Acer Aspire 5536 Laptop Computer Review
When you go through the user comments of most of the netbook reviews, there will be one point that will be stressed on, most of the time: It is possible to purchase a full-fledged laptop for the same price as some of the Intel Atom powered portables. We would correct these views a little, as the netbooks have hardly been about performance, they are basically about providing a “take me anywhere” access to the basic applications, which otherwise would require an very expensive ultra portable model. So our query is, if you have a less than 500 pounds to spend on a portable and do not aim for a netbook, is there any laptop on the market for you?
Yes, we do have one, and it is the Acer Aspire 5536. At less than 450 pounds, it is priced along the same lines as the high end notebooks that attract every single netbook freak, but this is a 15.6″ laptop with a solid, satisfactory specification, widescreen panel, impressive storage and a long battery life. It is in fact the smaller version of the recently released Acer Aspire 6530.
Design:
Cut out from the same cloth:
At the very first look at it, you would know that it is very similar to that of its 17.3″ cousin 6530. It sports the same glossy dark blue finishing on its lid, which in no time will be dominated by the unsightly fingerprints with the similar basic layout. Thankfully apart from the lid and bezel, rest of the machine has a matte finishing. The contrasting glossy black and textured matte grey interior of the laptop makes it look less like an enormous of plastic, as do the gentle curves on the front of the case. The light up Acer logo on the lid and the silver highlights on the hinges of the screen have been taken off the design of its cousin and neither of it is a big loss. Yet another difference between the models is that the lid is held closed by a slightly awkward to push springed clasp. A large fan on the rear ensures the chassis stays cool at all times. The built quality is quite good and does not show any sign of keyboard flex that was found in some of its siblings.
The large, blue backlit power button is an attractive touch to the laptop. A big change in the placement of the buttons and controls is that, the wireless switches and backup button have been moved from beside the keyboard to just above it. You will also find the Launch Manager and as a welcome addition, the device includes a dedicated physical volume controls and you can still retain the option of using secondary functions on the cursor keys.
Unique keyboard design:
The Acer 5536 has a full sized keyboard with a separate numeric keypad as the compared model, but has a slightly different design and has changes that are most welcome. The layout is spot on with everything in its proper place and intelligent shortcuts. The low profiles keys are similar to the chiclet styled ones about which we have discussed in the Apple and Sony models. But the difference with these keys are that, these wide, flat key tops sit above the keyboard tray rather than poking through the holes in it. So, all the fluff, crumbs and the other desktop detritus will accumulate in the empty space beneath the keys. The keys have a solid, positive action without a hint of flex. However, the overall design looks great and works excellently.
Disappointing Trackpad:
So far we have been happy with the fact that the Aspire 5536 Notebook Computer had inherited its design ideas from 6530, but we were disappointed to see that the laptop has adopted its irksome trackpad design too. The trackpad is simply a shallow area in the wrist rest with pretty much nothing to separate the touch sensitive area from the flush sitting buttons. With this kind of a placement, often, a button pressing finger might stray onto the trackpad and the mouse cursor will jump around. This will be an irritating issue on a long run and if it becomes too much for you, like all the recent Acer laptops, the 5536 too offers a backlit touchpad deactivation button. Multi touch is another feature that is now almost a standard on the Acer portables and it works just fine here too. The multi touch functions that are available include pinch zoom in and out of photos and web pages. The single dual-click mouse button is less practical, however. You have to click in specific areas for it to register, which provides awkward usability.
The display and its quality:
The screen of the Aspire 5536 is only .4″ smaller than 6530 and has the same width, but the model is not quite as deep and is fairly lighter at just 2.8Kgs. However, it is still not a laptop that you would want to lug around all day. The image quality of the display is fine but the vertical resolution of 768 pixels is disappointingly very lower so you have to tilt it at just the right angle in order to get the best out of it. However, it looks much better than its sibling as the resolution is more acceptable in its 15.6″ display. The greyscale performance is also slightly below par, so you might lose detail on particularly bright or dark scenes depending on the angle. You will witness banding across gradients, but there is no sign of backlight bleed. The screen is bright and clear and even the smallest of text is simply sharp. With the LED backlight, it is evenly lit. But since the display is extremely glossy, it can be over reflective in certain conditions and will not suite everyone.
