Acer Aspire 5 (A515-48M) review – good performer with Zen 3 CPUs and long battery life
Temperatures and comfort, Battery Life
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 P-core frequency; Average E-core frequency; CPU temp.; Package Power
| AMD Ryzen 7 7730U (15W TDP) | 0:02 – 0:10 sec | 0:15 – 0:30 sec | 10:00 – 15:00 min |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acer Aspire 5 (A515-48M) | 3.17 GHz @ 63°C @ 44W | 2.97 GHz @ 71°C @ 37W | 3.02 GHz @ 82°C @ 37W |
The modest-looking cooling system is doing a good job no matter the load. The AMD Ryzen 7 7730U has a base TDP of 15W but here we can see that the chip can maintain 37W in prolonged periods of 100% stress. In short loads, the limit is 44W which is great when it comes to daily tasks such as Web browsing and working with MS Office. Frequency-wise, we can see values around the 3.00GHz mark which is way higher compared to the 2.0GHz official base clock. In the long run, the CPU temperature is a bit on the high side but it’s still okay (82°C). During normal usage, these values should be much lower. In short, the cooling performs well.
Comfort during combined load
The noise levels are moderate even when the processor is stressed seriously with software like Cinebench or Prime95. At the same time, the keyboard remains cool enough for comfortable work and we can say the same about the palm rest area. The hotspot is around the WASD zone but the thermals there are in check. The Acer Quick Access app is a handy tool that offers three presets – Performance, Normal, and Silent. As you may already guess, we used the “Performance mode”, while the “Silent mode” is suitable for people who prefer to work in quiet conditions.
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 notebook has a 54.6Wh battery pack. It lasts for 11 hours and 7 minutes of Web browsing, or 12 hours and 30 minutes of video playback. This is a good result for such a modest battery capacity and it proves once again that the AMD Zen 3 CPUs are very efficient.
Brightness: 180 nits; Display Mode: SDR
Time to Full Discharge: Higher is Better
In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.
Author: Nikolay Palaozov
Author: eng. Kroum NikolovHead of Engineering at LaptopMedia.com, inventor and innovator with 40+ years of experience in electronics and high technology.
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My experience with this model (the 7730U processor variant) is completely different. It’s very noisy, with an intense and sharp whining, the noisiest laptop I have ever seen, awful in that regard. If you have moderate to intense computational activities it’s unusable because of the noise.
Hey,
Do you still use the version 7730U? Is it still loud when using?
I am looking to buy, interested in your overall opinion so far with the usage of laptop.