Acer Aspire 7 A715 (7300HQ, GTX 1050) Laptop Review

For communication, there is a WLAN module and an Ethernet port. The Qualcomm WLAN module supports the IEEE 802.11ac standard and offers a maximum gross data transfer rate of 867 MBit/s. During our measurements, the Acer Aspire 7 A715 achieved an average data rate of 637 MBit/s while receiving and 512 MBit/s while sending. This is a good result, and our subjective impression of the WLAN performance was positive during the whole testing period. For stationary operation, you can connect the network cable, with which you can send and receive data at GBit speeds. 

The keyboard layout is similar to the Acer Aspire 5 A517-51G that we tested recently. Visually, the chiclet keyboard goes well with the black design. The keys offer a sufficiently large surface at 16 x 16 mm (~0.63 x 0.63 in). The typing noise is comfortably quiet, and the pressure point is clearly noticeable. However, it could have been a bit tighter, because the slightly damped stroke causes a typing experience that feels a bit spongy. Overall, the built-in keyboard is of a higher quality than that of the Acer Aspire 5 A517-51G. In addition, an optional backlight facilitates typing in the dark. The white illumination has no steps and can only be turned on or off.

The color of the touchpad is also tuned to the modest overall concept, and it is visually highlighted by a chrome frame. The smooth surface has a size of 10.7 x 7.9 cm (~4.2 x 3.1 in). However, the fingerprint-reader located in the top left area slightly limits the usable area. But due to its position, this did not result in any noticeable impact during everyday work. We did not notice any areas of the input surface itself that did not operate accurately. In the lower area are the two input keys, which produce a clear clicking sound. 

The Acer Aspire 7 A715 is equipped with an IPS display that has stable viewing angles and a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. With this, the 15-incher achieves a pixel density of 141 ppi. In terms of brightness, we would have expected more. In this price range it should be at least 300 cd/m². Our measurements of 250 cd/m² confirm the manufacturer's specifications. The same goes for the contrast. According to the manufacturer, it should be 800:1, and at 861:1 our test unit achieved a slightly better value than specified. However, for an IPS panel, these measured results are not the cream of the crop. This also shown in the brightness distribution, which is only 82%. The slight clouding becomes almost secondary, since it can only be observed at the top edge in our test unit. The Acer Aspire 7 A715 uses PWM for brightness adjustment, but since at 20,000 Hz the measured value is very high, this should not result in any limitations.

The display quality suffers somewhat from the mediocre black value (0.31), which in combination with the brightness results in a meager contrast ratio. This causes the colors to appear slightly pale and black to appear slightly grayish. The average DeltaE-2000 deviations of the grayscales and colors are almost exemplary at 2.65 and 4.65, respectively. We did not observe any blue tint in the state of delivery. We have linked the corresponding ICC profile to make it available for download. In terms of its measured color-space coverage, the Acer Aspire 7 A715 is simply disappointing. Even though at 59% (sRGB) and 38% (AdobeRGB), our test unit is not the worst in our comparison, these values are definitely not commendable and are rather below average. Thus the device is only suitable for amateur image-processing at most.

The Intel Core i5-7300HQ is a fast quad-core processor based on the Kaby Lake architecture. The four cores have a basic clock speed of 2.5 GHz, which can be increased dynamically up to 3.5 GHz. The comparison to the similarly equipped Acer Aspire Nitro BE shows that the performance of the small SoC in our test unit is a match. In particular, the comparison with the recently introduced Intel Core i5-8250U is interesting, since in parts it is able to clearly place ahead of our test unit in the multi-thread benchmarks as well as the single-thread benchmarks.

You can find further benchmarks on the Intel Core i5-7300HQ here.

As already mentioned, our test unit offers a combination of SSD and conventional hard drive. The SSD is a Kingston model with 128 GB of storage capacity. Due to its SATA speed, our model is beaten by the considerably faster NVMe SSDs. However, the advantages to a conventional hard drive are much more prevalent. We should point out the good 4K-read performance of the Kingston SSD, from which the system start benefits in particular. The 2.5-inch hard drive from Toshiba offers sufficient space. In the test, the 1-TB hard drive offers an average transfer rate of 74.8 MB/s, which remains slightly behind our expectations though, since comparable hard drives achieve a much better result at 90 MB/s.

The integrated Intel HD Graphics 630 graphics unit primarily handles the display output. In addition, it relieves the processor when playing videos. For the 3D operation, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 provides a decent performance boost. The graphics chip based on Pascal has a clock speed of 1354 to 1493 MHz and also has 2 GB of GDDR5 VRAM. A glance at the comparison chart shows that this is a mid-range graphics card. The advantage to the Nvidia GeForce MX150 is more than clear, and the two competitors that are equipped with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti can clearly move ahead.

You can find further benchmarks on the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 and the Intel HD Graphics 630 here.

During low loads, the noise level is very modest, and you can hear only some slight whirring. From time to time, you can also hear the hard drive, which is not annoying though. While you can still work relatively comfortably under average load, the two fans rev up considerably under full load. We measure the top noise level in our Acer Aspire 7 A715 at 43.4 dB(A). The devices from HP (HP Omen 15) and Asus (Asus FX553VD (7700HQ, GTX 1050)) show that it can become even louder. Nonetheless, you can clearly hear the Acer Aspire 7 A715 during gaming.

If we look at the individual areas, we cannot speak about any heat accumulation. The 40 °C mark (104 °F) is only clearly exceeded in two places on the case surface. However, things look different inside. During the stress test, the processor heated up to a maximum of 97 °C (207 °F). We have also documented slight thermal-throttling, which is only minimal though. At no time did it drop below the basic clock speed of 2.5 GHz, but the Intel Core i5-7300HQ confidently kept a speed of 2.9 GHz in the hour-long stress test with Prime95. The constant load of the graphics card turned out better than that of the CPU. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 reached a maximum of 61 °C (142 °F). We only measured a slightly higher value of 65 °C (149 °F) during the simultaneous load of the CPU and GPU. The subsequent test with 3DMark 11 showed almost the same result as during the cold start.

The stereo speakers are located below the palm rest. Since the openings point towards the bottom, the sound is reflected by the table surface. So if you place the device on a soft surface, the sound will be muffled. Despite their small membranes, the two speakers produce an acceptable result. Via the Dolby Audio software, users can select among predefined sound profiles or perform the adjustments themselves with the equalizer, in order to adjust the sound according to their own preferences. At 73.9 dB(A), the small speakers can make quite some noise without producing distortions. Because the bass is not very loud, you can hardly hear it, and the mids and highs are prevalent. You can easily connect external speakers via the 3.5-mm audio port (audio/microphone combo).

Despite the comparatively power-hungry components, the battery life is relatively acceptable. However, we were only able to achieve the 7 hours that were specified by the manufacturer, during idle. During the WLAN test, the 48-Wh battery was able to provide electricity for the device for a good 5.5 hours. To maintain the same conditions, we dimmed the display by four steps, which corresponds to a display brightness of about 150 cd/m². Under load, a charge still lasted for 94 minutes. Users should plan at least two hours for the charging process. We also checked the 3D performance during battery operation. With 5303 points, the result of 3DMark 11 in battery operation turns out to be considerably lower than in mains operation. While gaming in battery operation is not impossible, you need to be willing to endure some performance losses.