Acer Aspire 5 A515-56-73MK Specs and Details

Specifications of the Acer Aspire A515-56-73MK

Chassis, connectors, screen of the Acer Aspire A515-56-73MK

The silhouette of the Aspire 5 opts for the discretion of an entirely matt black color. For the look, Acer adds a rounded glossy hinge to this model that brightens up the overall look. The case is shaped from plastic and a little aluminum to reinforce the back of the cover and the base at the level of the keys. Suddenly, it gains in robustness during transport and over time.

Its format falls within the circle of ultrabooks but is not the best optimized in this sense with 18 mm thickness and a 363 x 238 mm format. Its weight is set at around 1.6 kg , which is better optimized than its predecessor (A515-55). It’s not the lightest in the segment though.

The keyboard is backlit to highlight the black keys. This is useful when working in a dark environment or on the train for example.

In the center of this Acer Aspire A515-56-73MK also shines a beautiful matte Full HD screen with rather thin side borders. The Full HD (1920 x 1080 px) offers an extensive display space to enjoy the content in High Definition (video game) while Confyview matte panel will prevent ambient light to reflect on the screen. Note also that the screen is now installed on an IPS panel , more comfortable than TN thanks to its wider viewing angles and a slightly more faithful rendering in terms of colors, even if we are far from the level of high panels. range of course, especially in terms of color coverage or brightness.

The sides are equipped with a fairly standard connection with four USB ports which still have a USB 2.0, two USB 3.2 and a USB 3.2 Type-C Gen1 . There is also an HDMI 2.0 output and a Gigabit Ethernet port while the modules benefit from the latest Wifi AX (Wifi 6) and Bluetooth 5.1. Note that the card reader has disappeared but the fingerprint reader has resurfaced on the touchpad. It is convenient to connect to its session in a second.

Performance, battery life of the Acer Aspire A515-56-73MK

To power the Aspire A515-56-73MK, we have an 11th generation Core i7-1165G7 low power processor.Tiger Lake. This processor brings some interesting advancements over previous generations, starting with a higher TDP. Thus, the Core i7-1165G7 displays a TDP of 28W where its predecessors, the Core i7-1065G7 and the Core i7-10510U are satisfied with a TDP of 15W, and this despite the low consumption. This results from an increase in performance visible on advanced software (Lightroom, Capture One Pro, Davinci Resolve, 7Zip, etc.), a little less on basic everyday tasks (Office, surfing the Web, streaming …) . We hear, these tasks in question are perfectly taken care of by the Acer, but when it comes to missions involving only very few resources, the difference between the generations is not noticeable. Opposite, the RAM provides for 16 GB RAM, an important total for multitasking which allows the coming years to come with confidence.

But the advantage of this 11th gen Tiger Lake lies above all in the new integrated graphics chip, the Iris Xe. Thanks to it, Intel is back in the race against AMD but also and above all against small NVIDIA graphics cards such as the GeForce MX250 or the GeForce MX350. The performances of the Iris Plus G7 of the Gen10 (Ice Lake) are exceeded by a good length. So, with the Iris Xe, you should be able to play many games at 1080p under good conditions and work on fairly graphics-intensive tasks (Lightroom) without delay. Another benefit of having a faster graphics chip integrated into the processor is that it simplifies the design of the ventilation system and therefore causes less noise and heat than in a configuration with a dedicated graphics card.

The storage is entrusted to a 512 GB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD which will bring a welcome dose of responsiveness to the system. Compared to a standard mechanical hard drive, is is quieter, more robust and energy efficient, and allows Windows to achieve remarkable fluidity with short load times and zero latency execution. What’s more, its capacity is nothing short of ridiculous and can accommodate a good chunk of your game library although some may not find it sufficient.

Let’s finish with a notion of battery life which is not necessarily the strong point of our Aspire. It should be around 6 hours of Internet browsing with active Wifi.