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Acer Aspire 4553G Review

The Acer Aspire 4553G is probably the first locally-available laptop sporting an AMD triple-core CPU. The CPU sits somewhere between Intel’s Core i3 and Core i5 systems (not just because it has 3 cores).

The unit is fairly heavy but is expected in its category — not meant to be lugged around but, IMO, more like a desktop replacement unit. The 14.1-inch screen has a maximum resolution of 1366×768 pixels. The display is bright and crisp although I found that cranking the brightness to the highest setting makes it a bit washed out.

Yugatech 728x90 Reno7 Series

The dark glossy lid has those subtle striped lines but that didn’t prevent the surface to be a fingerprint-magnet. The inside surface is the same except for the dark-gray brushed-metal finish on the palm rest area.

The laptop comes with a full-sized keyboard feature that Acer-signature flat, island-type keys that maximizes the keyboard real estate. The extra-large trackpad is flushed to the left side and, although the left and right buttons are not separated, the larger-than usual size makes up for it.

The Aspire 4553G is un-assuming and what you’d expect from a workhorse laptop — a mix of good specs and an affordable price point. Check out the specs of the review unit we got (with Linpus OS pre-installed):

Acer Aspire AS4553G
14.1″ display @ 1366×768
AMD Phenom II X3 N830 2.1GHz
ATI Radeon HD5470 512MB
2.0GB DDR3 RAM
320GB HDD
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth, HDMI
DVD+RW

From what I’ve read around, the triple-core Phenom II X3 is actually a quad-core X4 CPUs with one of the cores disabled. The crippling of that single core allowed AMD to offer a mid-range CPU between the dual-core X2 and the more expensive quad-core X4 CPUs (see the CPU ID screen shots below).

The CPU runs at a maximum speed of 2.1GHz for each of the 3 cores (each core has 1 thread only). The graphics is switchable between the more powerful ATI Radeon HD5470 with 512MB of DDR2 RAM and the on-board ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 used in power-saving mode.

The HD5470 is still an entry-level DirectX 11 graphics card so don’t expect this to be able to handle high-detail settings when playing games.

Since the laptop did not come with Windows OS pre-installed, I had to load it up with Windows 7 Ultimate so we can get the Experience Index scores.

The X3 N830 processor got a sub-score of 6.2 on Windows Experience Index (sits between a Core i3 330M at 5.9 and a Core i5 520M at 6.7). The graphics card (ATI HD5470) got the lowest sub-score of 5.0 but it’s still a pretty decent score nonetheless.

As for battery performance, I got split results depending on which graphics card I used in the testing. When running on the discreet graphics, I get a battery rating of just over 2 hours. However, when using the integrated graphics, battery life improved and can go close to 4 hours on a single charge (set in power-saving mode).

The Acer Aspire 4553G looks to be a good mid-range laptop considering the specs that came with it. With a retail price starting at Php29,990 (without OS), it can still hold its ground even when compared to counterparts running Core i3 CPUs.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

59 Responses

  1. Avatar for Silvio - Veteranos da Estrada Silvio - Veteranos da Estrada says:

    Acer is a greate notebook.

  2. Avatar for Cha Sy Cha Sy says:

    All of a sudden my Asus keyboard stopped working, hays not recommended ang Asus intel core i3. Sobrang bulok.

  3. Avatar for Silvio Silvio says:

    I buy two units of a Acer Aspire 4553 AMD Turion II X2 P540 2.4 GHz 4096 MB and we love it. Good price and trusted components.

  4. Avatar for audiedevera audiedevera says:

    try other webcam installer loaded on the your drivers cd

    suyin webcam work for me.

  5. Avatar for Hannah Hannah says:

    i can’t install the driver of the webcam.. it always says “device not recognize” what shall i do?

  6. Avatar for audiedevera audiedevera says:

    ah… same here i’m using higher vcard either battery mode or plugged, what i want is when using battery mode it should be the lower vcard being used to… but everytym i turned on the unit it always goes back to the high vcard as a default, futhermore the flickering is very annoying… may gues is, it ati’s problem.. the switchable graphics they have on this unit are not yet well folished… that y everytime we switch vcard it always flickers… newer ati brands that are switchable i think are already folished. hope amd or acer or ati can give us bios update on it… :) bios v1.14 wasn’t enough

  7. Avatar for audiedevera audiedevera says:

    sir tan0ng ko lang po kc acer4553g unit q.. Kso pg ngswitch po q ng grafixcard nag fliflicker po xa ng 3x.. Installed aman po ung nsa drivers q at inaupdate q din ung bios nya to 1.17.. Kso ganun parn.. Nkakaincounter po b kau ng ganun? Updated din drivers q.. Any solution po? Npatsek q nrn s service center at waiting 4 board replacement

    • Avatar for christian christian says:

      hi actually, i have a quite similar prob as yours. ndi ganyan exactly, pro kc when i plug/unplug my laptop it changes the video card (switches to higher vcard when plugged), when i do that my screen goes black for a while then reloads. i actually dont like that happening everytime i plug/unplug and i cant control that using the catalyst center

      anyway my point is, i reformatted my laptop after the OS trial expired. then after installing al the drivers, i did not change anything from the catalyst control center so it’s permanently using the higher vcard. and my prob was solved. maybe you can just reformat (sounds crazy) your pc. anyway if it’s windows 7 its easier to recover your files…

  8. Avatar for Hram Hram says:

    Is it compatible with SDHC cards?

  9. Avatar for Nyle Nyle says:

    @Jay : You can buy it at E’ mall… at Nutech 3rd floor… P29900 for Cash Buyers…

  10. Avatar for mark benson mark benson says:

    what is the worst problem with this unit?

  11. Avatar for audiedevera audiedevera says:

    sir can i have a copy of your batterybar for my 4553g? thanks in advance!

  12. Avatar for skye skye says:

    @ buboy:

    i think core 2 duo will play some games… but for more demanding ones, i5 or i7 i think…

    for amd try starting at athlon II

    my tip: if you’re looking for a good laptop, never get tired of looking at the net, especially benchmarking and reviews. and if you have a particular game you wanna play, try looking for websites where you can specify a particular processor/video card and the website will tell if you can play the game or not. that way you will know what sort of processor or video card to choose.

  13. Avatar for buboy buboy says:

    how about Intel core duo? it is good for gaming?
    What specs of laptop good for gaming?

  14. Avatar for skye skye says:

    nice one!

    sobrang init b tlg? ramdam ko lng naman pag nagggames at while actively charging…

  15. Avatar for jdgr8 jdgr8 says:

    @skye: I already got 1…tnx…nice laptop kya lng ramdam mo tlga init ng AMD…u can this guys http://www.villman.com/Product-Detail/Acer_Aspire_4745G-332G32M. same specs kya lng I3.

  16. Avatar for macc0i macc0i says:

    i hav acer aspire 4553G 1 month old p skin super bilis talaga & gustong gusto ko talaga i2 alam nyo kayang kaya d2 ang call of duty modern warfare 2…..nice talaga high performance talaga ang laptop na i2

  17. Avatar for skye skye says:

    sa think pc po sa sm north. i haven’t been there ever since i bought the laptop. so i can’t tell kung meron pa or kung meron narin yung ibang stores… i wanted to check if gilmore stores have this, pero wala ako kasama kaya tinamad ako. check niyo narin

  18. Avatar for lennox_tpc lennox_tpc says:

    I really think the Acer Aspire AS4553 AMD Phenom Quad is a bang-for-the-buck lappy.

    Mine is going to arrive tomorrow in my office. :-)

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