Acer Aspire E 15 E5-575G-53VG / E5-575G-76YK Laptop (15.6″ Full HD, Intel Core i5 / i7, Nvidia 940MX, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD)

The Acer Aspire E 15 E5-575G-53VG / E5-575G-76YK is one of the cheapest discrete graphics-equipped laptops on the market. For only about $550, you can get this 15.6-inch Windows 10-based notebook with a Full HD display, the Nvidia GeForce 940MX 2GB video card, an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB solid state drive, and a backlit keyboard.

The GeForce 940MX certainly isn’t a gaming-class notebook video card. But on the other hand, it offers a significant performance boost over the systems with integrated graphics processors. In addition, the 940MX includes 2GB of GDDR5 video memory instead of 2GB DDR3 of the 940M model, for a bit of extra frames per second rate boost. Overall, the 940MX can easily run many of the popular game titles, but in some demanding ones you’ll have to decrease graphics detail settings and resolution in order to get a smooth gaming experience.

The only difference between the Acer Aspire E 15 E5-575G-53VG and E5-575G-76YK models is the processor. The E5-575G-53VG comes with the Intel Core i5-6200U, whereas the E5-575G-76YK includes somewhat faster Core i7-6500U. Both CPUs are dual-core from the 6th Generation of Intel Core “Skylake” processors. They are excellent solutions for all PC tasks, being it web surfing, emailing, movie playback (including Ultra HD-quality ones), writing essays in Word, spreadsheet calculations, audio and video editing or gaming. Also, 8GB of DDR4 RAM ensures you won’t be having any performance problems if you run many apps simultaneously. We applaud Acer for including a 256GB solid state drive in the Aspire E 15 E5-575G-53VG, instead of usual and way slower hard drive storage.

Rounding off the excellent specifications of this model, the Full HD 1920×1080 screen resolution offers sharper picture and more space on the desktop for opened programs than the standard 1366×768 HD panels. Keyboard backlight is a cherry on the top, so the Acer Aspire E 15 E5-575G-53VG is one of the best equipped notebooks at the ~$550 price point. Despite lacking touchscreen support and IPS technology for wider viewing angles.

The rest of the specs sheet doesn’t bring any big surprises nor disappointments. The laptop features a built-in DVD writer optical drive, stereo speakers, an HD-quality web camera, stereo speakers, 802.11AC Wi-Fi wireless and Ethernet LAN wired Internet connections, Bluetooth, HDMI and VGA video-out connectors, an SD media card reader, and a combo mic / headphones audio port. Alongside one USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports in full sizes, the laptop sports one new USB-C type port.

The chassis of this averagely heavy 5.3-pound notebook is made of plastics, with glossy finish on the keyboard deck and textured finish on the display lid.

Acer claims the E 15 E5-575G-53VG / E5-575G-76YK has a battery life of “up to 12 hours”. This is a very bold statement. Similar notebooks, especially those with dedicated video cards, last around 4 hours on a charge in real life.