Review Acer Aspire 5250-E304G50Mnkk Notebook

In March 2011, we tested the Acer Aspire 5253. This system featured the then brand new AMD Fusion platform, the AMD E-350 (2 x 1.6 GHz). AMD later released the E-450, a fairly minor update to the E-series, which didn't really have any impact on performance and features. Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 battery

This time around, Acer installs a new E-series processor into a chassis that remains 95% unchanged from the last model. Not a very exciting prospect, since the new CPU E-300 has a lower core frequency (2 x 1.30GHz) and uses the same GPU as the E-350/450 (Radeon HD 6310). Why a downgrade? Do we really need a "new" CPU that is slower than the models from over a year ago? We can at least hope that the lower core frequency will allow for longer battery life. Acer Aspire M5 battery

We had to look very hard to find any differences to its predecessor, the Aspire 5253. The Acer logo, which was comprised of single letters in the middle of the lid, is now embedded as a label in a corner. The old model had status LEDs for the HDD and the WLAN next to the power button. These status lights were completely eliminated on the new laptop. Guess we have to listen to the hard drive to figure out if the system is busy or not. ACER Aspire S Series battery

The chassis is now less rigid. It's easy to twist the base unit and the display lid. At least the lid is sufficiently solid. We like the feel of the textured matte surfaces which resist smudges and finger prints very well.

The hinges hold the display well without allowing it to rock back and forth. They are a bit tight though, so both hands are needed to open the display. The maximum angle of 160º is more than adequate while using the notebook on the lap. ACER Aspire S7 Series battery
The photos show the port selection to be pretty meager. There is an empty spot where the previous model had an HDMI port. The number of USB ports hasn't been increased though, with only three. Reason for the missing HDMI port might be pointed to the manufacturer who had to pay a license fee when integrating such a port. The position of the USB ports on the left and right side is not the best, as cables plugged into them and the VGA port can interfere when using a mouse. Acer Aspire S3 battery At the very least, having the cables stick out looks untidy.
Communication

Internet connections are available via Ethernet and WLAN. Both modules are the same ones found in the Aspire 5253. The Atheros AR5B97 WLAN card lost the Bluetooth 3.0 module. The Atheros AR8151 Ethernet Adapter supports Gigabit-Ethernet.

Accessories ACER Aspire V3 battery

There are no recovery discs included in the box - a common trend we've seen for a few years now. The user has to create his/her own recovery disc set using the Acer Recovery Manager. The number of pre-installed software titles is fortunately not too overwhelming. Acer GameZone, Accessory Shop, Registration, Updater, and Office 2010 Starter are of course part of the package. ACER Aspire 8943G battery The biggest pre-installed program is NTI Media Maker 9 which is used to convert video files and to burn optical discs. The inclusion of said software is actually not very generous on Acer's part, since Media Maker 9 can be downloaded for free.
Power Consumption
ACER Aspire Ethos 8943G battery Does the low performance translate into equally low power requirements? With all energy-saving options enabled and the display brightness turned down all the way, idle power consumption is only 7.6W (Aspire 5253: 9.7W). A more realistic scenario is the maximum idle power consumption of 12.6W. All things considered, the Aspire 5250 is not that energy efficient. Even a well-equipped multimedia notebook like the Samsung 550P5C-T02DE with an i5-3210M and GeForce GT630M, only requires 8.3/11W (minimum/maximum) during idle (5250: 9.7 to 13.6W). ACER Aspire One E100 battery

During 3DMarks 2006, power consumption rose to 26W. Maximum power requirement during the stress test (Prime95 & Furmark) was 28W. The power adapter is rated for 65W and hence more than adequately sized.

