the folding of the laptop. 

Display

There are two display options one being the UHD 4K touchscreen, and the other a standard Full HD display. If you are serious about doing work in tablet mode, we’d suggest getting the touch screen UHD.

In terms of brightness, the laptop display was visible even when working solely on the battery, with about 87% in brightness distribution. The Colour contrast is good enough, with some minimal light bleeding at the edges of the screen which is not ideal. But the Asus Zenbook is still rocking a UHD display, so the image quality especially when looking at still photos looks very high quality. 

Do keep in mind that this model comes with a glossy display which can make it harder to work in places where there is direct sunlight, as it reflects easily off the screen making it hard to see what’s happening on the laptop. 

Battery Life

Having the option of working in tablet mode would be worthless without good battery life, and this is of vital importance to one of the main features of the laptop. Unfortunately, this particular model has very high energy consumption rates, so running time on battery alone is far from ideal. 

Even though the battery is relatively large at 52 KWh the standard WLAN test gave the laptop around 5 hours of battery life. If you want to charge the laptop from 0% to 100% you would have to wait around 2 hours of charging, which is a little below average. Of course, the performance is significantly decreased when working on a laptop powered only on battery alone. If you want to have any serious work done you would have to plug the laptop into a power socket.

Keyboard And Touchpad

The keyboard of the Asus is backlit and well organized. Backlighting allows for work in environments with low light, which is always a plus. In terms of size, the keys are big enough for people with bigger fingers and hands, and they have a smooth and flat surface which doesn’t make them uncomfortable to use even after long periods of typing. The short travel point may take some getting used to, but otherwise, the keyboard is perfectly fine for prolonged use. 

Some of the keys are a little smaller like the “Enter” of the Numpad, and the arrow keys are smaller. This takes some getting used to but overall the keyboard is of very decent quality.

When comes to the touchpad it has a smooth surface, and it performs smoothly as well. There’s an area of low touch recognition around the bottom of the touchpad but this isn’t a big deal as that part of the touchpad is rarely used. Overall, a very smooth touchpad which will let you perform your daily tasks with ease, without the need to carry a dedicated mouse with you wherever you go.

Touch Screen

The touch screen works great whether you use it with a stylus, or with your hand. In our review, we didn’t notice any problems with it, and it performed flawlessly. If this is something you care about, the touchscreen of the Asus will make you happy.

Performance

Thanks to a great CPU and a mid-range gaming GPU the Asus Zenbook can easily compete with some of the gaming laptops on the market today. It won’t play all modern games at High Present and 60fps, but if you want to do some light to medium gaming, this laptop will handle games with more than enough power. For work-related tasks, the laptop handles applications with ease.

Verdict

If you want a good-performing laptop with a touchscreen, and that can act as a tablet with its foldable design, the Asus Zenbook is great. It offers plenty of storage, a good display and plenty of performance for any task or application you may want to throw at it. For working on the go, folding into a tablet and working on the touch screen is great. Overall, for the price range, the Asus Zenbook does exactly what it’s supposed to do, and more.

 

Best WordPress Hosting Convesio

Many people know that in order to get cheaper and faster-hosting services you must look for a WordPress Hosting provider. Although choosing a host may seem like a serious challenge nowadays, knowing what specifications are important for you might get you closer to a good host.

Our pick for the best WordPress hosting goes to Convesio, as it has some very great features that can please every person. In this article, we will reveal why Convesio is the best WordPress hosting provider at the moment and why every person should know about it when searching for a good WordPress hosting provider.

What is WordPress Hosting?

WordPress hosting is a special service that allows a person to run their own WordPress site on the internet. This type of hosting offers highly secure and fast websites, as well as daily backups, flexibility, WordPress updates, and website uptime.

It will surely save a lot of time and it ensures that the website is running smoothly. But if you want to improve your website’s SEO and expand the user traffic, then you will have to choose a trusted WordPress hosting provider.

Additionally, the WordPress host’s job is also to speed up the installation of the website, simplify it, and protect it. Also, with WordPress hosting, you will get a server storage space for all of the site’s files and media.

Why Choose Convesio as a WordPress Hosting Provider?

Convesio is the world’s first and also the fastest WordPress hosting service that is making use of Docker containers and scalable CDN networks in order to share the website content at lightning speed all around the world.

It also assures the clients that their site will load very fast for all of their customers, regardless of where they are accessing the website. The Convesio services are constructed to be more reliable and secure, assuring that the client’s website is always active.

This hosting provider will also assist its clients with protecting their websites from unwanted spammers and hackers. Convesio allows its clients to publish their own WordPress website with just three clicks and without the need to write a single line of code.

The Benefits of Using Convesio as a WordPress Hosting Provider

There are many advantages to choosing Convesio as your WordPress hosting provider. Below we will reveal some of them, as there are truly many.

Consistent Uptime

Convesio uses load-balancer containers in order to lower the website’s traffic load, which means that its servers will never go down. Unlike other websites on the internet that go down for an unknown amount of time, your website will stay up and running all of the time.

Fast Caching

Page caching is a well-known method for making dynamic content static, which can speed up the WordPress website by between 2 and 5 times. This is because the website’s content is generated every time a visitor makes a request. The server-level caching layer from Convesio can be used in many ways.

Database Cluster

If you don’t know what a database cluster is, then you should know that it is a set of databases that are managed by a single database server, which is constantly running. Convesio’s WordPress sites are running on some very powerful MySQL servers. These servers allow multiple users to create and manage a database, and it ensures that the website’s requests are processed accurately.

Self-Recovery

One of the most time-consuming as well as dangerous tasks when running a hosted website is restoring a web-hosted database. Because of that, Convesio has a self-restoration data feature that will protect every WordPress website from these types of dangers. This self-restoration data feature always keeps a backup of the website’s data and restores it if your website goes down.

Security

Convesio uses the latest security measures in order to assist its clients in scanning and monitoring for certain unexpected security threats. Additionally, its security features enable the clients to edit the code, the environment variables, and the configurations in advance in order to avoid any type of malware or other threats.

Optimized Speed

The WordPress websites which are hosted by Convesio feature a high optimizing speed thanks to its page caching and clustered database. Thanks to HTTP/2, the speed of your website will improve while also conserving the data bandwidth.

Automatic Backup

Every person that is using Convesio as a host for a WordPress website is allowed to easily clone, back up, and restore their website. It will automatically back up the client’s data, however, they will have to schedule the backup somewhere between every 3 hours and every 15 days. This backup system will add another layer of security to the client’s website, as it will store their data in a different location.

Application Monitoring

Another important benefit is the utilization of application performance monitoring (APM), which makes sure that the applications are running smoothly. Convesio provides its clients with the opportunity to monitor their websites at the WordPress application level, which means that every change will need to be approved before it gets implemented.

Moneyback Guarantee

Convesio is a trustworthy, reliable, and cost-effective web hosting company on the market. It offers its potential clients a one-month free trial, where everyone can apply without the need to provide any credit card information. 

Convesio Pricing Information

Convesio’s pricing is amongst the most aggressive in the industry, but that is reasonable as it offers many benefits to the clients, as you can read from the above section. The prizes that Convesio is charging are the following:

  • You can establish a free WordPress website hosted by Convesio that features an allotted storage space of 512 MB
  • Convesio’s monthly entry-level plan required $15 per month and it provides the client with a maximum page visitors of 10,000 per month
  • If the client asks for a monthly page visit of more than 25k, then the cost will be $25 per month
  • Clients that need extra resources can apply for a monthly plan that costs $50. This hosting service comes with 2GB of storage space, as well as four virtual CPUs with 16 PHP workers, which allows the clients to satisfy all of their website needs

Acer Aspire 7 (A717-71G) Review

Acer’s new entry to the gaming laptop market with their Acer Aspire 7 is worth taking note of. The laptop looks sleek and well designed on the outside, but it lacks some of the trademarks features its competitors in the same, or similar price range and market have had for a while now. Even though its internals gives out a gaming laptop vibe, Acer is trying to position the Acer Aspire 7 as a multimedia all-rounder laptop[. It’s an argument that has a decent amount of truth to it, but with some of the Aspire 7’s limitations, we’ll try to see how far that argument can take the laptop.

Technical Specifications

CPU Core i7-7700HQ 3.8Ghz
GPU GTX  1060 6GB
RAM 8GB DDR4 2400Mhz
STORAGE 1GB 5400 RPM

How Well Built Is The Laptop?

If we take a look at the bulkiness of the laptop, it measures around 27mm which easily puts it in the bulky category. This is a laptop, so the big screen added with the bit of bulk, makes it a bit harder to carry around and transport. If you like gaming on the move, this might be a little bit of a problem, but overall, it shouldn’t cause you too much trouble.

