Acer Aspire E 15 ES1-512-C88M Very Affordable 15.6″ Laptop

The Acer Aspire E 15 ES1-512-C88M is one of the cheapest Windows notebooks. For a current price of around $250, the laptop delivers a full-size 15.6-inch display, entry level Intel Celeron processor, and common system memory and data storage capacities of 4GB and 500GB, respectively.

The included Celeron N2840 “Bay Trail” dual-core chip runs at 2.16GHz. Combined with its Intel HD integrated graphics and 4GB RAM, it provides enough computing power for comfortable use of the laptop for day-to-day tasks like web surfing, writing articles in Word, Excel spreadsheet editing, video and music playback, and low-end gaming.

The screen resolution is usual 1366-by-768 pixels. The Acer Aspire E 15 ES1-512-C88M lacks a DVD optical drive and a dedicated number pad on the keyboard. The rest of the specs sheet includes all features an average user needs: stereo speakers, a web camera, one USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, HDMI video out, Wi-Fi and Ethernet LAN network connections, Bluetooth, and a multi-format media card reader.

The components are packed sleek 0.9″ thin casing, dominated by matte “Diamond Black” plastics with dots pattern. The notebook weighs in at 5.2 pounds.

Some time ago, we reviewed a very similar Aspire E 15 ES1 configuration and found the laptop appears to have durable chassis, an average screen quality with good brightness and acceptable viewing angles, typing experience better than on the competing budget notebooks, thanks to somewhat stiff keys and good key travel, and a pleasant-to-use trackpad. The laptop is one of the quietest and coolest on the market because of the power efficient processor and quiet fan. Sound is flat and muted due to position of the speakers on the bottom of the chassis. Some users may find awkward location of the ports, since majority of them are clustered on the rear side. The battery life in our web surf test via Wi-Fi lasted more than five hours, which is a respectable result. The battery and components aren’t user-replaceable.