Acer Launches New Aspire V5 Series Laptops for the Budget Conscious Consumer

In the midst of all the Ultrabook announcements from Computex, there are also plenty of regular laptops coming out. Acer is launching a new line of laptops called V5, targeting users that are looking for thin and light notebooks that won’t break the bank—students are specifically given a mention. These are full-featured laptops with optical drives and standard voltage Core i3 and i5 processors, but the design language has been given a serious overhaul compared to previous value-oriented Acer Aspire offerings. Perhaps most notable is that the new models are 30% slimmer than the previous generation.

For now, Acer will be offering two general models with the Aspire V5, a 14” unit that’s 0.79”/20mm thick and weighs 4.6lbs/2.09kg and a 15.6” laptop that’s 0.83”/21mm thick and weighs 5lbs/2.27kg. Those figures are very close to the requirements for Ultrabooks, but in order to keep costs down Acer will be using regular CPUs and won’t ship any V5 laptops with SSDs or SSD caching. Acer didn’t provide specifics on the components they’ll be using, but you can expect a variety of models with differing hard drive capacities, CPUs, and memory if the past is any indication.

There’s no mention made of discrete GPUs, only HD 4000, but you will get the usual assortment of USB 3.0 ports, 802.11n wireless (now with Acer Instant Connect so that you can restore previously used networks in just 2.5 seconds) Bluetooth 4.0+ HS, and optical drives. Acer is also using chiclet-style keyboards, which is a great improvement from their old floating island design. The press release doesn’t mention LCD resolution, other than to say they feature a “true 16:9 aspect ratio” (I have no idea what a "false 16:9 aspect ratio" would be), but I’ll eat my hat if they’re anything other than 1366x768.

The chassis will feature a “soft and smooth surface”, so it sounds like Acer is using a soft-touch plastic material/coating. The V5 will launch in four colors: purple, blue, silver, and black. And as you would expect given the manufacturer, prices are coming in quite low. Acer will have widespread availability of the Aspire V5 models across the US shortly, with prices starting at $630 when equipped with a Core i3 Ivy Bridge CPU. If that’s still too expensive, Acer will also have models with last-generation Sandy Bridge processors starting at just $450. No models are currently listed, but keep your eye on Acer’s Aspire V5 webpage and it should be updated with additional information in the coming days/weeks.