Acer Aspire 1551 hits retailers with 1.5GHz dual-core Turion II CPU

Looking for a netbook with a little more oomph, or perhaps a thin-and-light laptop that doesn't break the bank? We're not quite sure which category the Acer Aspire 1551-5448 falls under, but we reckon it's liable to satisfy both camps with an 11.6-inch LED-backlit display and a 1.5GHz AMD Turion II Neo K625 CPU. Like the single-threaded Aspire 521 and 721 cousins we'll be reviewing later this week, this dual-core machine sports a ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4225 GPU for stutter-free 1080p playback, and extra memory to boot. Here, Acer crammed 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 320GB hard drive, 802.11n WiFi, HDMI-out and a six-cell, five-hour battery into a package weighing just over three pounds. If you've got $550 to drop, there's an Aspire 1551 with your name on it, available now practically wherever laptops are sold.

[ssguy Posted Jun 29th 2010 2:06AM]

Is AMD still alive? Apart from the ATI graphics division, I am yet to see any good ATI processors in the market. I hope that it doesn't die or go bankrupt coz we need some good competition in the processor market.

[manifest3r Posted Jun 29th 2010 2:07AM]

AMD Processors*

[ssguy Posted Jun 29th 2010 2:07AM]

@ssguy

sorry i meant AMD processors... damn edit button where r u?

[Cyberdyne Systems Posted Jun 29th 2010 2:17AM]

@ssguy
AMD is still very much alive, coming from an owner of the N930 Mobile Quad-Core.

[Bahumbug Posted Jun 29th 2010 2:23AM]

@ssguy Well, you dont know diddly crap about the CPU market then. Go back to bed.

[fel Posted Jun 29th 2010 2:24AM]

@ssguy
AMD is doing quite well in the desktop space.

And as you alluded to ATI has been doing well too.

[tybert7 Posted Jun 29th 2010 2:52AM]

@ssguy

If engadget comments had an edit button... they blew it?

(please don't ban me)

[Punisher Plum Posted Jun 29th 2010 4:21AM]

@tybert7

if thats your best joke, you blew it.

[manifest3r Posted Jun 29th 2010 2:07AM]

I just hope stickers don't cover that whole front

[pika2000 Posted Jun 29th 2010 2:33AM]

@manifest3r
Nah, it's not that bad, only 1 big one on the right, and 2 badges on the left.

[nicomo Posted Jun 29th 2010 6:10AM]

@manifest3r

Pain isn't it? You buy a nice gleaming new laptop with a lovely brushed metal effect and then some moron decides to stick stickers all over the place!! Why can't they just stick them on the bottom?

[kmorris97 Posted Jun 29th 2010 2:34AM]

Sexy.

[MagnetMan Posted Jun 29th 2010 5:17AM]

@kmorris97

This laptop looks great, but the battery life is IMO far too low. One of the draws of netbooks is long battery life, and 5hrs just doesn't cut it. I would take this package if it offered 10+ hours.

[HPe Posted Jun 29th 2010 7:21AM]

@MagnetMan Then you just go for the TimelineX models. They have 8+ hrs with a standard battery, and 12+ hrs with a slightly larger battery. All that with Core i5 and i7 and discrete graphics.

[juanvaldez Posted Jun 29th 2010 2:45AM]

Either $75 cheaper or better battery life and I'd definitely be sold. To worry about Acer quality and have some average useful life away from the plug might for the year it's alive is enough to not make this a sure buy for me. That said, price/specs are right, if this were from 9 out of 10 other companies I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

[Eraser Posted Jun 29th 2010 2:51AM]

@juanvaldez

Agreed. Give it 8+ hours battery and I'd buy it.

[Eraser Posted Jun 29th 2010 2:50AM]

@hated one

hate to break it to you, but the iPad is nowhere near the speed of this

[DrScope Posted Jun 29th 2010 2:54AM]

@hated one Windows 7 = COMPUTER. iPad = gadget for playing around while the COMPUTER is starting up.

I do work on COMPUTERS not on gadgets.
I have and love the iPad but it has nothing to do with COMPUTERS, It's a nice gadget is all.

[Seb6554 Posted Jun 29th 2010 2:55AM]

@hated one
How is the iPad better?
You're comparing a giant smartphone to a computer. For a normal, non-techy person fine. But you read Engadget, you are part of thoses people who know more about computers than others.
The iPad is not faster or more desirable; it's different.

[FAP FAP FAP Posted Jun 29th 2010 2:57AM]

@hated one
Does your iPad have 4GB ram? What about a 320GB hard drive (upgradeable)? 1080p playback? FLASH?
Didn't think so.
Troll elsewhere.

[etwashoo2 Posted Jun 29th 2010 3:05AM]

@Eraser

Why do you guys feed the troll? Just downrank and move on.

