Small screen laptops are a dying breed since tablets have become powerful. And then there are hybrid and convertible form factors that come with both a touch-screen display and a keyboard. But a laptop with budget pricing, Windows operating system, and small form factor can still a choice for many.
Chromebooks, for the larger part, have also remained the go-to device for people who want something small and handy for their simple daily tasks of browsing the web or writing or studying online. The best bet has remained the Chrome OS -- light software that runs effortlessly on cheaper hardware and their very attractive build. But Chrome OS doesn't replace Windows. There are occasions when you just gotta have the good old Windows.
The Acer Aspire ES1-132 that is the subject of today's review is a Windows 10 laptop. It is small like a Chromebook and is priced under Rs 20,000. Not only does it solve the software limitations posed by a Chromebook, it also takes away the storage problem that most 11-inch laptops have. It packs in a a regular 500GB hard disk. What difference does it make? A lot, apparently.
Design and built quality
Acer Aspire ES1-132 is a small laptop with an 11.6-inch display and a fanless design. Though housing the hard disk makes it slightly thicker and not very light for the size, but it is not heavy either. Although, fanless design is something Acer shouldn't have planned -- I will explain it in a while -- although it does make the laptop look sleeker and better.
Even running a browser can sometimes strain the Aspire ES1-132. And the reason could be its low RAM or absence of SSDs.
This is a laptop that is well-made. It is quite sturdy. The lid and body is made of plastic, with textured design here and there, but it is not flimsy and doesn't feel cheap. More importantly its build quality is strong at critical areas like the lid, the display hinges and the bottom surface.
But there is nothing playful about the laptop's looks. The Aspire ES1-132 unit that India Today Tech received has black color that might look bland and boring to some. Being made out the same material and with the same color throughout, it appears to be made for a secret agent who dare not lose his stealth, and is nowhere close to colorful Chromebooks.
I really liked the fact that ES1-132 has its ports, most of important ones, laid out at the back. You will mostly find this with high-end business laptops. The LAN, HDMI, USB and power ports are placed at the back edge of the device, which makes the laptop extremely convenient to use with the wires plugged it.
Acer Aspire ES1-132 could have certainly been fitted with a better keyboard. Though it has chiclet keys with ample spacing, the keys have a very small travel that would leave you with almost negligible feedback. So typing isn't a great experience on it and if you are planning to buy it majorly for writing, you should first try it out at a store. The quality of material isn't impressive either, which makes matters worse.
Display
Acer ES1-132 has an HD display which doesn't look all that bad. Although it also has a screen that is typical for the laptops in this price range. Or in other words, somewhat on the duller side. But overall even though colours don't pop out that well on this screen, it still holds well.
Performance
This is probably the part you want to know the most about. And no doubt, it remains the weakest spot for laptops in this price category.
Acer ES1-132 runs the Intel Celeron N3350 dual core processor clocked at 1.1 GHz. Compared to the previous Braswell Celeron chips, the N3350 is theoretically about 30 per cent faster and supports Direct-X version 12 which also means support for latest graphics software. The laptop boots to desktop in 22 seconds, which is similar to what the traditional HDD-based laptops can manage.
Intel's Celeron is placed between Atom and Core processors, so don't expect Core i3 like performance. The N3350 is made using latest Apollo Lake architecture that supports up to 8GB dual channel RAM and fanless operation (for low-clocked notebook and tablet models).
Putting a regular hard disk inside the laptop also increases girth of ES1-132. Seemingly I feel that Acer should have used a fan for active on-board cooling inside the laptop, especially considering the fact that regular hard disks generate more heat. Though the laptop remains is mostly cool, it is clocked at a very low frequency, a regular would have made it even better. Better cooling would have allowed for a higher clock speed and better performance.
There are usual lags while running a full-fledged operating system like the Windows and you are extremely limited on multi-tasking. The applications run fine but the experience isn't very smooth.
Light apps run okay, until they start to lag and then everything returns to normal after a few minutes. Light multi-tasking with two three apps and the browser running 5-6 tabs worked fine. Anything beyond leads to a poorer user experience. Even running a browser can sometimes strain the Aspire ES1-132. And the reason could be its low RAM or absence of SSDs. Instead of the faster SSDs, the laptop uses a hard disk drive for storage that seemingly reduces its performance further.
But at the same time, you won't have to face "storage-full" messages you do on meager 32GB storage offered with similarly priced laptops. In many of these laptops, half of the space is taken by Windows itself.
Aspire ES1-132 runs the full Windows 10 operating system. So there is the latest windows graphics, gestures, apps like Netflix, twitter, Amazon and Flipkart pre-loaded and there is Microsoft store to download more. The Windows 10 also supports Microsoft's voice based assistant Cortana, touchpad gestures for quick navigation between windows and different work areas.
Should you buy it?
In this price bracket there are no perfect laptops. Using any of them involves compromises. The Acer ES1-132 too has its flaws. But then it also has some good things about it. It runs full fat Windows 10, has good build quality and full-size hard disk.
Although, it is limited in performance due to its low-end hardware under the hood, something that even affects Windows 10 OS on it as the laptop buckles under the load while running such hefty software. Lags are frequent, especially during multitasking. Ideally, if you are spending Rs 19,790 you should get something faster. Get the ES1-132 only, and ONLY, if you need that extra storage.
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