Acer Aspire E14 E5-473G-57QQ Unboxing And Impressions! A Sleek Powerful Affordable Everyday Laptop!

Most of the time, the humans of today often tend to look for a laptop workhorse that has decent power, long battery life and a design ID that you won't be afraid to show off. That's what Acer Aspire E14 E5-473G-57QQ boast to offer to the masses, students and young professionals.

Acer Aspire E14 review

Luckily, we at GIZGUIDE were able to secure one unit to share with you guys what we think about it and do a quick review, but first let's check the internals.

Acer Aspire E14 E5-473G-57QQ Specs

Display: 14 Inch 1366 x 768 resolution

CPU: Intel Core i5-5200U Processor (3M Cache, up to 2.70 GHz)

GPU: 2 GB NVIDIA GT940M VRAM

RAM: 4 GB DDR3 Up to 16 GB (Dual Slot)

ROM: 1 TB HDD w/ SD card reader

Camera: HD 720p front camera

Battery: Up to 8 hours

OS: Windows 8.1 Upgradeable to Windows 10

Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth, HDMI, VGA, 1 USB 3.0 / 2 USB 2.0 Ports

Others: 8X DVD Optical Drive

Dimensions: 18.7 x 12.05 x 2.56 inches

Weight: 5.07 pounds

Price: 34,990 Pesos

Unboxing / Accessories

The big box of this laptop

The Aspire E14 arrived in a big box that will make you think that you'll be receiving an extra large laptop package.

The laptop accessories

Upon opening I'm glad that the 14 inch screened laptop isn't that big and just have the right size. It comes with the usual package as you'll get the basic paper documentations like the manual and etc., the E14 itself and the laptop charger.

Build Quality

Upside down showing what's underneath the laptop

This aspect is probably one of the best part of this laptop as it's 3D printed textured plastic body looks and feels great. It's one of those very good kind of plastic that you can feel the toughness upon first look. Another thing that I liked about the plastic body of this device is the texture, aside from looking classy, this laptop is also surely less prone to those annoying hairline scratches. The cooling system at the side and below of this laptop was also well engineered as I like the number of holes I've seen to let the heat out. The rubber feet stoppers below was also effective to ensure that your unit won't slide-up that easily on smooth surfaces.

The Fan, VGA, RJ45, HDMI at the left

Another cool feature in the design of the Aspire is it's a full blown laptop. It has VGA, HDMI, SD card option, 2 USB 2.0 and 1 USB 3.0 ports.

Hinge and thickness of the laptop visible here

For me this notebook have an average thickness, but for some it might be too thick for today's standard. It also has an optical drive which is a bit old school, but it's still useful in some instances. Another thing that worries me a little is the hinge as I do not have much confidence in it so make sure that you won't abuse the flex.

The old school optical drive, 3.5 mm jack, USB and charger port on the right side

Fortunately, it was very well made overall and with proper usage and care, there's a great chance that this device won't fail for a long time.

Display

The display

It's vibrant, sharp and has decent resolution! The colors from this display is also a bit warm, but still feels natural. What I like here is it has the right amount of brightness to ensure the safety of your eyes. It has some glare and not that great viewing angles though those are just the minor details for the nit-picky individuals. For most especially those who are coming from older generation notebooks, the display of the Aspire E14 is quite impressive.

Keyboard / Touchpad

The soft keys of the E14

One of the surprises of this laptop is the keyboard! It's soft and feels great to touch. It's also a full blown keyboard that enables me to do most of the shortcut keys a lot easier. I also like the placement of the keys here as I find it really easy to locate. Compared to the the R13 and Switch 10 E that I reviewed several months ago, the keys of the Aspire E14 is at least two notches ahead from them. The touchpad was also esponsive and accurate that made my life without the mice a lot easier.

Audio

Acer incorporated here their true harmony technology which is a custom equalizer that fine-tunes and optimizes the frequency balance to deepen the impact of movies, games and music with enhanced bass and multidimensional sound. From my picky ears the speakers is on the average side with good amount of loudness and nice details, but the audio out thru headphones was something else, it was full bodied, have great depth and warm / smooth sound signature that's easy to love.

Battery

This is probably the best part of this laptop. The Aspire E14 is a rare full blown laptop that has a battery life that can rival most netbooks! It was able to last me an entire day of meetings outside with an estimate of at least 7 hours of usage with WiFi and presenting all the time to my clients. That's an incredible feat considering that the internals used here is supposed to be power hungry, Acer did a good job in optimizing the battery life of the Aspire E14. It's one of the best I've tried this year in this department.

Camera

Front camera sample (I cropped it to 4:3 for my layout, but it's really wide angled)

Acer used here an HD 720p cam that's probably on the VGA level based on the photo quality I was able to get. It's decent to use in places with good lighting, but it's not that good in restaurant lighting and low light. Fortunately, it's still one of the better camera's from a budget laptop.

Performance Impressions

The use of that i5 processor and GT940M GPU made this device a workhorse! I was able to run Photoshop CC with ease, watch Blueray quality videos and multitask well as it has a big enough 4 GB of RAM. For students and professionals who like to edit videos and play heavy games the CPU and GPU combination of this laptop will get the job done. The Aspire E14 also has a generous 1 TB of storage for your movies, files and etc.

Pro's - Bang per buck performance, fantastic battery life for the price, soft keyboard, accurate touch pad, decent display and good audio quality

Con's - Quite thick, heavy and the hinge, camera can still improve

As of the moment...

I loved what Acer was able to pull off lately as they continue to provide us with value packed gadgets and this Aspire E14 is one of them. For the price of just 34,990 Pesos, you get a laptop that looks great and performs very well. This is perfect for those who wanted a non-touchscreen workhorse that can simply get the job don. For students and young professionals who wanted a good laptop on a tight budget this should be in your bucket list. 

GIZ Rating: 4.5 / 5 Stars