Perfect aspect ratio:
A surprising fact about the display is that, it possesses an aspect ratio of 16:9, which is a big leap from the usual aspect ratio of 16:10. So, the advantage of having 16:9 ratio is that, it eliminates the black borders while watching the widescreen movies. We bet every one of you at some point of time wanted to get rid of those black borders. But make a note that this applies only to the movies that are presented in 16:9 aspect ratio. Many of the movies still have the 2.20:1 aspect ratio and they will still have the black borders on top and bottom.
Just adequate connectivity:
While you will not be finding anything that is extra-ordinary, the Acer Aspire 5536 15.6″ Laptop has adequate connectivity. Along the left hand side there is a power jack, Gigabit Ethernet port, HDMI and VGA video outputs, two USB ports and three 3.5mm audio jacks, allowing for both digital and analogue surround sound. The memory card reader in the front will take MMC, SD/HC, xD and MS/Pro/Duo and in the right side you will also find two more USB ports , a tray holding the DVD rewriter and a modem port who are still waiting for their broadband connectivity.
Features:
The Acer Aspire 5536 comes in numerous configurations as you can see in the table in the technical specifications area. However, in this review, we will discuss about a couple of popular ones.
Acer Aspire 5536-643G50Mn:
The Acer Aspire 5536-643G50Mn has specifications identical to the 6530-623G25Mn, with a 2.1GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 QL-64 CPU, 3GB of RAM and an ATI Radeon HD 3200 GPU. As a result, their similar bench mark results do not come as a surprise. The 500GB hard disk of the 5536-643G50Mn is much faster than the 250GB drive of 6530-623G25Mn. With this difference, our model managed to get slightly better scores in some of the tests. With the scores we can say that the laptop is well capable of efficiently handling the applications the home users are most likely to run like word processing and watching videos. When tested for graphics, we would say that the 5536-643G50Mn is good for 3D gaming only if the resolution and the detail settings are kept low.
We are happy that Acer has not cut corners with the OS. Unlike most of the sub £400 laptops, the Aspire 5536 offers Vista Home Premium rather than the Home Basic. This means, the laptop includes Mobility Center, Media Center and Backup client, while also supporting the Aero Glass transparency effects.
Acer Aspire 5536-744G50Mn:
The Acer Aspire 5536-744G50Mn runs on the dual-core AMD Turion X2 RM-74 running at 2.2GHz , which is the non-ultra range of the Turion range that is consistently outperformed by Acer Aspire’s 7535G-824G50Mn that uses AMD Turion X2 Ultra ZM-82 running at the same 2.2GHz. So, it is clear that the device does not have the best of the mobile parts and it also falls behind the Toshiba Satellite L300-29T’s 1.8GHz Intel Celeron processor. Yet, the processor is just fine for the average consumer needs, but we also notices that the boot times are very slow and that the limitations of the processor are very evident in the CPU intensive tasks.
In order to make up for the under-performing CPU, the rest of the specifications of the model are very generous. You are complimented with 4GB of DDR3 RAM on board even though the 32 bit version of the Windows Vista Premium will not be able to take full advantage of it. You are also offered with abundant hard drive storage of 500GB that spins at 5400rpm. We totally regret the absence of Bluetooth; however the offered WiFi is upto Draft-N speeds. With AMD configurations we usually assume that the graphics is the single major point, but in this case with the Radeon HD 3200, it is not the same. Although it is better than Intel’s equivalent, you will still not be able to play games.
Very average audio:
With the Dolby home theatre branding, you might assume that the Aspire 5536 might be having a superior audio quality. But in reality, it is just slightly better than most of the other laptops that we had reviewed. Unlike its siblings, it does not have any bass enhancing tube at the rear and as the result, the speakers might sound a bit tinny. Its smaller chassis lets us down by producing some noticeable distortion at anything that is higher than half its maximum volume level. However, even at 50 percent volume, it is louder than many of the similarly sized models. They are just fine for the odd spot of music.
