A sleek and inexpensive Windows 8.1 laptop with an infuriating flaw
Inexpensive laptops tend to be cheaply made and plain in appearance - or even downright ugly. The Acer Aspire V3-371 proves this doesn’t have to be the case. Despite costing just £430, it’s a surprisingly well-made and classy-looking laptop.
Most of the V3-371 is made of rigid white plastic. The exception being the lid, which is all eye-catching brushed metal, giving the laptop a touch of style. While it looks good, the lid is the one weak spot in the laptop’s otherwise robust construction - flexing as it does under pressure more than we’d like. But this is a price we're willing to pay, given how slender and lightweight the laptop is - at just 1.5kg, carrying it around all day is a breeze.
The V3-371’s appeal isn’t just skin deep. It comes equipped with a 2GHz Intel Core i3 dual-core processor and 4GB of memory, so it’s fast enough to run most programs. It’ll only struggle with really demanding tasks such as editing video or playing the latest 3D games, which is mostly down to the unimpressive performance of the Intel integrated graphics chip. Although in theory you can upgrade the memory to a maximum of 16GB, this is easier said than done as the casing is tricky to prise open.
The 500GB hard drive is joined by an 8GB SSD, a very welcome addition that helps reduce startup and wake-from-sleep times when compared to laptops that only have a hard drive. Battery life was impressive for a laptop at this price, coming in at just over 11 hours in our light-usage test.
Although we’d prefer the keys to have a little more travel, they’re still very comfortable to type on. Because there’s no touchscreen, you use the touchpad to perform gestures such as pinch to zoom. Unfortunately, the touchpad is frustratingly laggy and would often become completely unresponsive. It’s a common problem with this model and the only solution is to get Acer to repair it.
Acer has made several compromises with the 13in screen, but these are understandable given the low price. Although bright, colour accuracy and contrast are mediocre at best, while viewing angles are narrow. There’s also a slight grainy sheen, but it’s not too bad. Unusually, the screen has a matte finish instead of a glossy one, which reduces the amount of glare caused by light reflecting off the screen.
The Acer Aspire V3-371 is a good-value laptop with long battery' life, good performance, sleek looks and a bright, anti-glare screen - all at a low price. It’s therefore a real shame that its touchpad is so flawed. We’d buy it from a reputable retailer with a good returns policy and check the touchpad as soon as you get it out of the box.
VERDICT
A good-value ultra-portable laptop let down only by its badly designed touchpad.
SPECIFICATIONS
2GHz Intel Core i3 4158U dual-core processor • 4GB memory • 500CB hard drive • 8CB SSD • Intel integrated graphics chip • 13in 1366x768-pixel screen • 802.11a/b/g/n • Windows 8.1 • 1.5kg (1.8kg with charger) • 20x327x228mm • One-year warranty