Battery Life, Portability and Software
Acer Aspire 5551G-4591 15.6-in AMD Turion II Notebook Review - Mobile 26

Stretching battery life is something that Acer is good at, but they don’t typically apply the magic touch to laptops outside of Acer’s netbook and TimeLineX products. The Acer Aspire 5551G-4591 is no exception. Although equipped with a reasonably sized 6-cell battery, Battery Eater managed to kill the Acer Aspire 5551G-4591 in just a little over an hour. The reading test and general usage tests were better, but not by much. This laptop is very clearly not a good choice for anyone who needs to spend more than an hour away from a power socket.

That’s probably just as well, because the Acer Aspire 5551G-4591 is a heavy and bulky laptop. If it were any wider it would not fit in my backpack, which is not small and normally eats up any laptop placed inside. Weight is a concern, as well, as the Acer tips the scales at nearly six pounds. You can certainly lug it to the coffee shop, but this laptop is clearly best left at home.

Other Features and Software

Acer Aspire 5551G-4591 15.6-in AMD Turion II Notebook Review - Mobile 27

There are several pieces of software installed on the Acer Aspire 5551G-4591 including Acer Games, Netflix and a link to eBay that didn’t seem to work. Although bloatware is always annoying, the software installed on the Acer was relatively tame. Though desktop icons were installed, the only piece of bloatware that loaded itself while booting Windows was an anti-virus trial.

Bluetooth isn’t included on the Acer Aspire 5551G-4591, so the only other feature to speak of is the webcam. It performs about how you’d expect. Colors are washed out, and lighting variations confuse the camera significantly, but the overall image quality is tolerable and there is minimal lag. Although far from a stunner, the webcam is a positive for the Acer. Many laptops ship with webcams that are terrible to the point of useless.


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