Battery Life
Acer Iconia 6120 battery The AMD Fusion system with the longest run time (WLAN-test) is the Samsung 305U1A-A01DE. This 11.6-inch system lasted for almost 9 hours. The HP Pavilion dm1-3180eg kept running for about 7 hours, while the Lenovo ThinkPad X121e NWS5QGE lasted for about 5 hours (both are 11.6-inch systems). Our test system lags a bit behind with only 4 hours. The older Aspire 5253 managed almost 5 hours in the same test. Acer Iconia 6886 battery

The 48Wh battery can't be the culprit because the Aspire 5253 came with a battery offering the same exact capacity. It takes 1 hour 35 minutes to recharge a completely depleted battery. When we were playing a DVD movie, the laptop ran out of charge after 3 hours 25 minutes.

Performance

Acer TravelMate 8372 battery Acer equips this 15.6-inch notebook with the dual-core APU AMD E-300 (2 x 1.3 GHz). This particular processor is in the same family as the E-450, which is used in some versions of the Aspire 5250. The APU (Accelerated Processing Unit) has a TDP of a miserly 18W and is particularly well-suited for small notebooks. The Integrated Graphics Unit, a Radeon HD 6310, has DirectX-11 support and a UVD3 Video Decoder. It is marginally slower than the HD 6320 in the APU E-450. The APU has access to 2 x 2048 MB of DDR3 RAM. Acer TravelMate 8372G battery The hard disc drive is a Western Digital (WD3200BPVT-22JJ5T0) with 320GB storage space. The OS supplied is Microsoft Window 7 Home Premium (64 Bit).

Processor
Acer TravelMate 8372T battery Looking at the scores of the E-300, we can only come to one conclusion: this processor ranks at the bottom of the pile. It almost seems ludicrous to pair up a CPU offering basically netbook-like performance with a 15.6-inch laptop when Intel's low-cost Pentiums offer so much more performance. There has to be demand, however, since there is even a 17-inch notebook with the APU E-450 (Packard Bell EasyNote LK11-BZ-080GE). Acer TravelMate 8372TG battery

Subjected to Cinebench R11.5, the E-300 was only able to reach 0.46 points. Other processors, like the Pentium P6100 (+185%), Core i3-350M (+224%), i3-2310M (+340%), or the AMD A4-3300 (+146%) are substantially faster. The only CPU that manages to be even slower is the netbook processor Atom N450 (-43%). CPU performance remains the same whether the laptop is on battery power or on external power. Acer Iconia Tab W500 battery Other notebooks with the same performance are the Aspire One 722-C62kk (C-60) and the ThinkPad X121e NWS62GE (both have 11.6-inch screens).
System Performance
More important than the processor benchmark is the evaluation of overall system performance. Our test system reached a score of 834 points after we ran PCMark 7 on it. This test takes the speed of the HDD, RAM, and the graphics card into consideration. Acer Iconia Tab W501 battery The HP 630-LH384EA with a Pentium CPU managed to be only about 36% faster here - courtesy of the rather weak Intel GMA IGP. AMD-based A6-systems are, depending on the clock speed and the GPU, 75% to 100% faster. Towards the top we find the Core i3-2350M (+90%). A better GPU can improve performance further like in the Sony Vaio SV-E14A1M6EW, with the Radeon HD7670M (+120%). An Atom (N2800) based netbook, like the Asus Eee PC R052C-WHI002S, is only about 11% slower, despite the weaker GMA 3650.Acer Iconia Tab A100 battery

Storage Devices
HD Tune showed a sequential read speed of 64 MB/s for the 320GB Western Digital HDD. Small and dispersed data reads cause the fairly slow read-write heads to lag behind and the speed drops to 0.4 to 1.0 MB/s. 7200 rpm models do better here. Notebooks with SSDs are significantly faster, as even the slowest ones start at around 120 MB/s and go up to about 376 MB/s. Acer Aspire 4250 battery The hard drive in the Aspire 5250 ended up with a below average HDD score of 2296 points in PCMark Vantage. SSD equipped laptops manage 300% to 2800% better results here.

Graphics Card

Acer Aspire 4251 battery In 3DMark2006, our test system scored 1943 points. This result means that the Radeon HD 6310 has 24% less performance than the HD 6320 in the E-450. Of course the 6310 can't compete with any (even low-end) dedicated GPUs like the GT 630M (+312%) or the Radeon HD 7610M (+221%). Intel's HD3000 was 30% to 150% faster; the current HD4000 tops these results.

Acer Aspire 4252 battery The three game tests that follow show extremely low FPS values even with older games. Playing games should not be on the agenda, period. The main purpose of the Radeon graphics is to relieve the weak APU of HD-decoding duties. This decoding doesn't just happen in the conversion tools like Media Espresso or the (pre-installed) NTI Media Maker 9, but even when using the Media Player.

Acer Aspire 4253 battery Acer's clear.fi player manages to play 1080p clips with CPU utilization below 20% CPU. We were able to start another movie clip in Media Player (CPU <45%) without encountering any stuttering. We recommend not starting too many programs, since the mouse pointer is apt to show significant lag and installations will take forever.
System Noise

Acer Aspire 4253G battery Overall noise level is pleasant. The fan never turns off but doesn't exceed 31dB (A) during idle. During activities like surfing, listening to music, or typing, the fan noise stays constant and discreet in the background. Since the range between idle and load is very small, we could only measure an rpm difference but not hear it. The HDD is now less audible during read/write access than the one in the Aspire 5253. Acer Aspire 4333 battery While the HDD in the predecessor emitted a high-pitched hum of 33.9dB (A), the new HDD remains under the noise level of the system fan.

The game tests we conducted didn't push the cooling system much either, as the noise level remained at 31.9dB (A). Even during the stress test (Furmark & Prime95), we only measured a maximum of 32.9dB (A). As before, the rpm remained constant. Overall the fan control is very well executed. Acer decided to let the fan spin constantly during idle to avoid having it turn on and off all the time. Acer Aspire 4339 battery

Temperature

We measured an average of only 30ºC (86ºF) at the bottom of the notebook during word processing tasks and surfing the Internet (lots of idle time). The palm rest tops out at 27-30ºC (80.6 - 86ºF). The temperatures are slightly higher than the ones we recorded for its predecessor, but we also conducted the tests at a room temperature of 23ºC instead of 19ºC (73.4ºF instead of 66.2ºF). Acer Aspire 4349 battery We can assume that temperatures would have been a bit lower otherwise. Under load, we measured up to 46ºC (114.8ºF) on the bottom. At this temperature, having the machine sitting on the lap is pretty uncomfortable. The APU does not have any sort of turbo mode, so throttling is not an issue. Cinebench R11.5 Multi showed that the cores of the E-300 remain at 1.3 GHz at all times.

Verdict

Acer Aspire 4352 battery Is the never-ending supply of new notebooks offering more features and better performance just too confusing? Acer tries a different approach and downgrades the already low-cost Aspire 5253. Who needs HDMI, after all?

The Aspire 5250 is a notebook on a feature diet. The fact that the CPU (E-300) is even less powerful is something we could overlook, since the E-450 model (2 x 1.65) is also available. But trying to cut features (no HDMI) on what was a low-end model to begin with - that's almost audacious. Acer Aspire 4551 battery

The price difference is only a few euros. Those who don't care much if they pay EUR 369 or EUR 374 should opt for the E-450. The sister model featuring the E-350 also had a longer battery life on our test.

Acer Aspire 4551G battery We honestly can't recommend the Aspire 5250. The Asus Pro P53E-SO136D, X54C and the Lenovo B570 (no OS) are systems in the EUR 375 to EUR 400 price bracket featuring the Core i3-2350. For about EUR 300 you can get yourself a Pentium-equipped TravelMate 5742Z (with Linux OS). Even though that system features obsolete hardware, it offers faster performance and probably about the same battery life. Acer Aspire 4551G-P322G32Mn battery

AMD's E2-1800 (2 x 1.70GHz) with Radeon HD 7340M is truly new. Stay tuned for reviews of the HP 655 (starting at EUR 330) and the Lenovo G585.

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