Battery:
The 4,400mAh battery of the Acer Aspire 5536 lasts for 59 minutes in the intensive battery use test. It lasts for about 2 hours with the WiFi enabled activities and with less demanding usage, the battery lasts for about 3 hours and 14 minutes. This is certainly not a great deal of battery, but is sufficient for catching up on some work on the go without reaching for the mains extension lead.
Warranty:
The Acer Aspire 5536 comes with limited one year international travellers warranty.
Verdict:
Overall, with specifications that are similar to its costlier sibling, we would suggest that it is a better deal. It also has the other advantages of being smaller and lighter making it a great all rounder for anybody who is seeking an affordable laptop with a big screen and keyboard with good feedback. With numerous configurations available, we are sure that you will be able to find that one combination that will suite most of your needs. If you are looking for better performance at the same time, the MSI and Toshiba systems are great for daily use. At such a low price, the Acer Aspire 5536 is truly a great laptop for home and office and offers you with stunning value for money.
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Configurations Available:
|
Model name |
OS |
Processor |
RAM |
HDD |
Graphics Processor |
Webcam Availability |
|
Acer Aspire 5536 – 643G25Mn |
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium |
AMD® Athlon QL-64 (2.1GHz, 1 Mb L2 Cache, 3.6 MHz FSB) |
3GB |
250GB 5400rpm Hard Disk Drive |
ATI Radeon™ HD 3200 Graphics (256Mb) |
No |
|
Aspire 5536-643G50Mn |
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium |
AMD® Athlon QL-64 (2.1GHz, 1 Mb L2 Cache, 3.6 MHz FSB) |
3GB |
500GB 5400rpm Hard Disk Drive |
ATI Radeon™ HD 3200 Graphics (256Mb) |
0.3 MP Crystal Eye Webcam |
|
Aspire 5536-744G32Mn |
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium |
AMD® Turion RM-74 (2.2GHz, 1 Mb L2 Cache, 800 MHz FSB) |
4GB |
320GB 5400rpm Hard Disk Drive |
ATI Radeon™ HD 3200 Graphics (256Mb) |
0.3 MP Crystal Eye Webcam |
|
Aspire 5536G-744G32Mn |
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium |
AMD® Turion RM-74 (2.2GHz, 1 Mb L2 Cache, 800 MHz FSB) |
4GB |
320GB 5400rpm Hard Disk Drive |
ATI HD 4570 Graphics (512Mb) |
0.3 MP Crystal Eye Webcam |
|
AS5536-623G50MN |
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium |
AMD® Athlon QL-62 (2.0GHz, 1 Mb L2 Cache, 3.6 MHz FSB) |
3GB |
500GB 5400rpm Hard Disk Drive |
Shared Graphics |
No |
|
AS5536G-744G32MN VHP32ATGB1 MC |
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium |
AMD® Turion RM-74 (2.2GHz, 1 Mb L2 Cache, 800 MHz FSB) |
4GB |
320GB 5400rpm Hard Disk Drive |
ATI Radeon™ HD 3200 Graphics (512Mb) |
0.3 MP Crystal Eye Webcam |
|
AS5536-643G25MN |
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic |
AMD® Athlon X2 QL-64 (2.1GHz, 1 Mb L2 Cache, 3.6 MHz FSB) |
3GB |
250GB 5400rpm Hard Disk Drive |
Shared Graphics |
No |
|
AS5536-643G50MN |
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium |
AMD® Athlon X2 QL-64 (2.1GHz, 1 Mb L2 Cache, 3600 MHz FSB) |
3GB |
500GB 5400rpm Hard Disk Drive |
Shared Graphics |
0.3 MP Crystal Eye Webcam |
|
AS5536-643G50MN |
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium |
AMD® Athlon X2 QL-64 (2.1GHz, 1 Mb L2 Cache, 3600 MHz FSB) |
3GB |
500GB 5400rpm Hard Disk Drive |
Shared Graphics |
0.3 MP Crystal Eye Webcam |
|
AS5536-752G25MN |
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium |
AMD Turion™ X2 dual-core mobile RM-75 (2.2 GHz, 1 MB L2 cache) |
2GB |
250 GB HDD |
- |
Acer Crystal Eye webcam |
