If you have stumbled upon the Acer Aspire E1 laptop and want to know how it generally compares to the other available notebooks on the market in terms of features and specifications, you should read this article. Also, here we have a specs comparison table of the E1 models.
First of all, the 1.56″ Aspire E1 is Acer’s lowest-end notebook series, if you exclude the Aspire One line which consists of netbooks and entry ultraportable laptops. That said, don’t expect the E1 to meet expectations of those wanting high performance and premium design. On the other side, the E1 belongs to a group of the most affordable laptops, sharing the market with systems such as the HP Pavilion G-series, Toshiba Satellite C855, Dell Inspirons, and others. The E1 line ranges between $380 and $550, depending on the configuration. Currently there are four configs, all with Intel CPUs. Starting from the cheapest, we have the E1-531-2697 with the Intel Celeron B820 and a 320GB hard drive, while the $20 more expensive E1-531-4444 has the faster Pentium B950 as the only difference. The E1-571-6650 packs the 2nd Generation Core i3-2370M and a 500GB HDD, while the E1-571-6492 selling for $550 uses the i5-2450M inside the otherwise identical notebook. All models come only with Intel HD on-CPU graphics, 4GB RAM, a DVD burner, 1366×768 glossy display, stereo speakers, HDMI out, and three USB 2.0 ports (no USB 3.0 tech available).
Overall, the most suitable comparison of the Acer Aspire E1 series is with the last year’s budget notebooks, since they share the same 2011 “Sandy Bridge” computing technology.
You can’t expect design miracles either. The notebook’s body is completely made of plastics, glossy plastics more precisely. Therefore, it’s hard to keep this kind of laptop fingerprint-free and it looks a kind of cheap. What makes the E1 stand out is a different color of the palm rest, which is light gray, whereas the other parts of the body are black. This can be interesting to some people, but on the other hand, you can take a look at a more simplistic and elegant design of the Asus X401 series, for instance.
The Acer Aspire E1 is not destined to impress with looks and performance, but many consumers end up buying notebooks like that due to their low prices.
Acer Aspire E1 Specifications
Model | E1-531-2697 | E1-531-4444 | E1-571-6650 | E1-571-6492 |
Display | 15.6″ 1366×768 CineCrystal (glossy) | |||
Processor | Intel Celeron B820 dual-core 1.7GHz, 2MB cache | Intel Pentium B950 dual core 2.1GHz, 2MB cache | Intel Core i3-2370M dual-core 2.4GHz, 3MB cache | Intel Core i5-2450M dual-core up to 3.1GHz with TurboBoost, 3MB cache |
Graphics | Intel HD integrated | |||
Memory | 4GB DDR3, expandable to 8GB, 2 slots | |||
Storage | 320GB at 5,400rpm | 500GB at 5,400rpm | ||
Optical drive | DVD burner | |||
Webcam | Yes, unknown type, with microphone | |||
Audio | Stereo speakers | |||
Network | 802.11n wireless, Gigabit LAN, no Bluetooth | |||
Input | Keyboard with numeric pad, multi-touch trackpad | |||
Ports & Slots | 3 x USB 2.0, HDMI, VGA, multi-format card reader | |||
Battery | 6-cell Lithium-Ion | |||
Dimensions | 1.3″ x 15″ x 10″ | |||
Weight | 5.4 pounds | |||
OS | Windows 7 Home Premium | |||
Warranty | 1-Year | |||
Price (MSRP) | $380 | $400 | $480 | $550 |
is there a difference between the submodels of the acer aspire e1-531?
Yes, there is. For instance the Acer Aspire E1-531-2644 is with an Intel Celeron CPU and a 500GB HDD, the E1-531-4444 is Pentium-based and has a 320GB HDD, and so on. On the other side, the chassis is the same on all E1 models.
There are two models the 2686 and 2438 and the tech specs are the same is it possible there is no difference between them? I can’t find much information online about it.
The E1-531-2438 is black, while the E1-531-2686 is red (I didn’t know the red and black models exist). However, the image of the 2438 on Acer.com shows a silver palm rest. The colors is the only difference between them, according to Acer.com http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/models/notebooks/aspiree
Yes that’s what I though. Good thing I’m not going crazy. Thank you!
I am currently using this laptop. Although it is rubbish compared to many newer versions of laptops, this is good for its price. It works really fast for video games even though the graphic pixels are not the best.