Of course, you mustn't expect an aluminum case or a glass touchpad for less than 400 Euros. The Extensa 5230E presents itself quite classical in black plastic. Agreeable: Acer doesn't use smudge susceptible high-gloss surfaces at all; the plastic is matt and slightly roughened.

This material is used from the wrist-rest up to the display frame, merely the loudspeaker cover above the keyboard simulates a perforated metal part. The power button and the touchpad bezel is also made of silver plastic.

The case tray is manufactured of the same plastic, merely the plastic on the front, where the panel on which the audio outputs and the hardware switches for Bluetooth and WLAN have been placed, looks like brushed aluminum.

With so much plastic, it's no wonder then that you get a whiff of plastic when you unpack the notebook for the first time. This was, however, very mild and we couldn't smell it anymore on the evening of our first test day. Acer spared on packaging wherever it was possible and delivers the notebook in a cardboard box with papier-mâché fillings, which are significantly more friendly for the environment than plastic and polystyrene fillings.

All surfaces have a nice feel and also look well-matched. The keyboard is, as Sony has already done it, slightly submerged in comparison to the wrist rests and loudspeaker cover. Additionally, the keys are implemented in a slight curve from left to right, which is supposed to increase the ergonomics. You can read if this has been successful in the section about input devices.

As already mentioned, the Extensa 5320E-901G16Mn doesn't have any overwhelming connections, but it does have a few surprises:

For example, on the front, beside the standard 3.5 mm headphone and microphone socket, there is a third socket for a jack plug. This is a line-in connection over which pre-amplified signals can be fed in easier than over the microphone-in. A rarity for notebooks. Beside this, there is also a hardware switch for the integrated WLAN module and Bluetooth on the front, which wasn't included in our model.

Anyhow, our prototype rather presents which connections the user might have gotten for a larger investment: On the left there is, for instance, a plastic-covered punch-out for an HDMI-out under which "HDMI" is embossed on the plastic. A serial port would also be possible, which is also located on the left.

Apart from that, there are following interfaces on the left, from front to rear: A slot for PCMCIA cards, with which the notebook's connectivity can be improved, then two USB 2.0 ports, the LAN port and display out. A Kensington lock for securing the laptop can be connected in the very back.

The right is unfettered from any connections, merely the DVD burner is found here. For this, there is a further USB port on the rear, and the socket for the adapter. You will find a further plastic cover here, which hides the punch-out for a combined eSATA/USB 2.0 interface that can be built in here.

Practical: All side connections are marked on the upper side beside the keyboard so that you don't have to twist your neck to plug in an, for instance, USB device, but can already see from above where the single connections are.

Acer builds in a microphone over the display. There wasn't a webcam integrated into our prototype. What we also missed was a cardreader. A few other models of the range already have it. It's then built in to an exchangeable front bezel.

Keyboard

The first thing that strikes you when the Extensa 5320E is opened is the slightly curved keyboard that, so to say, obliges the hands. Actually, this form is very intuitive and you accommodate yourself quickly to the keyboard. Frequent and fast typists should also benefit from the slightly curved design.

Unfortunately, the keyboard also has weak points: It sits tight in the case and doesn't deflect anywhere but the single keys are relatively loose and wobble back and forth now and again. Additionally, the pressure point isn't clearly defined so that the feedback for the key pressure turns out imprecise.

There's no reason for complaint about the key layout: All keys are sufficiently large and are placed there where they belong. Volume and display brightness are controlled with the Fn-key in combination with the arrow keys; aside from that there are a few rather unusual, but quite practical key combinations: For instance, with Fn + F1 a help document about all hotkeys can be called up. The display's back light can be turned off to save energy with Fn +  F6.

Touchpad

The touchpad is well separated from the wrist rests, as it is encased by a small, silver plastic frame on the one side and on the other has a smooth surface that contrasts well with the roughened wrist rests. The mouse cursor responds well to finger gestures and clicks by tipping the touchpad are also executed reliably.

Almost unusual is that there isn't a scroll bar on the right edge, with which a mouse wheel can be replaced. But it's usually often triggered unintentionally anyway so that its omission can be coped with.

Both keys below the touchpad respond well to inputs everywhere and acknowledge every key stroke with a loud click noise.

15.4 inch, 16:10, 1280 times 800 pixels, matt surface. So the key data of the TFT LCD display that Acer builds into the Extensa 5230E. The display is well suitable to work with, especially due to its matt surface, which reduces annoying reflections. Therefore, the display can be used even in a very bright surrounding without problems.

The display's aspect ratio of 16:10 is also an advantage. Particularly, when longer documents are edited or web sites are looked at: The screen doesn't have as much height with the already common 16:9 aspect ratio and you have to scroll more frequently.

However, you have to accept the fairly low resolution and the resulting less space for larger documents. 1280 x 800 pixels aren't really up-to-date anymore. The resolution is sufficient for average office work, though.

The missing LED backlight is quite a bit more displeasing. Acer uses common fluorescent tubes for the display's backlight. This has a higher power consumption and the illumination should turn out less homogenous than with the use of LEDs. And really: The display's darkest area is only 76.5% as bright as the brightest. This is still in the center field, but a graying of larger white areas is very distinct.

The average brightness of 156.8 cd/m² is equally not a really good value. By the way, the screen is brightness in the center with 161.8 cd/m². We could also denote  the contrast value of 165:1 with "sufficient".

At least the horizontal and vertical viewing angles are okay; when sitting at the side of or a bit above the screen, you can still see what's happening on the screen.

That colors aren't as brilliant as in a glare display is natural, but the color nuances on Acer's display make a very blurred impression and black is also more a dark gray.

Acer definitely hasn't built in the screen for graphical applications and photo fans won't be very pleased about the not very impressive color representation and the uneven illumination, either. Because the notebook is aimed at another user category, which will principally use word processing and presentations, you probably have to make compromises on the display's quality, in particular in view of the price.

That the Acer Extensa 5230E is barely suitable for graphic programs and other demanding applications can be seen at a look on the configuration: With a Celeron 900 with 2.2 GHz, an Intel GMA 4500M and a one GByte RAM, every kind of spreadsheet should be possible but you shouldn't expect too much more from the laptop.

But the performance values of the Extensa 5230E aren't so bad after all: We tested HD video rendering with movie trailers from the internet first. There weren't any problems here, the video ran without studdering, sound and image were always synchronous. Of course, you shouldn't do too much adjacent to watching the video, as the small single-core processor isn't made for multitasking.

The synthetical benchmarks led us to an overall rating of 69% for application performance. That is, if you consider the price again, a quite acceptable value. If you also consider the current trend to energy saving processors, a significantly higher application performance, like 2062 points in the Cinebench R10 or 2586 points in the PCMark05, is certified.

Naturally, the verdict of gaming performance is devastating: 680 points in 3DMark05 and 52% in the overall rating rather indicate that no 3D game will be able to run smoothly on the Extensa 5230E. However, it should be sufficient for old classic games from the time of StarCraft or Baldur's Gate.

System Noise

Does the notebook even have a fan? We asked ourselves this questions a few times during the test: For one thing, the louver has been placed on the rear so that you have to look for it, for another the fan whispers along with an almost inaudible 29.3 dB(A), at least in an unloaded state. Even when the device is put under the maximum load, the fan noise reaches 34.5 dB(A) at most, which is still very quiet. The fan noise is also shielded by the display due to its position on the laptop's rear.

It's just as hard to hear the hard disk, as it also rotates with a quiet as a whisper 30.3 dB(A). The DVD drive is the "loudest", as it renders DVDs audibly with 37.3 dB(A), but this is still not unpleasant at all.

Overall, the device achieves a dream result of 97% in the category of system noise - need we say more?

Temperature

The Extensa 5230E scores similarly good in the category temperature: The maximum temperature that we could reach in the lab was 37.4 degrees Celsius. This, of course, under load and on the bottom side underneath the fan grills, where the processor is located. Therefore, those who like to use the notebook on their lap when they're on the go don't have to fear burning their thighs because the bottom only heats up minimally at most.

The notebook heats up to a maximum of 35.4 degrees Celsius on the upper side that is touched much more frequently and barely gets any warmer. The adapter also didn't give cause for complaint: Even after several hours of use, it could be picked up without further ado with 43.1 degrees.

One thing first: Sony's little 48.4 Wh battery has a bit of a hard time to really grant a long battery life. And that despite the good power consumption values: Our prototype only uses 12.2 watts when all energy saving options are enabled. But it's already 35.9 watts in maximum performance.

You have to be careful if you use the preset screensaver: We've already frequently observed that these small programs that are supposed to protect the screen with moving graphics against too long freeze images can increase the power consumption quite a bit. And the energy requirement of the Extensa 5230E also surges by over 8% or almost 30% as soon as the screensaver turns itself on!

It's good that the Extensa barely uses any electricity in standby or with a deactivated system: The notebook merely drains 0.1 watt out of the power line. It would naturally be even better if the notebook wouldn't use any electricity. So, just to really be sure, you will have to pull the plug every time.