I have needed a new laptop for years but always put off getting one. No sooner would I find one that I liked and it would be "outdated" with some newer version. My requirements for a laptop aren't plentiful, I need something to get online with, play the occasional game at Neopets, word process and something that wasn't extremely heavy. I was fixated with getting a NetBook because they were cute and small but I don't have elf fingers so the keys were too small and it was hard to see the icons on the screen so I could only imagine the awkward spelling mistakes I would make if I tried to use it to write reviews.

My older laptop served me well but ended up destroying itself in some weird computer suicide. I liked what it had to offer and spend about a hundred dollars trying to get it fixed. I realized that it was time to retire it and sent it off to the electronics recycling center. I could have spent some extra cash upgrading it but it made more sense to get a new one. While the Acer Aspire 5515 has been a little hard to get used to, for the price it was something that I couldn't pass up.

Wal-Mart has a small electronics section [at least mine does] but I couldn't ignore the $348.00 laptop that they had in the case. With tax it was about $380.00 but I'd saved up some gift cards so I only ended up spending $300.00 of my own money on it. The funniest thing about the purchase was when Tommy went to go buy one the next day. I asked the electronics clerk how many of them she had and she looked in the case and said "seven including the display model". He went back the next day [after playing with mine] and they were sold out. Either someone went and bought them all or a lot of people had laptops that crashed on them. Whatever the case, the "super cheap laptop deal" at Wal-Mart is no more. Someone said that it was a special price / special offer but after digging and talking to more people I was told that they were mispriced by a hundred dollars. Similar deals at Best Buy have also dried up.

Being a computer moron can be tough in this day and age. The person at Wal-Mart said that she had never had anyone return one of the laptops which lead me to inspect the box to make sure that it was factory sealed. I also checked the computer memory to see if anything was stored on it or if it had been used and returned. I couldn't find anything so if that was the case, whoever had it knew how to restore it to the factory settings and remove any trace that it had been previously used. There wasn't much to the packaging; the only things that came with it were the battery, power cord, laptop and manual. No software? Sweetie, that's why you make a backup disc. Yeah, I've yet to do that so I can't say what all goes into it. I know, eventually I will kick myself for not making one but right now, everything is peachy keen.

Set Up: It was pretty much ready to go out of the box. Of course the battery needed charged and I had to set up how I wanted it to run but that's a given for any laptop or desktop. It took about ten minutes for the laptop to go through the initial set up and unpack everything. It was annoying to have to sit there and wait but not as bothersome as it was to see the endless help pages. I didn't need half the junk that came with it, something I was later told was called "bloatware". It took me about a month to get used to Vista and I can still say that it sucks more than anything that has ever sucked before. Why does it have to be so complicated? If you have the choice of an OS, Vista shouldn't be it. I thought XP was horrible but it's no where near as bizarre as Vista.

Programs: You get some basic titles with the Acer Aspire 5515 but I wouldn't get too used to them if I were you. The Microsoft Office package is a trial version; after so many uses you have to enter a product key. I wasn't about to pay for it only to use Microsoft Word so I tried to install my older [but wonderful] 2003 version. My biggest beef with the version that came with the laptop is it was overly complicated. There were so many icons that you had to spend ten minutes trying to find how to change the font, save the document or load a new page. Couple that with the frustration of the message "You can use this program 18 more times before you will have to enter a product key" and you can start to feel my pain.

Thanks to Epinions member kurtg I was able to install my 2003 Word program; I was trying to install it with the newer Microsoft Office package still on the laptop. No wonder I kept getting the invalid product key message. Thanks Kurt, you've made typing a hell of a lot nicer!

I ended up removing a lot of the stuff that came with the laptop. I have no use for spreadsheets, Acer Game Zone, McAfee, Orion or Google Toolbar. I don't know if it is a problem with Vista or the laptop but there is no Add / Remove Programs in the Control Panel. When I want to remove something I have to go to the stupid help option and type in "remove programs". Again, I have to think that this is more Vista than Acer so it is another reason why Vista can bend over and take it hard. I still have programs that I can't find listed on the hard drive that I want to remove. They are hidden somewhere but I will find them and remove them [remove, not delete, there is a difference].

Memory: I'm still a computer moron that can't keep track of MB, KB, GB and other variations of "B". At present moment this is what my computer has to offer me in the way of memory.

