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I spent more than a month researching laptops in the sub $400 category and decided to pull the trigger on this one. Being refurbished I was a little worried about the cosmetic quality or if I'd have to send back for replacement or repair. The laptop looks barely used except for a couple of light scratches on the top cover. The scratches run along the grain of the "brushed metal" appearance so actually they're not very noticeable and can only be seen on close visual inspection. The bottom cover, keyboard and palm rest were in flawless condition as well as the IPS display. If I was to give a cosmetic grade to this laptop I'd say it's in "Excellent Condition". For a letter grade rating I'd give it an "A-". There is a sticker on the bottom that says Acer Recertified Product Service with a support phone number and email on it. The colors and the brightness of the IPS display are excellent. One of the best I've seen on a laptop. There were no dead or stuck pixels and there is minimal light bleed. Functionally everything works just fine. I haven't noticed any issues with the hardware. The keyboard is wide and the keys are generously spaced apart. The keyboard backlighting works well. It will auto-off when the keys aren't in use after about 30 seconds and as soon as you type again the backlighting comes on instantly. The touchscreen is very responsive. The laptop works well in laptop, stand, tent, or tablet mode. Make sure you turn Dolby Audio on in the audio control panel. Your audio level, sounds and music will sound much better. The back cover comes off fairly easy. Just unscrew the screws and unsnap the back cover all around along the edges using a plastic pry tool so as not to scratch the cover. You will eventually want to upgrade the HDD cause it's just too slow. I cloned the HDD using Macrium Reflect Free and a MantisTek USB 3.0 SATA HDD/SSD External 2.5'' Case for the SSD. I replaced it with a 240GB SSD so the performance and boot times are now much improved. I also upgraded the total system RAM to 12 GB by adding an SK Hynix 8GB PC4-2133 RAM stick. I have no problems surfing the web with multiple tabs open. It can play downloaded movies and YouTube HD videos just fine. As far as gaming goes it uses an Intel HD 520 graphics. I can play World of Warships on 1366 x 768 on low to medium settings with 30-45 fps. I can play CS: GO at 1366 x 768 on low settings with 60+ fps. I can play Battlefield 4 at 1366 x 768 on low settings with 30-60 fps (avg. is 45 fps). Regular web browsing over the laptop's wireless adapter was fine but when playing games for some reason I had some latency/lag issues. My ping times were not stable. I don't know if it was because of the wireless adapter or my own WiFi network so I bought an Anker USB 3.0 to RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter to connect the laptop directly to the cable modem. After that, the latency/lag issues resolved and gaming experience improved even more. I bought this laptop to be used for general purpose stuff like web surfing, watching movies/vidoes, emailing and light casual gaming when I'm on the go. If you don't mind refurbished, I think this is the best full HD laptop for under $400. Spend a little more to upgrade to an SSD and maybe to max out the RAM and you've got a very capable laptop. Overall I am very satisfied with this purchase.Read full review
Verified purchase: No
Laptop looks brand new. Just the HDD needs to be changed to SSD so the laptop will run more faster.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned