Acer Aspire 5 (A517-52G) review – an everyday device that offers balance

Acer has a bit of catching up to do with their Aspire lineup. Both Lenovo (with their Ideapad), and ASUS (through its Vivobook brand) have done a great job with their latest low-budget machines. This leaves the Aspire stuck in the past. Well, we hope that’s no more, as today we’re going to show you the Aspire 5 (A517-52G), which is a 17-inch model with a 1080p IPS display and a bit more than meets the eye.

This particular version comes with a dedicated graphics card, hence the “G” in its name. Well, don’t expect a GTX, or an RTX GPU. After all, this is an everyday device, not a gaming product. However, we recently found out that the GeForce MX450 is very capable when supplied with the right cooling.

In addition to that, the laptop features a very likable design with no clutter and an optional fingerprint reader. It also has Wi-Fi 6, and plenty of upgrade options, according to Acer.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/acer-aspire-5-a517-52-a517-52g/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Acer Aspire 5 (A517-52 / A517-52G) - Specs

  • BOE NV173FHM-N49 (BOE084E)
  • Color accuracy  5.0  4.1
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 4000GB SSD + up to 1000GB HDD
  • RAM
  • up to 36GB
  • OS
  • Windows 11 Home, Windows 11 Pro, Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Home
  • Battery
  • 48Wh, 3-cell, 48Wh, 3-cell
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate, Aluminum
  • Dimensions
  • 403.5 x 263.7 x 19.9 mm (15.89" x 10.38" x 0.78")
  • Weight
  • 2.60 kg (5.7 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 2.0
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 2x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.0
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • HD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • optional
  • Microphone
  • Speakers
  • 2 Speakers, Acer TrueHarmony
  • Optical drive

All Acer Aspire 5 (A517-52 / A517-52G) configurations

#CommissionsEarned

What’s in the box?

This notebook comes in pretty standard packaging. It includes some mandatory paperwork, a 65W power adapter, plus a set of screws for mounting a 2.5-inch SATA drive.


Design and construction

Expectedly, this laptop has a quite large footprint. However, it is pretty easy to carry around, as it has a profile of just 19.9mm, and weighs 2.60 kilos. These are some very respectable measurements for a 17-inch notebook.

Another great thing about it is that the lid is made out of aluminum, which makes it really sturdy. On the other hand, the base is plastic, and you may find it a bit flexy due to the thin profile. Yet, it is not too bad in our view.

Unfortunately, the lid can’t be opened with a single hand. The hinges are tough, which has e the hidden advantage of not letting the display bounce around when you bump the surface, where the laptop is sitting. In addition, there are two tiny rubber feet on the bottom of the lid. This allows it to grip the surface and lift the backside of the base slightly from the ground, which provides better airflow to the fan. Thankfully, there is an HD camera just above the matte display, so you will be able to join video conference calls without the need for third-party equipment.

Next, let’s take a look at the base. There, we see that Acer makes good use of the extra space by putting a keyboard with a NumPad. It also has a backlight, which is not very common in this class. Although the feedback is clicky and relatively consistent, the key travel feels a bit short.

On the other hand, the touchpad seems very responsive, albeit it comes in a small size, and a fingerprint reader eating up some of its space. Nevertheless, it’s good to see that the area around the fingerprint reader is usable, and you can absolutely ignore the scanner when you don’t need it.

Flip the laptop upside down, and you will see two very small speaker cutouts. The ventilation grill is large-enough and lets the fan breathe some fresh air, while the heat is exhausted from a slot at the back. There is a downside to that, as the air is trapped by the lid, and is basically aimed directly at the bottom of the screen.

Ports

On the left side, you will find the power plug, a LAN port, an HDMI connector, two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports, and one USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 1) port. Then, on the right, you get a security lock slot, a USB Type-A 2.0 port, and an audio jack.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

To get inside this notebook, you need to undo 14 Phillips-head screws. After that, pry the bottom panel, starting from the front, and remove it from the chassis.

Here, we see a 54.6Wh battery pack. It lasted us more than 10 hours of Web browsing or about 7 hours of video playback. The first thing you need to do is to unplug the battery connector from the motherboard. Then, undo the two Phillips-head screws holding it to the body, and take it away.

This notebook comes with 4GB of memory soldered to the motherboard. You also get a single SODIMM slot for up to 16GB expansion. Storage-wise, there is one M.2 PCIe x4 slot. In addition to that, you get a 2.5-inch SATA drive bay with mounting accessories included.

On the other hand, the cooling looks a bit underwhelming with only a single heat pipe dealing with both the CPU and the GPU. Thankfully, the graphics memory sports a metal heat spreader.


Display quality

Acer Aspire 5 (A517-52G) is equipped with a Full HD IPS screen, model number BOE NV173FHM-N49 (BOE084E). Its diagonal is 17.3″ (43.94 cm), and the resolution – 1920 х 1080. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:9, the pixel density – 127 ppi, their pitch – 0.1995 x 0.1995 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 69 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

Its viewing angles are comfortable. We have provided images at 45 degrees to evaluate quality.

Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.

The maximum measured brightness is 295 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 277 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 14%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6990K (average) – a bit colder than the 6500K optimum for sRGB.

In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 49% Brightness (White level = 142 cd/m2, Black level = 0.12 cd/m2).

Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is good – 1180:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows Acer Aspire 5 (A517-52G)’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 53% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results in factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of Acer Aspire 5 (A517-52G) with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 17 ms

After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.


Health impact – PWM / Blue Light

PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

Acer Aspire 5 (A517-52G)’s display doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment. This makes it comfortable for long working periods, without being harmful to your eyes in this aspect.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Acer Aspire 5 (A517-52G) configurations with 17.3″ BOE NV173FHM-N49 (BOE084E) (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

Acer Aspire 5 (A517-52G)’s speakers produce a sound of okay quality. Its low, mid, and high tones all have some deviations from clarity.


Drivers

All drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/8661?b=1

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with the Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This laptop’s 54.6Wh battery pack lasts for 10 hours and 20 minutes of Web browsing, or 6 hours and 44 minutes of video playback.

In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.


CPU options

The processors of choice here are the Core i3-1115G4, Core i5-1135G7, and Core i7-1165G7.


GPU options

We have the G-series device, which means that it comes with a dedicated graphics card. In addition to the integrated Iris Xe Graphics G4, or G7, you can get the laptop with the GeForce MX350, or MX450.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS142 fps127 fps104 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS114 fps80 fps70 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Core i5-1135G7 (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Acer Aspire 5 (A517-52G)3.70 GHz (B+54%) @ 79°C @ 51W3.16 GHz (B+32%) @ 75°C @ 37W2.81 GHz (B+17%) @ 74°C @ 28W
HP 470 G83.09 GHz (B+29%) @ 79°C @ 31W2.60 GHz (B+8%) @ 80°C @ 24W2.42 GHz (B+1%) @ 78°C @ 18W
Dynabook Tecra A50-J3.77 GHz (B+57%) @ 97°C @ 52W3.22 GHz (B+34%) @ 87°C @ 36W2.82 GHz (B+18%) @ 76°C @ 28W
Dynabook Tecra A40-J3.74 GHz (B+56%) @ 96°C @ 51W3.21 GHz (B+34%) @ 86°C @ 36W2.91 GHz (B+21%) @ 77°C @ 28W
HP ProBook 430 G83.32 GHz (B+38%) @ 97°C @ 35W2.74 GHz (B+14%) @ 89°C @ 24W2.29 GHz (B-5%) @ 75°C @ 17W
Acer Swift 3 (SF314-511)3.15 GHz (B+31%) @ 91°C @ 34W2.89 GHz (B+20%) @ 91°C @ 28W2.69 GHz (B+12%) @ 91°C @ 25W
Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (13.5)3.80 GHz (B+58%) @ 80°C @ 46W3.62 GHz (B+51%) @ 89°C @ 43W1.99 GHz (B-17%) @ 60°C @ 13W
ASUS VivoBook 15 OLED K5133.39 GHz (B+41%) @ 83°C @ 40W3.28 GHz (B+34%) @ 91°C @ 37W2.96 GHz (B+23%) @ 85°C @ 28W
MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo3.65 GHz (B+52%) @ 96°C @ 45W3.31 GHz (B+38%) @ 96°C @ 47W3.03 GHz (B+25%) @ 96°C @ 29W
Dell XPS 13 9310 (2-in-1)3.36 GHz (B+40%) @ 99°C @ 41W3.16 GHz (B+32%) @ 99°C @ 37W1.92 GHz @ 72°C @ 16W
Dell XPS 13 93103.15 GHz (B+31%) @ 100°C @ 40W2.73 GHz (B+14%) @ 100°C @ 30W1.65 GHz @ 73°C @ 15W
Dell Vostro 14 54023.02 GHz (B+26%) @ 99°C @ 29W2.61 GHz (B+9%) @ 99°C @ 25W2.00 GHz @ 76°C @ 15W
MSI Modern 15 (A11X)3.59 GHz (B+50%) @ 94°C @ 44W3.45 GHz (B+44%) @ 95°C @ 40W3.18 GHz (B+33%) @ 91°C @ 34W
Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga3.52 GHz (B+47%) @ 94°C3.24 GHz (B+35%) @ 94°C2.63 GHz (B+10%) @ 75°C
Lenovo Yoga 7 (14)3.34 GHz (B+39%) @ 94°C2.97 GHz (B+24%) @ 94°C2.39 GHz @ 75°C
Acer Aspire 5 (A514-54)3.54 GHz (B+48%) @ 87°C2.01 GHz @ 66°C2.03 GHz @ 67°C