Acer C: 41.4 GB free of 69.5 GB
Acer D: 69.4 GB free of 69.5 GB

This is where the problem comes in. I have no clue if I can move things to the D drive without it effecting how programs run. Do I need to change anything? Can I drop and drag things to the D drive? Can I use that for files that have a main program running on the C drive? I tried to ask people and it did nothing but confuse them so I have to sit them down, show them what I am talking about when I have the "computer" section of the Control Panel open.

I also have the E drive for DVD's and CD's and I use a ZIP Drive which shows up as the F drive when I plug it into one of the two USB ports. Ah yes, another downside to the 5515 is that there are only two UBS ports. I solved that with the Ultra 2.0 USB Hub Adapter so it wasn't too big of a deal once I got one and plugged it in. The DVD player works nice but I've only seen a few movies on it, I don't use it for CD playing or burning since I have never had any luck with the CD-RW's in their capacity to rewrite things to them. Tommy knows when I am trying to do that and comes to my rescue.

As far as functionality goes, it is user friendly to a degree. I can type faster and more accurately with the keyboard but there is no numeric pad on the right side. The DVD and volume controls are operated using the FN [function] keys so it does require two hands to do it. Sure, that might not sound like a big deal but to me it is. I miss the full spread keyboard but I am getting used to this one. One thing that happens all the time is I end up hitting the Cap Lock key when I mean to hit the "A" key. If I am not paying attention to the screen I can type out a sentence or two in ALL CAPS. Maybe I need smaller fingers.

The screen is 15.4 inches diagonally. It is smaller than my computer monitor but I have adjusted well to it and so far it hasn't been a problem with any of the websites that I visit on a daily basis. When you close the lid of the laptop the screen goes black. Before you ask, yes, it was kind of like when you are a kid and you try to see if they light bulb goes out when you close the refrigerator door. This puts the laptop into sleep mode, something I learned the hard way when I went to move it from the kitchen to the livingroom. So far I haven't been able to find out what the difference is between hibernate and sleep; as best I can tell one requires you to unlock it when you power it back up and the other just allows you to resume work without having to click the center icon.

I am not a fan of touchpads. I like the old school mouse with buttons and a scroll bar. That was one of the reasons I needed to get a USB Hub; there are only two USB ports [one on the back, one on the side] so for me to be online and use a mouse, well, that taps both ports. If I wanted to use a webcam, printer, ZIP Drive or anything else I had to choose between losing my internet connection or my mouse. The touchpad isn't overly sensitive but I am not into having to click buttons and move the mouse to cut and paste things. It also seriously screwed with me when I tried to navigate up or down pages as it would do some weird "jump" and change how it would scroll. That hindered gameplay at certain websites so it doesn't get used all that often.

Another thing that sucks about the Acer Aspire 5515 is the button to eject the DVD or CD. It is hard to feel where it is on the door so you spend a couple seconds feeling it up to find it. It only ejects part way and I don't like the crappy make up of it. When you press a CD or DVD into it, it feels like it is flexing and too much force is going to break it. Granted, it doesn't get used a lot but if it were to break I would be rather irked.

If you want the specs of what the Acer Aspire 5515 has to offer, you won't find them here. Why? Because that's not what I'm all about. Any monkey can cut and paste the specs from another site but for people like me, it all reads as Greek. I'm more about telling people what to expect from it and giving my honest opinion about whether it's worth the money or not. For $380.00 I feel that I got a great deal on a laptop that has given me no problems so far. Anything that was an issue was my own lack of Vista knowledge and computer skills.

The Acer Aspire 5515 is a good pick for students too. It has enough memory and basic programs loaded [if you want to buy them after the trial version that is] to get them started. It fits inside most computer backs and backpacks that have a laptop pocket. I've carried it up and down the steps more than a few times and even with my lack of coordination I've never dropped it.


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^V^ © 2009 Freak369 ^V^
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Maxtor 160 GB ATA-133 Hard Drive
Creative Labs Video Blaster WebCam Plus
Lexar JumpDrive Pro 80X USB 2.0 Flash Drive
Belkin Wireless F5D 7050 G USB Network Adapter

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 380.00
Operating System: Windows
Processor: AMD K-2
Processor speed: Don''t Know
Screen Size: Greater than 15 inches
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50