Acer Aspire 5 A515-56-32DK Review: Suits your needs perfectly

If you are looking for a budget laptop for your daily tasks, and you don't know which model to choose, the Acer Aspire 5 lineup of computers, ranked among the best low-priced laptops on the market, may be the perfect solution for you and your wallet.

One of those models is the Acer Aspire 5 A515-56-32DK. A balanced laptop packed with an efficient 11th-Gen Intel Core i3 processor, a vibrant Full HD IPS screen, high-speed Wi-Fi connectivity, and an excellent battery life, amongst many other features.

For its killer price, it meets all the requirements for most people, especially those needing a cheap and robust build laptop with decent performance for everyday use, though it should be pointed out that it's not for gamers or hardcore users.

With that said, it's time for you to know this model in depth as we dive deep into this review of the Acer Aspire 5 A515-56-32DK.

The Acer Aspire 5 A515-56-32DK sports a minimalist design, featuring an elegant silver and black finish in the case and the keyboard that delivers a fantastic look, very similar to what we are used to seeing in more high-end notebooks.

At 5.4 pounds, it's obviously not as light compared to other low-cost laptops, but it's still an easy-to-carry laptop, with a profile of just 0.7 inches.

Equipped with IPS technology, the 15.6-inch screen allows you not only to watch your favorite multimedia content from almost any angle, but also in high definition (Full HD) offering a crisp image and a fairly decent level of brightness. 

In addition, its matte surface greatly favors your concentration, reducing the presence of reflections while you are getting your work done. However, we would not recommend using this laptop under direct sunlight as the screen brightness isn't as good as that of top-tier notebooks on the market. 

It has a spacious chiclet-type non-backlit keyboard with a pleasant feel and travel, equipped with a dedicated numeric keypad in order to make your office tasks seem effortless.

Its touchpad is just the right size and responsiveness allowing for precise navigation through Windows 11 Home, preinstalled in S mode.

If you are thinking of buying the Acer Aspire 5 A515-56-32DK, you should know that this model, despite being so competitively priced, ships with the 11th-Generation processor, Intel Core i3-1115G4, powered by 2 cores with a burst frequency of 4.10 GHz.

4 GB of RAM is more than enough to allow you to work on your day-to-day office tasks, answer emails, navigate through social media, surf the web, make video calls, amongst other daily tasks.

However, it’s clear that such an amount of RAM isn’t enough for running multiple software in the background, which is why it is recommended mainly for casual users and students who will carry out a few tasks, preventing many tabs from being open at once. 

If you would like to be able to handle numerous tasks at once then we would suggest upgrading the RAM, something we've already covered in this tutorial for another model in the same lineup.

On the other hand, the Intel UHD Graphics GPU is capable enough to play the most popular multimedia content, allowing you to stream 4K content smoothly and play videogames that are not-so-resource-heavy. 

We should note that since the screen features a Full HD definition you're going to need to connect an external monitor to view 4K content.

In terms of storage, the Acer Aspire 5 comes with a 128 GB solid-state drive (SSD), perfect for applications and your personal information. However, in the long run, it may be necessary to upgrade your storage either through an external drive or through the installation of a new storage unit within the device. Something we will be covering soon.  

Among the advantages of featuring an SSD drive vs your old HDD drive, we highlight its faster loading times; this being especially noticeable when running Windows (in less than 10 seconds), opening programs, and transferring data.

Acer has managed to put in a decent range of ports in this laptop, including 3 full-sized USB ports (two USB 3.2 and one USB 2.0), a single USB-C port, an HDMI 2.0 output to connect to external monitors, an Ethernet port, and a standard headphone/speaker audio jack.

It has Bluetooth 5.0 and Wi-Fi 6 which is awesome since it’s about 50% faster when browsing the web than the previous generation standard and it’s not common to find it in many of the entry-level laptops on the market. Most models within this price range will feature WiFi 5 connectivity. 

BTW, if you're thrown off by the new WiFi standard names, you're not alone. A few years back the WiFi powers that be finally decided it was time to change up the names to make them easier to understand for everyday users. 

In that sense, WiFi 5 corresponds to WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/ac connectivity whilst the WiFi 6 represents the 802.11 b/g/n/ac/ax standard. WiFi is backwards compatible so a device that's WiFi 6 can connect to WiFi 1. Here's a brief image if you want to feed the inner-geek that's in you.

There’s also a decent HD webcam for making video calls and a pair of speakers on the front sides, without much bass, but surprisingly loud at the highest volume.

According to Acer, the battery life of the Acer Aspire 5 A515-56-32DK can last up to 8.5 hours. The truth is that its performance usually varies depending on factors such as power-saving settings, the number of apps you run at the same time, and the brightness of the display.

However, many of its customers can attest to an average of 7 hours of 1080p video playback, thanks to its lower-power processor. A good rule of thumb is to always take the battery claims and slice them by about 25% to get a more realistic number when it comes to determining battery life.

Verdict: Should you buy it?