Acer Aspire V5-431 Review

Laptops are getting slimmer by the day, but there hasn’t been much compromise on the price factor, yet. Low-budget laptops, on the other hand have had certain tradeoffs between specs and design. With the entry of the new Aspire V5 series, Acer is planning to converge the beautiful design that often accompanies an Ultrabook with a pretty low price tag for their new V5-431. But does the Aspire V5 have enough to beat competition? Let’s find out. 

A 14-inch display

Design and Build quality

The Acer Aspire V5-431 is a 14-inch notebook that comes with a silver scratch resistant exterior and it borrows a lot in terms of looks from the top notebooks in the market. Well that’s definitely not a bad thing keeping in mind the price tag. The V5 has a dual-tone finish of silver and black and it looks pretty sleek and stylish. No metal has been used in the construction but the finish is still superior and looks unlike the hordes of plasticky laptops in the market. The corners have a nice contoured finish to them which further add to the style of the V5. Let’s have a quick tour of the notebook after the break. 

The ports

The V5-431 comes with a 14-inch display with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels and a webcam on top. The left consists of a power slot, the heatsink, a proprietary slot to plug-in the adaptor for the Gigabit ethernet port and the VGA port, an HDMI slot, a USB 3.0 port, two USB 2.0 ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The DVD writer and the Kensington lock are located to the right. Below the screen rests a full-sized keyboard, along with a power ON button. The trackpad is located a little off the centre, so it doesn’t come in the way while typing. The SD card slot and notification lights are located at the bottom of the notebook. It is important to note that there is no eSATA port, fingerprint sensor or a backlit keyboard - which are price-related tradeoffs. 

Slim and sexy

At 2.1 kg, the V5 turns out to be pretty lightweight, easy to carry around during those long trips, without compromising on the form factor. Coming to the build quality, we had our doubts that this notebook would be able to withstand our testing, but we came out surprisingly impressed. The hinges run throughout the bottom frame and provide a good amount of resistance towards wobbling. The overall chassis doesn’t have any flimsy or creaky feel to it.  

Well-spaced keys

The LCD panel could have been better reinforced, though, as it turns out to be quite delicate. The buttons have a good amount of tactile feel and the bottom itself feels quite sturdy. In terms of design aesthetics, the V5-431 is quite a looker and has the capacity to compete with quite a few of the top of the line models.