Acer Aspire V3-111P-P06A Notebook Review Update
For the original German review, see here.
After the 11.6-inch Aspire E3-111 netbook, we now have the Aspire V3-111P with identical design under review. The buyer gets a faster processor, a touchscreen, and a battery with significantly higher capacity for the higher price. Our review will reveal whether the surcharge pays off.
Basically, all cheap 11.6-inch computers, especially those with a touchscreen such as the Asus F200MA-CT067H and the HP Pavilion 11-n070eg x360 compete with the Aspire.
Since the V3-111P and the E3-111 use the same design, we will not cover case, input devices, connectivity, and speakers here unless there are differences. Please refer to our Aspire E3-111 review for information about these.
Case & Connectivity
The V3-111P is identical to the recently reviewed Aspire E3-111. Only the lid of the V3-111P is slightly thicker because of the touchscreen. Additionally, you will find another difference inside: The battery capacity of the V3-111P (49 Wh) is larger than the E3-111's (30 Wh).
Input Devices
Keyboard and touchpad are identical to the Aspire E3-111's. But, the touchscreen is new. It works flawlessly and is responsive.
Display
The Aspire uses a glossy 11.6-inch display with a resolution of 1366x768 pixels. The measurement results are nothing special. The brightness of 222.2 cd/m² is slightly better than normal in this price range. Contrast (343:1) and black value (0.68 cd/m²) reflect the price.
|
Brightness Distribution: 88 %
Center on Battery: 233 cd/m²
Contrast: 343:1 (Black: 0.68 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 10.29 | 0.5-29.43 Ø5
ΔE Greyscale 11.2 | 0.57-98 Ø5.3
40% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 1.6.3 3D)
42.02% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
61.1% sRGB (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
40.67% Display P3 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
Gamma: 2.54
Acer Aspire V3-111P-P06A HD Graphics (Bay Trail), N3530, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX | HP Pavilion 11-n070eg x360 HD Graphics (Bay Trail), N2820, Seagate Momentus Thin ST500LT012-1DG142 | Asus F200MA-CT067H HD Graphics (Bay Trail), N2815, Toshiba MQ01ABF050 | Acer Aspire E3-111-C6LG HD Graphics (Bay Trail), N2930, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX | Acer Aspire V5-132P HD Graphics (Ivy Bridge), 2129Y, Toshiba MQ01ABF050 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Display | -3% | -1% | 11% | ||
Display P3 Coverage | 40.67 | 39.68 -2% | 40.43 -1% | 45.42 12% | |
sRGB Coverage | 61.1 | 58.7 -4% | 60.7 -1% | 67.3 10% | |
AdobeRGB 1998 Coverage | 42.02 | 41.19 -2% | 41.8 -1% | 46.94 12% | |
Screen | 6% | 12% | -18% | 33% | |
Brightness middle | 233 | 181 -22% | 177 -24% | 245 5% | 209 -10% |
Brightness | 222 | 161 -27% | 175 -21% | 235 6% | 194 -13% |
Brightness Distribution | 88 | 83 -6% | 93 6% | 85 -3% | 86 -2% |
Black Level * | 0.68 | 0.37 46% | 0.49 28% | 1.17 -72% | 0.32 53% |
Contrast | 343 | 489 43% | 361 5% | 209 -39% | 653 90% |
Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 10.29 | 10.11 2% | 5.56 46% | 12.53 -22% | 4.72 54% |
Greyscale dE 2000 * | 11.2 | 10.72 4% | 6.46 42% | 13.25 -18% | 4.31 62% |
Gamma | 2.54 87% | 2.7 81% | 2.75 80% | 2.68 82% | 2.55 86% |
CCT | 14016 46% | 13522 48% | 7262 90% | 18403 35% | 6098 107% |
Color Space (Percent of AdobeRGB 1998) | 40 | 38.7 -3% | |||
Total Average (Program / Settings) | 6% /
6% | 5% /
7% | -10% /
-14% | 22% /
27% |
* ... smaller is better
In factory state, the average DeltaE 2000 deviation is 10.29 and is clearly outside the target range (DeltaE smaller than 3). This is not surprising and is expected in this price range. In addition, the display is clearly bluish.
The display's glossy surface makes outdoor use more difficult. You can basically use the notebook in not too bright environments. The incorporated display is a simple TN model with limited viewing angles.
Performance
The Aspire V3 111P series consists of 11.6-inch notebooks with touchscreen. The review model costs about 380 Euros (~$500) and is already available for about 320 Euros (~$420) without Windows OS.
Processor
The Aspire is powered by a Pentium N3530 quad-core processor (Silvermont architecture). The Pentium uses a base clock of 2.16 GHz, which can be increased to 2.58 GHz thanks to Turbo. The CPU's TDP is 7.5 Watts. The processor runs at full speed in AC mode and on battery. It clocks at 2.58 GHz in all CPU tests of the Cinebench benchmarks. The Aspire has the most powerful processor in our comparison (see figures).
System Performance
The small computer works smoothly. You can also feel that the processor is faster than the E3-111's in use. Accordingly, the results of the PC Mark benchmarks are significantly better.
PCMark 8 Home Score Accelerated v2 | 1451 points | |
PCMark 8 Creative Score Accelerated v2 | 1307 points | |
PCMark 8 Work Score Accelerated v2 | 1428 points | |
Help |
PCMark 8 - Home Score Accelerated v2 (sort by value) | |
Acer Aspire V3-111P-P06A | |
Acer Aspire E3-111-C6LG | |
Asus F200MA-CT067H | |
Acer Aspire V5-132P |
Storage Devices
Acer equipped the Aspire with a hard drive from Western Digital with a capacity of 500 GB and a speed of 5400 rpm. Overall, the transfer rates are good and on par with most 5400 rpm hard drives.
