Acer Aspire 5 15 (2023)  Laptop Review

The Acer Aspire 5 2023 is available in a Steel Gray or Iron (slightly darker gray) colorway. See the bottom of the laptop here.

The Acer Aspire 5 2023 feels relatively sturdy despite its all-plastic construction. There's some flex on the lid and keyboard deck, and the display twists when manipulating it, but these issues aren't bad enough to be of concern. The finish doesn't easily scratch or pick up fingerprints, and the feet feel solid.

The hinges feel fairly smooth when opening and closing the lid; however, they have far too much resistance to allow for a one-handed lift. As for stability, there's some wobble when adjusting the screen's tilt, but it isn't as much of an issue when typing heavily.

Accessing the Acer Aspire 5 2023's internals is relatively easy; you need to remove 11 Philips screws and release the bottom panel's clips with a prying tool. The storage slot supports M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSDs.

See the service guide here.

• 65W power adapter and cord
• Documentation

The Acer Aspire 5 2023 is only available with an FHD display, with or without touch input support. A 1080p resolution is passable at this screen size; you can see individual pixels up close, but this isn't an issue at typical viewing distances. 16:9 is a standard aspect ratio that's well suited for media consumption since most videos are in that format; however, a 16:10 or 3:2 aspect ratio would have been better for productivity, as the increased vertical space lets you see more text when reading a document or website, so you don't have to scroll as much. Check out the newer Acer Aspire 15 (2024) if you want a similar laptop available with a sharper QHD display.

The display has a slow response time, resulting in noticeable ghosting in fast-moving scenes.

The display's contrast ratio is decent and within the typical range for most IPS panels; however, it's still relatively low compared to other display technologies like VA and OLED. Blacks look gray in dim settings.

The display gets bright enough for use in most indoor settings but not in sunny environments or outdoors in broad daylight. It gets very dim at the lowest brightness setting, which is great for dark room viewing as it causes less eye strain.

The display's reflection handling is decent. Its matte coating does a fairly good job of diffusing and reducing the intensity of bright light sources. You can see some reflections when viewing bright-color content with the screen at maximum brightness, but they aren't overly distracting.

The display's out-of-the-box accuracy is bad, mainly because this panel has a narrow color gamut and can't reproduce bright, saturated tones. The gamma is also too low in most scenes, making them too dark.

The display has a poor color gamut. It doesn't even have full coverage of the commonly used sRGB color space, making most content look slightly washed out. It also doesn't have enough coverage of the wider Adobe RGB and DCI P3 color spaces for color-critical work like print photography and HDR video production. The touch-sensitive panel is identical.

The Acer Aspire 5 2023's keyboard provides a decent typing experience. Its layout feels spacious and is easy to get used to. While the keys are reasonably stable and require little force to actuate, they could use a bit more travel and tactility. The mushiness is especially noticeable on the spacebar and backspace keys. Backlighting is optional, so check the specifications if it's something you care about.

The touchpad is okay. It's reasonably large for a 15-inch device and tracks movements and gestures well. However, palm rejection and dragging and dropping items across a long distance don't always work. This is a diving board touchpad, so you can only click in the bottom half. Unfortunately, the buttons feel mushy and cheap, providing almost no tactile feedback.

The speakers get pretty loud with minimal compression at high volume levels. They sound clear but unnatural, with almost no bass.

The Acer Aspire 5 2023's webcam is okay. The image looks decently detailed but a tad overexposed, with slightly washed-out colors. As for the audio, while voices come across clearly with little to no static background noise, the volume is far too low, so you'll have to adjust the gain manually.

The Acer Aspire 5 2023 has a mediocre port selection. Both USB-As support USB 3.2 Gen 1 data transfer speed of up to 5Gbps. Some models have a USB-C (with charging and Thunderbolt 4 support) and/or Ethernet port, so check the specifications if this matters to you.

The Acer Aspire 5 2023's wireless adapter is an Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201.

