The Acer A515-43-R19L laptop released in October 2019 offers a solid bang for your buck if you’re looking for an affordable, portable machine for basic home and office needs. Though encased entirely in plastic, its robust construction and subtle texture provide a decent impression for a sub-$500 laptop. Tipping the scales at 4.2 pounds and measuring a sleek 18 mm thin, it’s easy enough to toss into a bag for the commute or travels. This review will cover how it performs for everyday tasks, its display quality, design, battery life, and more to help you determine if it fits the bill.
A Reliable Performer for Basic Productivity
Powering the Acer A515 is a 2-core, 2.6GHz AMD Ryzen 3 3200U mobile processor based on the latest Zen+ architecture. Though not meant for intensive workloads, it provides smooth and snappy responsiveness for essential daily tasks. These include web browsing, word processing, presentations, spreadsheets, email, multimedia playback, and moderate multitasking. The integrated Radeon Vega 3 graphics can also handle some older or less demanding games at lower settings. You shouldn’t expect cutting edge performance, but it gets the job done for most home and student needs.
With its basic specifications, the A515 isn’t built for intensive number crunching, video editing, graphics work, or modern AAA gaming. Stick to everyday web-based apps, simple projects, and office suites for the best experience. For these tasks, the peppy Ryzen 3 CPU and 4GB DDR4 RAM keep things running smoothly even with multiple windows and programs open. Storage is fairly limited at 128GB, but the solid state drive ensures fast boot ups and quick application launches. There’s also an empty RAM slot for upgrading later on if needed.
Overall, the AMD combo delivers good-enough muscle for basic home and student productivity. As long as your needs revolve around internet browsing, streaming media, documents, email, and light multitasking, the A515 should keep up without frustrating lag or slowdowns for a few years. It lacks premium touches but gets the essentials right at an attractive price point.
Vivid Entertainment With the 15.6″ Full HD Display
The Acer A515’s 15.6-inch IPS display sports a sharp 1920 x 1080 Full HD resolution to make web pages, documents, photos, and videos appear crisp and detailed. Fortified with Acer’s ComfyView technology, the screen diffuses overhead and ambient light to cut down on distracting reflections. This allows comfortable viewing from a wider range of positions without colors washing out when not viewing it head-on.
With its 1080p resolution stretched over the ample display area, images and text look sharp with no detectable pixelation. Streaming YouTube and Netflix movies fills the screen with vibrant and accurately colored video devoid of noise or artifacts. The display works well sideways for presentations or when people are crowding around to view content. The picture remains viewable even from fairly wide off-center angles with minimal color shifting.
The screen lacks touch capabilities, but that helps keep costs down for non-essential users. The bezels measure reasonably thin but not quite edge-to-edge. Images pop with color, so it should please most casual viewers even if it doesn’t have the pizzazz of premium OLED panels. At this price, the A515’s screen punches above its class for vivid everyday entertainment.
A Sturdy and Portable Build That Gets The Job Done
Built entirely from black plastic, the Acer A515 isn’t a luxe metal-clad ultrabook that will turn heads with sleek aesthetics. But despite the basic matte plastic construction, it feels reassuringly solid with no creaking or weak points across the chassis. The subtle crosshatch texture across its lid and interior provides a decent grip too. So while it forgoes aluminum and magnesium metals to meet its budget price, the plastic chassis doesn’t come across as cheaply made.
At 18 mm thin and tipping scales at 4.2 lb, the A515 maintains a slim enough profile and light enough weight for a 15.6-inch screen to ensure reasonable portability. While not incredibly compact or lightweight, it travels easily in a backpack or messenger bag for trips across campus or the office commute without tiring your shoulder. The smaller footprint also allows it fit onto tight desk spaces or trays on airplanes and trains.
