Table Top Comics: The Wall

Finally! Back with another comic! Sorry it took a while. I've been busy with a lot of school work before, but now my schedule's opened up a bit. I'll be able to do more stuffs! Hoorah, stay "tuned."

Aspire V 15 Nitro - Black Edition Review

While this may not be the latest gaming machine on the market, it's still something that is worthy of reviewing, because it has finally dipped into the sub-1k club in terms of gaming machines. The Aspire V 15 Nitro is a machine produced by Acer that caters to the higher percentile of computer users that require a machine that is both powerful and portable, while also bolstering a NVIDIA GTX 860m, it also fills in the niche of the gaming laptop that so many people are after.

I've had this machine for about 4 days now, and I'm pretty satisfied for the price I got it. For 900 dollars (950 including tax and discount) from Newegg.com, this thing is a well oiled beast that pretty much trumps mid-high end gaming laptops. In its price range is the Lenovo Y50, which is a similar machine, with the same graphics card, but my only qualm with it was actually the screen (which is easily replaceable) so I opted to check out this machine instead, just because I couldn't be bothered to replace the screen.

While people may not like Windows 8, I just have to say that I love Windows 8, just because of the boot up time. You could always downgrade to Windows 7 if you want, but you have to get on with the times guys! (and having a 10 second boot up time is pretty awesome too)

The CPU pretty rocking with an i7, which means, in addition to gaming, it's suitable for heavier programs like image manipulation, or video editing; however, my version only has 8GB RAM, while it is suitable, it's not exactly the greatest. There are some issues that I'm having while playing some games like Sid Meier's Civ V, where there is some weird issues with game speed, but tinkering with the settings should solve that. The GTX 860M is a pretty good graphics card for a laptop, it handles most games smoothly, though I haven't tried many graphics intensive games. But overall, it satisfies my niche of games (Arcade, MOBA, Diplomacy. RTS)

The back-lit keyboard is a nice little bonus to have, making it look pretty, so that's nice. However, while the design is pretty sleek, and slim, it is a magnet for finger prints. You could touch a part, and there will be marks. And the positioning of the USB hubs, and the HDMI cable are pretty shitty. They're on the right side of the machine, all lined up together, is a pretty shitty place if you're right handed.

They're clumped so close together, sometimes it's a hassle to even insert multiple USB's at once! Definitely a huge negative since the connectors I use are pretty bulky in nature. 

Aside from the positioning, the battery life (as expected from a gaming laptop) is pretty bad. At max settings, it lasts around an hour and a half, while at lowest settings, it lasts like maybe 4 hours max (thats with everything turned off).

Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with this buy, since it performs the tasks I want it to do, but pretty much sucks in terms of battery life, and hub placement. I would very much recommend this to anyone who is saving up to buy a laptop in the 900 dollar level, but if you can afford something more, then by all means, get a better rig.

Here's the breakdown:

• Screen (10/10) I'm not expecting much from a laptop screen, but the screen is beautiful, and I expected something much worse.
• Performance (7/10) I really thought I was getting the 16 GB version, but I realized that I bought the 8 GB version. The lower performance in Civ 5 also took off a few points from me. But overall, it's okay. Could be better, but yeah.
• Portability (6/10) It's heavy, and prone to scratches. If you don't have a laptop bag, I'd highly advise transportation for this.
• Battery (7/10) As expected, the battery is pretty bad for a gaming machine that uses way too much power. Didn't
• Audio (9/10) I like the speakers on this machine. They sound nice, and are pretty kick-ass in terms of their surround sound.

Overall impression, without referring to the rubric I gave above  (7.5/10), worth the investment.