[j2daake Posted Jun 29th 2010 3:17AM]

If it dropped $100, its a definite buy. $50, probably. Right now? Ehh... I'm okay with craigslist.

[juanvaldez Posted Jun 29th 2010 3:29AM]

@j2daake Funny, because I said $75 and it's right in the middle of your two options, seems like we are thinking the same...

[j2daake Posted Jun 29th 2010 3:33AM]

@juanvaldez Well you know what they say, great minds... *takes off sunglasses* think alike. YEEEAAAHHHHHH!!!

[cloudstrife07 Posted Jun 29th 2010 3:56AM]

..and i just bought an Acer Aspire 1410 6 months ago. RAAGGEEE! DAMN U AMD! DAMN U! WHY DIDN'T U RELEASE THIS SOONER!

[TareG Posted Jun 29th 2010 4:07AM]

Completely useless graphics card, but hey it's a netbook and a cheap one too.

[fuisti Posted Jun 29th 2010 4:30AM]

@TareG
The card aint half bad. It would play COD6 pretty easily. Maybe with some of the details turned up even.

[TareG Posted Jun 29th 2010 4:33AM]

@fuisti
It runs the original Crysis 2007 set to LOW at 15.2 fps, with a more powerful CPU.

[Flix C Posted Jun 29th 2010 7:08AM]

@TareG
Not completely useless : it allows this kind of low CPU to smoothly play 1080p video && run composite 2D/3D desktop effects without using 30% of your CPU.
So definitely not useless if you plan to run Windows 7 or Compiz for instance.

Remember Turion X2 has no integrated GPU like Cori i3/i5/i7.

[juanvaldez Posted Jun 29th 2010 11:10AM]

@TareG read: not a gaming laptop...hate comments like this on a $550 laptop.

[juanvaldez Posted Jun 29th 2010 11:11AM]

@TareG Honestly, you lost me before the comma, forgive me for not seeing the 2nd half of your post Lol :/

[magadget Posted Jun 29th 2010 4:51AM]

The price is absolutely 200 usd too much. Looks cheap and just like other Atom and Turions the performance is like Sarah Palin’s hair - absolutely disastrous.

[juanvaldez Posted Jun 29th 2010 11:13AM]

@magadget @200 cheaper this blows everything out of the water, remember, this is MSRP not discounted pricing. I do think Acer should target the cheapest product since that's their MO, but I think you are over $100 off in your unscientific marketing analysis.

[CyberPowerUK Posted Jun 29th 2010 5:08AM]

Seems like similar spec to the Ferrari One, only cheaper.The F1's not bad for a bit of casual gaming, office work and surfing, it feels more like a CULV than a classic netbook.

[Aplin Posted Jun 29th 2010 5:25AM]

So is this $4$ the best laptop under $700?

[Brother Unit No 4 Posted Jun 29th 2010 7:43AM]

For the record, the Acer website doesn't classify this as a netbook, so I'd say this is a low-powered ultraportable more than anything.

As for the battery-life complaints that everyone has, I suspect that this system is also plagued with a low capacity battery like the previous batch of AMD laptops were.

Check this page from Anandtech's recent AMD Toshiba review to see what I'm talking about:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3784/toshiba-a505ds6987-turion-ii-ultra-m600/6

[Dalhectar Posted Jun 29th 2010 9:57AM]

@Brother Unit No 4

Low Battery capacity yes, but this cpu consumes half the watts of the AMD Toshiba unit from Anandtech. So expect better battery, but this unit should have a bubble butt 9 cell battery option

[Very Powerfull Codfish Posted Jun 29th 2010 10:09AM]

The End button is an Fn control. No way on Earth I'm buying this.

[Guspaz Posted Jun 29th 2010 12:25PM]

This appears to essentially be the AMD version of the 1830T...

Speaking of the 1830T, I really wish they'd hurry up and release the i5 version of it in Canada! A bunch of US stores (NewEgg, Amazon, TigerDirect, etc) have had it in stock for a week or two, but nobody in Canada is selling them, not even the Canadian versions of NewEgg, Amazon, or TigerDirect.

[Firehazel Posted Jun 29th 2010 1:12PM]

@etwashoo2 I wish they would drop the BanHammer on this guy...

[wde Posted Jun 29th 2010 5:14PM]

I would like to see one of the review sites do a side by side comparison of this machine (or the slightly less powerful K325 version) and the as-close-as-possible-equivalent Intel powered Acer product (1830T, maybe?) and see what the price difference means for battery life and performance. I'm guessing the $100 or so lower price for the AMD version may still have slightly better overall and graphics performance but with a hit to the battery life. I'd like to know how much the battery life hit is.