The material covering the lid of the laptop is brushed aluminium which makes the laptop look a little more premium and gives it a certain sturdiness in the middle, except for the bottom chin due to the distances at which the hinges have been placed. It feels a little flexible and prone to bending, but this won’t cause any problems in an ordinary usage scenario.

Furthermore, the laptop comes equipped with a USB-C port, LAN port, HDMI, USB 3.0, 3.5mm audio jack and 2 USB 2.0 ports. Pretty standard for a laptop, and will suffice for most users. The addition of a Kensington lock and Thunderbolt support would have been nice, but sadly it’s lacking here.

Overall, it’s missing the key marker of a gaming laptop physically speaking, which can either be an advantage, or disadvantage depending on what you want to use the laptop for primarily. The design is clean enough so you can bring it into work without anyone knowing that it’s a gaming laptop which is a plus in some scenarios. However, if you want cool RGB lights and coloured keyboard keys, this laptop isn’t for you.

Is The Screen On Par For a Multimedia or Gaming Laptop?

The first thing you’ll notice when unboxing the laptop is the big 17-inch screen. At one point in time, 17 inches used to be the standard for desktop monitors, and with good reason. When put on a laptop, the 17-inch screen does look huge, and it would be perfect for playing FPS games with a wider FOV or watching movies and TV shows. While the bigger screen is a plus it’s not only the size that matters.

It has a pixel density of 127ppi, with great viewing angles. Furthermore, the Acer Aspire 7’s maximum brightness settings are bright indeed and are perfect for viewing in direct sunlight if your desk happens to be positioned against a window, or in a place where a lot of sunlight comes in. It has a decent sRGB range coverage and colour reproduction. Overall, it’s not the best laptop screen on the market, but do remember that this is a budget gaming laptop. When considering that, the screen is more than decent and will be perfect for multimedia consumption.

Battery Life

The battery life is relatively good considering this is a Windows laptop. Overall web browsing should give you about 6-7 hours of light web browsing without media playback in the background while watching movies or tv shows will make the laptop last about 4 hours on average, which isn’t bad at all.

Gaming on the other hand will give you around 1 hour and 30 minutes which is ok for a quick and light gaming session. However, if you want to play heavier games you have to use the charger because of the lack of power when the laptop is running on the battery which will result in poor fps, and because it will run out fast.

Touchpad and Keyboard

The Keyboard is wide enough to be comfortably used for hours on end, and the placement of the keys is great. On the right side, you will find a num pad which is a bit smaller and can make things a bit difficult if you have large fingers, but overall the experience of using the keyboard is very close to using a full-size desktop PC keyboard which is a big plus.

When it comes to the touchpad it has some positives and some negatives attached to it. It’s placed a little on the left which can impair the default hand placement on the WASD keys, but its responsiveness is decent for both moving the cursor and scrolling up and down. It doesn’t detect movement at the edges which are good for preventing accidental movement of the cursor.

You can also configure hand gestures of up to 3 fingers which is always a good addition.

Performance

The Acer Aspire 7 comes with an i7-7700HQ 3.8 GHz processor which is still very capable to this day. Running Office applications or applications such as Photoshop and Illustrator can be done without hassle and the laptop handles them perfectly. Opening more than one application at the same time can be limited by the RAM of 8GB, which is a little low for a gaming/productivity laptop. 16GB RAM is pretty much the standard nowadays and with good reason.

Furthermore, the GTX 1060 6GB is a very decent performing GPU even today, easily matching up to the GTX2060 with a very small percentage in the performance difference. It can handle most modern games at a Medium graphical present which is more than decent if you are a light gamer. If you are planning on playing FPS games for more frames it would be wise to tweak the graphical settings individually to best suit your needs.

Verdict

Overall, the Acer Aspire 7 is very decent gaming and multimedia laptop. The downsides are the 8GB RAM and the 1TB 5400rpm HDD, but both the RAM and Storage can be upgraded for more performance if needed. The laptop has an SSD expansion slot, which is the first thing you should upgrade if you’re considering buying the laptop. 

 

A big 17-inch screen will do any games and movies justice and it can be used in direct sunlight without too much trouble due to the high brightness of the screen. For the price point, it’s hard to beat the performance and overall looks of the laptop.