Acer's Aspire 5551G: AMD's Budget Gaming Laptop
by Jarred Walton on November 27, 2010 12:00 AM ESTApplication Performance: AMD's P520 in Perspective
We'll start with the usual suspects and look at application performance from the 5551G. With a dual-core 2.3GHz AMD processor, we expect significantly lower scores than the Intel competition, at least in applications. However, the more interesting question is going to be how the P520 compares to the quad-core P920; outside of heavily threaded benchmarks, the P520 could be the better choice.
The story isn't quite as clear as we'd like. P520 wins at PCMark05 and single-threaded Cinebench, but it places below the P920 in PCMark Vantage and all of the remaining tests. Granted, single-threaded Cinebench is actually a very good representation of how many applications feel (as well as general Windows use), and the 5551G also places ahead of the MBP13 in most of the tests—a laptop that many a Mac user has claimed is plenty fast. So the P520 is competitive with Core 2 Duo P8600—even with a 100MHz clock speed deficit, it beats the P8600 in most of the application results. The catch is that Apple provides a ton of battery life compared to the 5551G, and they do it in a far more attractive package. The other catch is that we're also not so enamored with Apple selling two-year-old hardware in a "modern" laptop when they could easily fit Core 2010 processors into the mix. For now, AMD doesn't have something clearly better—we'll need Llano and Bulldozer offerings before we see an AMD laptop CPU that can hope to go toe to toe with Intel's mobile CPUs.
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freespace303 - Sunday, November 28, 2010 - link
Please review the HP Envy 14, and 17 3D!!!!blackrook - Sunday, November 28, 2010 - link
I don't think that's going to happen.freespace303 - Monday, November 29, 2010 - link
Why not? I"m about to just buy it myself and send it to Anand to review. Seriously! How can I get a hold of him or any of the Anandtech staff to do something like that?JarredWalton - Monday, November 29, 2010 - link
I believe Vivek has an Envy 14 from someone on loan (i.e. not from HP), and Dustin has an Envy 17... but not the 3D. Se la vi!iamkyle - Monday, November 29, 2010 - link
C'est la vieJarredWalton - Monday, November 29, 2010 - link
[Jarred hides his head in shame... teach me to try and write French....]freespace303 - Monday, November 29, 2010 - link
Is it true? Reviewing the 17? Interested in reviewing the 3D version?JarredWalton - Monday, November 29, 2010 - link
Dustin has the Envy 17 in his grubby little hands. Unfortunately, to quote him, "It looks like this one has been through quite a few reviewers already. It came in an Amazon box!" So, I don't know if it will be an up-to-date model or something made six months ago. As for Vivek, he has someone's Envy 14 with the Radiance display, which obviously isn't available from HP anymore. I suppose a few people are selling such laptops (used) on eBay, but I really hope HP finds a way to get more of the 900p Radiance panel in stock.blackrook - Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - link
HP reps are saying that they'll be back in stock sometime in December. Now to decide whether it's worth trusting them.StrangerGuy - Monday, November 29, 2010 - link
Why not bash Asus even more? Same mediocre LCDs, a lot more junk models (thousands of crappy 310m laptops, ULV CPU on the 14" in 2010), and they are way behind Acer in overall value for dollar if you ask me.