Acer Aspire 5536 15.6 inch Laptop Notebook – Technical Specification Details
| Manufacturer | Acer |
| Model Name | Acer Aspire 5536 |
| PC type | Laptop |
| Series | Aspire 5536 |
| DIMENSIONS AND DISPLAY | |
| Dimensions (W x D x H) | 15.1 x 9.9 x 1.03/1.5 inches |
| Weight | 2.8 kg |
| Available colours | Glossy Midnight Blue |
| Display Type | WXGA high-brightness (220-nit) Acer CrystalBrite TFT LCD |
| Display Size | 15.6″ |
| Resolution | High-def 1366 x 768 pixel resolution |
| Response time | 8 ms high-def response time |
| PROCESSOR, MEMORY, STORAGE | Refer configurations |
| Optical drive | 4X Blu-ray Disc/DVD-Super Multi double-layer drive or 8X DVD-Super Multi double-layer drive |
| Memory card reader | 5-in-1 card reader, supporting Secure Digital (SD) Card, MultiMediaCard (MMC), Memory Stick (MS), Memory Stick PRO (MS PRO), xD-Picture Card (xD) |
| INPUT | |
| Keyboard | 103-/104-/107-key keyboard |
| Track pad | Multi-gesture touchpad pointing device, supporting: • Circular-motion scrolling • Pinch-action zoom • Page flip |
| GRAPHICS AND SOUND | Refer configurations |
| Speakers | Dolby-optimized surround sound system with two built-in stereo speakers S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface) support for digital speakers MS-Sound compatible Built-in microphone |
| Audio features | Optimized 3rd Generation Dolby Home Theater audio enhancement, featuring Dolby Digital Live, Dolby Pro Logic IIx, Dolby Headphone, Dolby Natural Bass, Dolby Sound Space Expander, Dolby Inverse Filtering, Dolby High Frequency Enhancer technologies |
| Sound Output | True5.1-channel surround sound output High-definition audio support |
| COMMUNICATION FEATURES | |
| Ethernet | Wake-on-Ring ready Gigabit Ethernet |
| Modem | 56K ITU V.92 modem with PTT approval |
| Wireless | Optional Acer Xpress VoIP phone Acer InviLink Nplify 802.11b/g/Draft-N Wi-Fi network connection or Acer InviLink 802.11b/g Wi-Fi network connection supporting Acer SignalUp wireless technology Wake-on-LAN ready Bluetooth 2.0+EDR |
| Webcam | Acer Crystal Eye webcam |
| CONNECTIVITY | 5-in-1 card reader (SD, MMC, MS, MS PRO, xD) 4x USB 2.0 ports 1x HDMI™ port with HDCP support 1x external display (VGA) port 1x Headphone/speaker/line-out jack 1x Microphone-in jack 1x Line-in jack 1x Modem (RJ-11) port 1x Ethernet (RJ-45) port 1x DC-in jack for AC adapter |
| SOFTWARE | |
| Operating System | Refer Configurations |
| Security features | Acer Bio-Protection fingerprint solution, featuring Windows logon, computer protection, Acer FingerLaunch, ProfileLaunch, MusicLaunch, Password Bank, MyLaunch, FingerNav, Slot for Kensington lock, BIOS user, supervisor, HDD passwords |
| Office package | Microsoft Works with Office Home and Student 2007 Trial (Service Pack 1) |
| Other software | Acer Arcade Deluxe featuring Cinema, Album, Music, Acer HomeMedia, Acer Bio-Protection (only on models with fingerprint reader), Acer Crystal Eye(only on models with webcam), Acer GridVista, Acer GameZone, McAfee Internet Security Suite 60-day trial version, Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash Player, Google Toolbar Google Desktop, CyberLink PowerDirector trial version, NTI Media Maker and Recovery Management |
| BATTERY | |
| Battery technology | Li-ion |
| Battery capacity | 4400 mAh |
| Estimated battery life (mfr) | 3 hours |
| MISCELLANEOUS | |
| Accessories options | Acer Xpress VoIP phone and Acer Video Conference Manager pack Memory expansion modules Additional battery Additional AC adapter External USB floppy disk drive |
| WARRANTY AND SERVICE | One-year International Travellers Warranty |
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