For a sub-$500 machine, the A515 delivers the essentials most buyers need in a resilient and portable enough frame to meet home, student, and business needs. It concentrates budget on performance rather than flashy aesthetics. The average consumer likely won’t miss premium touches like CNC machined metals, tapered chassis, or ultra-thin bezels.
Battery Life That Will Get You Through Most Of The Day
Through the day with general document editing, web browsing, and streaming media playback, you can expect roughly 6 to 7 hours of uptime from the A515’s 4200 mAh 3-cell lithium polymer battery. For a laptop in this price tier, that’s fairly respectable and on par with more premium Ultrabooks. You should get through a full work or school day on a single charge with judicious power management.
Just don’t anticipate multi-day endurance without plugging in. Runs longer intensive applications like games or video editors will drain power faster as well. Standby time is equally decent thanks to the energy-sipping AMD Ryzen processor. This allows it to retain charge overnight with the lid closed if you forget to plug it in. For the average user focused on productivity, media enjoyment, and web browsing, battery life is reliable enough for daily unplugged use.
Wired and Wireless Connectivity To Get Online
A budget price tag means you shouldn’t expect abundant connectivity, but the A515 includes the basics for getting online and plugging in peripherals. Wired options include a single RJ-45 Ethernet jack and three USB ports. There are two USB 2.0 Type-A ports plus one faster USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A port.
Wireless capabilities come from MU-MIMO 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1. The faster Wi-Fi 5 standard allows solid speeds on modern routers for smooth video streaming and large downloads. Bluetooth is handy for connecting peripherals like mice, keyboards, headphones and speakers sans wires.
Each side contains a single connector. The left houses the power input, Ethernet port, one USB 2.0 port, and lock slot. On the right lies the other USB 2.0 connector, faster USB 3.1 port, HDMI video out, and headphone/mic combo jack.
Overall port selection covers the basics even if connectivity is sparse. Faster Thunderbolt 3 ports common on premium machines are absent here. You’ll have to live without cutting edge speeds, though USB 3.1 remains quick for external drives. The solitary HDMI port still permits easy connections to external monitors and TVs.
Bottom Line – Reliable Essentials With Some Compromises
As a sub-$500 laptop designed squarely at budget-minded buyers, the Acer A515-43-R19L delivers reliable productivity performance wrapped up in a practical chassis without extra frills. The AMD Ryzen 3 CPU and 4GB RAM competently handle essential tasks like document editing, web browsing, media playback, and moderate multitasking without slowdowns. The Full HD 15.6-inch display pleases with crisp details and vibrant colors despite its pedestrian origins.
You shouldn’t anticipate bleeding edge speed, gaming graphics, abundant ports, or luxurious metals given the pricing constraints. But the A515 lacks obvious compromises beyond its overt corner cutting to meet costs. For cash-strapped students or basic home computing, it provides ample capability without flustering lag. The ample display makes viewing documents, web pages, photos and movies enjoyable as well. Battery life reliably lasts through the work or school day too for untethered mobility.
In the end, the Acer A515-43-R19L delivers a solid bang for buck for undemanding users needing basic home and office functionality from their laptop. It forgoes flashy thin-and-light aesthetics but doesn’t feeling poorly built. If your computing involves web browsing, office suites, video chatting, and media enjoyment rather than intensive multitasking or graphics work, the A515 deserves strong consideration.
Pros:
- Smooth web browsing and document editing performance
- Crisp and vivid 15.6″ 1080p display
- Sturdy plastic construction
- Respectable 6+ hour average battery life
-thin and fairly lightweight design enhances mobility - Very budget-friendly pricing
Cons:
- Made completely of basic plastic
- Entry-level AMD Ryzen 3 CPU lacks power for demanding apps
- Ram and storage are non-upgradeable
- Pretty sparse port selection
- No touchscreen option
- Merely adequate speaker sound quality
For straightforward home productivity on a strict budget, the Acer A515-43-R19L checks most boxes with few significant compromises. Students and families needing an affordable machine for coursework and web tasks should find it a compelling value.