The Acer Aspire 5 2023 is available with the following CPUs:

• Intel Core i3-1305U (5 cores/6 threads, up to 4.50GHz, 10M cache)
• Intel Core i3-1315U (6 cores/8 threads, up to 4.50GHz, 10MB cache)
• Intel Core i5-1335U (10 cores/12 threads, up to 4.60GHz, 12MB cache)
• Intel Core i7-1355U (10 cores/12 threads, up to 5.00GHz, 12MB cache)
• Intel Core i5-13420H (8 cores/12 threads, up to 4.60GHz, 12MB cache)
• Intel Core i7-13620H (10 cores/16 threads, up to 4.90GHz, 24MB cache)
• Intel Core i9-13900H (14 cores/20 threads, up to 5.40GHz, 24MB cache)

The available processors are in two categories: the low-power U-series CPUs typically found in ultraportables and the more powerful and power-hungry H-series CPUs typically found in gaming laptops and workstations. A U-series CPU is likely more than adequate if you only perform general productivity tasks like web browsing, text processing, spreadsheets, and video playback. More CPU cores will give you better multi-thread performance, so heavy multitaskers should opt for a Core i5 or i7. As for the H-series CPUs, these are faster processors that can handle more demanding workloads, like programming and scientific studies. The downside is that they consume more power, so expect the battery life to be noticeably shorter. All the available CPUs have a hybrid architecture comprising performance and efficiency cores; see here for more information.

The Acer Aspire 5 2023 is only available with integrated graphics. Depending on the CPU, it's either Intel UHD Graphics or Iris Xe. There's some performance difference between these two integrated GPUs, and even between the Core i5 and i7/i9's Iris Xe, but ultimately, these are all low-power GPUs designed for light productivity tasks, so don't expect to do anything intensive. Check out the Dell Precision 3591 (2024) if you need a laptop with more powerful GPUs for professional workloads like 3D design and simulation.

You can get this laptop with 8GB or 16GB of RAM. The memory isn't user-replaceable.

You can configure this laptop with 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of storage. The SSD is user-replaceable: the slot supports M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSDs.

The Acer Aspire 5 2023's Intel Core i5-1335U CPU scores well in the Geekbench 5 benchmarks. It can handle a variety of general productivity tasks with no issues; however, it isn't ideal for heavily multi-threaded applications. For more demanding workloads, getting a model with a higher-wattage H-series CPU, like the Core i7-13620H or i9-13900H, is best. The integrated graphics perform poorly and aren't suitable for GPU-intensive tasks.

The Acer Aspire 5 2023's Intel Core i5-1335U CPU performs reasonably well. That said, if you're a heavy multitasker or plan on running intensive, multi-threaded applications, getting a model with an H-series CPU is best, as it'll provide a smoother experience and complete tasks faster.

While you can render 3D images in Blender using the CPU, it's best to get a laptop with a discrete GPU, as even an entry-level GPU, like the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, can render images much faster.

The CPU's integrated graphics perform poorly and aren't ideal for gaming. You can play some simple, puzzle-like games or older titles, but you'll have to play at a lower resolution or with low graphics settings to get playable frame rates.

Models with an H-series CPU likely have shorter battery life. For a 2-in-1 convertible Chromebook with better battery life, consider the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 (2024).

Borderlands 3 is unplayable on the Acer Aspire 5 2023. The integrated graphics can't handle this and other similarly demanding games.

Civilization VI is playable; however, you'll have to lower some graphical settings to get smooth gameplay, and the average turn time is very long. The H-series CPUs will get you faster turn times.

Counter-Strike 2 isn't playable on the Acer Aspire 5 2023. The gameplay is extremely choppy, sometimes freezing completely.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider isn't playable at 1080p. The game is too choppy and sometimes freezes completely, even with low graphical settings. The integrated GPU can't handle this and other similarly demanding games.

The keyboard deck only gets mildly warm under load, and the hot spot is near the top, away from where most people rest their hands. The fan is audible but no more than a whisper. Models with an H-series CPU will likely get hotter and louder.

The Acer Aspire 5 2023 has many pre-installed applications, including:

• Acer Jumpstart: Contains basic information about the laptop and its features.
• AcerSense: Lets you monitor system status, apply noise-canceling on video calls, optimize battery charging, see system information, and apply a blue light filter.
• App Explorer: Lets you explore the pre-installed apps on the laptop and contains ads for other apps.
• Care Center: Keeps drivers up to date.
• Dropbox Promotion: Ad for Dropbox file hosting service.
• Evernote: Note-taking app.
• ExpressVPN: Link for virtual private network service.
• Google Play Games beta: Lets you play mobile games from the Google Play Store.
• Intel Unison: Lets you connect your smartphone to the laptop, allowing you to send and receive messages, view photos taken on your smartphone, and transfer files, similar to Windows' MyPhone app.
• McAfee: Antivirus software. Requires subscription.
• Solitaire: Card game.
• Solitaire & Casual Games: Solitaire, FreeCell, Spider, Mahjong, Sudoku, and other casual games.
• Spades: Card game.

Some models have a fingerprint sensor, so check the specifications if it's a feature you care about.