Graphics Card
The Aspire uses Intel's HD Graphics as GPU. It supports DirectX 11 and clocks up to 860 MHz. The results of the 3D Mark benchmarks show that it belongs to the lower end of the scale in terms of performance.
3DMark 11 Performance | 269 points | |
3DMark Ice Storm Standard Score | 20776 points | |
3DMark Cloud Gate Standard Score | 1544 points | |
Help |
Gaming Performance
The Aspire cannot run demanding computer games. Only a few games reach smooth frame rates with low resolution and quality settings. It is different for games made for the touch interface of Windows. These usually run flawlessly.
low | med. | high | ultra | |
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (2010) | 12.8 | 9 | ||
Battlefield 3 (2011) | 8 | 4.8 | ||
Alan Wake (2012) | 5.8 | 2.3 | ||
Mass Effect 3 (2012) | 12.4 | 8.1 | ||
Sleeping Dogs (2012) | 12.9 | 8.1 | ||
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (2012) | 12.4 | 7.3 | ||
Far Cry 3 (2012) | 10.3 | 6.2 | ||
Tomb Raider (2013) | 15.4 | 7.8 | ||
Splinter Cell: Blacklist (2013) | 11 | 7.8 | ||
X-Plane 10.25 (2013) | 12.8 | 6 |
Emissions
System Noise
Like the Aspire E3-111, the Aspire V3-111P does not have a fan. Thus, you can only hear a quiet noise from the hard drive when in use.
Noise Level
Idle |
| 0 / 0 / 0 dB(A) |
HDD |
| 31.2 dB(A) |
Load |
| 0 / 0 dB(A) |
| ||
30 dB silent 40 dB(A) audible 50 dB(A) loud |
||
min: , med: , max: Voltcraft sl-320 (15 cm distance) |
Temperature
The Aspire never suffers from too high temperatures. Even during the stress test, it only exceeds 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in two quadrants. It remains even significantly cooler than the Aspire E3-111, which also features a Silvermont quad-core processor. We observed that the CPU and GPU clock of the E3-111 are only throttled after the CPU temperature exceeded 90 degrees Celsius (194 Fahrenheit). The Aspire V3-111P throttles significantly earlier (at about 70 degrees Celsius, 158 Fahrenheit). As a result, the case remains significantly cooler.
Regardless of the power source, the Aspire behaved the same way during the stress test (Prime95 and FurMark run simultaneously for at least one hour). Processor and graphics core run at full speed for about 6 to 7 minutes. At that time, the processor reaches a temperature of about 70 degrees Celsius (158 Fahrenheit) and its clock rate is throttled to 1.5 GHz. The GPU clocks at about 600 to 700 MHz. As soon as the temperature exceeds 70 degrees Celsius (158 Fahrenheit), the processor clock falls to 500 MHz for a short time and increases to 1.5 GHz again. This occurs repeatedly during the test. The CPU temperature increases to up to 70 degrees Celsius during the stress test.
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 39.7 °C / 103 F, compared to the average of 35.9 °C / 97 F, ranging from 21.4 to 59 °C for the class Subnotebook.
(±) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 43.1 °C / 110 F, compared to the average of 39.4 °C / 103 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 27.5 °C / 82 F, compared to the device average of 30.7 °C / 87 F.
(+) The palmrests and touchpad are cooler than skin temperature with a maximum of 30 °C / 86 F and are therefore cool to the touch.
(±) The average temperature of the palmrest area of similar devices was 28.3 °C / 82.9 F (-1.7 °C / -3.1 F).
Energy Management
Power Consumption
The small 11.6-inch computer comes with a frugal CPU and does not need much energy. While idling, the power consumption is significantly lower than 10 Watts. Certainly, the power consumption increases under load. The computer needs less energy during the stress test (Prime95 and FurMark run simultaneously) than under medium load (3D Mark 2006), since CPU and GPU clock are throttled.
Off / Standby | 0 / 0.1 Watt |
Idle | 4 / 6.1 / 6.5 Watt |
Load |
13.4 / 12.1 Watt |
Battery Life
Our realistic WLAN test automatically loads a web site in 40-second intervals. The energy saving-profile is active and the display brightness is set to about 150 cd/m². The Aspire achieves a very good battery life of 8:21 h. The Aspire E3-111 performs significantly worse. This is not surprising since the V3-111P's (49 Wh) battery capacity is larger than the E3-111's (30 Wh).
Verdict
The Aspire V3-111P is basically identical to the Aspire E3-111. Therefore, these two computers have basically the same strengths and weaknesses. We only cover the differences between the two netbooks. The Aspire V3-111P costs about 130 Euros, (~$170, with Windows OS) or 70 Euros, (~$92, without Windows OS) more than the Aspire E3-111. The buyer gets a faster CPU, significantly longer battery runtimes and a touchscreen for the surcharge. You can question whether a touchscreen is a useful feature in a conventional laptop. But, the surcharge for the faster processor and the bigger battery pays off. Overall, the CPU makes working smoother and the battery life is sufficient for a typical day at work or at the university. It would be perfect if Acer released another V3 model with a matte display instead of a touchscreen.