Notebookcheck's Top 10 Budget Multimedia Notebooks

The next Acer notebook in this list is once again a 17-inch system. It is the Aspire 5 A517 (here in review), so it is from the mainstream Aspire series based on the designation. The configuration with the i7-8550U quad-core ULV CPU and the MX 150 GPU offers solid performance figures in this multimedia segment.

Good display, solid performance, low emissions, appealing price – the Aspire 5 A517 is a successful all-rounder.

The list of pros is long, but there are not that many drawbacks. The WLAN performance could be a bit better, but this is not a big deal considering the price and the good specs (256 GB + 1 TB HDD).

The Envy 17-ae143ng’s most notable feature is its classy aluminum chassis, although we were somewhat disappointed by its lack of rigidity and would have expected more of a aluminum case. HP’s Envy is one of the last notebooks with an optical drive, but it also feature modern connectivity such as USB Type-C.

In our review, the Core i5-8250U performed above average by and large, and it was even capable of keeping up with the Core i7-8550U thanks to the HP Envy 17-ae143ng’s sufficiently dimensioned and very well-working cooling solution. Accordingly, even sustained load does not cause any trouble whatsoever.

Gaming, on the other hand, is not necessarily the Envy’s strong side due to the fairly limited GeForce MX 150 GPU that is incapable of handling the latest games. Older titles should run fine on medium or even high settings, though.

The HP Envy 17-ae143ng is a decent multimedia laptop and offers a solid overall performance. Its most notable drawbacks are the poor speakers and the lack of Thunderbolt 3.

The Asus VivoBook Pro (here in review) offers decent performance for a comparatively low price. However, you will notice the latter since the base unit is not very sturdy. The chassis on tips the scale at 2.3 kg in return, which is quite light.

We were positively surprised by the matte IPS panel, which manages a decent luminance and a good contrast ratio. Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1050 performed well and can handle smooth frame rates in many modern games. There is unfortunately not much positive news about the Intel Core i7-8550U, because it cannot maintain the expected performance level in multi-core scenarios. 

The VivoBook Pro 17 does not feature any real highlights, and it does not try to expand any limits. You get competent performance for daily tasks instead, and some gaming for a fair price is possible as well - but you have to live with some drawbacks.

The cooling unit is just not powerful enough here, which also results in high surface temperatures. The warm air is just not dissipated quickly enough. Then there is the unusual keyboard layout, which requires a learning period, and the short battery runtime might scare off potential buyers as well.

The list of positive aspects includes the good 3D performance with acceptable noise emissions as well as a fast NVMe-SSD and good speakers.

Acer's Swift 3 SF315 (here in review) is an impressive example for AMD's ne mobile Ryzen chips. The Ryzen 5 2500U and the AMD Vega 8 GPU are placed inside a nice and slim chassis. This combination provides solid performance figures for multimedia applications. The Vega IGP is much faster than Intel's UHD Graphics in total.

The Acer Swift 3 SF315 can compete with Intel's 8th Gen. CPUs thanks to the new AMD Ryzen 5 2500U. The performance of this SoC does not have to hide behind the competition, and the Vega 8 graphics unit is much more powerful than Intel's counterpart (Intel UHD Graphics 620).

Short battery runtimes and a comparatively slow PCIe-SSD prevent a better rating for the Acer Swift 3 SF315. The display is also too dark with small color gamut. All in all, it is still sufficient for the 10th place in our Top 10 ranking for budget multimedia laptops this month.