Despite the single heat pipe, the Core i5-1135G7 manages some pretty impressive clock speeds, while maintaining a low temperature throughout the test.

Real-life gaming

NVIDIA GeForce MX450GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)
Acer Aspire 5 (A517-52G)1701 MHz @ 77°C1684 MHz @ 85°C
Dell Latitude 15 55211785 MHz @ 73°C1783 MHz @ 75°C
Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro (14″)1395 MHz @ 69°C1395 MHz @ 70°C

Weirdly, the good impression of the cooling is done and dusted by the graphics card, which settles at 85°C in the long run. Although it’s good that Acer allows you to push your hardware, we are not really comfortable with the GPU running at this temperature. Moreover, it took some good two minutes after we stopped the test for the MX450 to reach 65°C. This means that every single molecule of copper was saturated to its limit.

Gaming comfort

Of course, this has an impact on the external temperatures. The left part of the keyboard has a hotspot of 46°C, while the bottom part of the display reaches nearly 56°C. Noise-wise, we have nothing to complain about, since the laptop was never too loud, and it was even completely silent if you browse the Web, or watch a video.


Verdict

A 17-inch laptop of this class is never about performance, or being on the cutting edge of technology in every aspect. Instead, the keyword here is “compromise”, and there are quite a few of them. The first one, of course, is the display.

It’s clear that the Acer Aspire 5 (A517-52G)’s panel comes with a budget-conscious IPS panel. Yes, it has comfortable viewing angles, a good contrast ratio, and more importantly – its backlight doesn’t flicker. Unfortunately, it covers only half of the colors found on the Web, which results in a bit of a dull-looking image.

Now, this wouldn’t have been an issue, if Lenovo’s Ideapad 3 (17″, 2021) didn’t exist. It had a screen, that was able to show vibrant and accurate colors. The Aspire 5 can’t do that. Nevertheless, we are happy to see that Acer stayed away from the TN panels of the past.

Thankfully, the upgrade options look quite good with one SODIMM slot for memory expansion, an M.2 PCIe x4 slot for SSDs, and a 2.5-inch SATA drive bay for storage. What is even better, is that Acer provides everything needed to attach a SATA drive inside the package, which is great.

Well, there are some quirks that we didn’t particularly like. One of them is the fact that you won’t be able to open the lid with a single hand. Also, there is no SD card reader, nor a Thunderbolt 4 certification.

Another aspect that raised some eyebrows was the cooling. Although it appears to do a perfect job with the processor, the graphics card turned out to get quite toasty. One reason is surely the single heat pipe, shared between the two heating elements. But the other must be the usage of the 25W GDDR5 version of the MX450. Not that this is bad, of course – it would have been a big mistake to go for the 12W version, as it is only mildly better than the integrated graphics.

So, at the end of the day, we suppose, you’re going to use this laptop as a daily driver. And this is what it’s meant to be used as. This is great, because the notebook is generally quiet, and if your workload is light, you will probably never hear the fan spinning. And the battery will surely last you for an entire day.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/acer-aspire-5-a517-52-a517-52g/

Pros

  • 1x SODIMM, 1x M.2 PCIe x4, 1x 2.5-inch SATA
  • Decent performance
  • Comfortable viewing angles and good contrast ratio
  • No PWM
  • SATA accessories inside the box
  • Lowkey design + optional fingerprint reader
  • Good battery life


Cons

  • Covers only 53% of the sRGB gamut
  • No SD card reader and Thunderbolt 4

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments