During the Covid-19 pandemic, everything shifted towards online, and so did education.
With or without the pandemic, a laptop has become a very basic necessity for most university students to do their assignments and projects. But it can sometimes become very challenging to look for a laptop which performs well without breaking the bank.
The prices of laptops have recently been increasing, as demand during the pandemic has shot up sharply. So, we thought it might be a good time to talk about laptops that are ideal for students, but below the Tk50,000 range.
In this article, we will be reviewing the Asus VivoBook 15 X515FA, which costs Tk48,500 and Acer Aspire 5 A515-56, which is priced at Tk48,300 and both are 4GB RAM variants.
Display
Both of the laptops are pretty big in size, rocking a 15.6" FHD display with 1920 x 1080 resolution support.
However, Asus used an LED panel on the laptop while Acer stayed with the traditional IPS LCD display.
To be fairly honest, finding a laptop with an LED panel within this budget is extremely difficult. So, a win for Asus in the display segment.
Both of the laptops have backlit keyboards, so it will be easier to use them in the dark.
Processor
This is where things get interesting as Asus VivoBook 15 X515FA has an Intel Core i3-10110U processor while Acer Aspire 5 A515-56 contains an Intel Core i3-1115G4 processor.
As you can see from the name, Acer is using the 11th generation Intel processor while Asus is using a 10th generation processor.
The laptop from Asus has 4M Cache and 2.10 GHz processing speed, which goes up to 4.10 GHz while Acer Aspire 5 has 6M Cache and 3.00 GHz processing speed, which goes up to 4.10 GHz.
Clearly, Acer narrowly wins in the processor department.
Memory
The base variant of each of the laptops has four gigabytes of RAM. But both can be upgraded up to 16GB.
Keep in mind that the laptop from Asus has a free RAM slot inside, while Acer does not have a free RAM slot. In case you want an upgrade in the RAM segment at a later time, you will have to remove the 4GB RAM and connect a whole new RAM.
Besides RAM, both laptops come with a 1TB hard drive and support SSD. SSDs or Solid State Drives are something that can easily boost the performance of a laptop by up to 10 times.
My recommendation will be to buy these laptops, keep using them for a while and then add an SSD later on.
It will cost around Tk5,000 to get a decent 250GB SSD.
Asus Vivobook 15 X515FA supports NVMe PCIe SSD while Acer Aspire 5 A515-56 supports SATA M.2 SSD, both laptops have an empty slot to put an SSD.
Connectivity Ports
Asus Vivobook 15 X515FA has one USB 3.2 Type A port, one USB 3.2 Type-C port and two regular USB 2.0 Type A ports.
It also has an HDMI 1.4 port so that the user can connect the laptop with an external monitor.
Meanwhile, Acer Aspire 5 A515-56 has one USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports and the lack of a Type-C port is pretty visible here.
Let me tell you why having a Type-C port in a laptop is important.
There are these adapters available from a company named MicroPack that can extend that one Type-C port into four regular USB 3.0 Type-A ports, meaning that you will hardly use the main USB ports of your laptop.
Also, after using for a while, it is normal for the USB ports to develop some sort of defects like not responding on time or showing device errors. So, it’s safe to use an adapter.
However, those adapters are also available for regular USB-A ports as well, and I will highly recommend using one if anyone goes for the Acer laptop.
Weight and Warranty
Both the laptops come with two years of official warranty. The Asus Vivobook 15 X515FA weighs around 1.8 kilograms while the Acer Aspire 5 A515-56 weighs some 1.6 kilograms.
Final verdict
Both of the laptops excel within the Tk50,000 price point. It really ends with what the user needs.
If you need a lighter laptop, you can go with Acer. If you need a laptop with an LED display, you can go with Asus.
However, I will recommend users use both of the laptops and then make a choice, keeping in mind all the pros and cons.
