The Good: A great looking machine of only an inch thick covered in brushed aluminium. A versatile processor (the 4th generation i7 1.8 GHz) and a powerful graphics card (the AMD Radeon R7 M265). The Aspire V5-561G has all the tech needed to play most of the latest games on medium settings.
The Bad: The keyboard isn’t backlit which can lead to frustration in the evening. The graphics card is good, but requires you to tune down some of the latest and greatest, such as Battlefield 4, to low settings. Medium HD screen (1366x768).
The Verdict: A great versatile machine with a processor built for a wide range of multimedia tasks. The Aspire V5-561G is a great choice if you prefer your laptops thin, and are looking to use the laptop for work or school purposes as well.
The Aspire V5-561G has both the looks and the tech. Coming packed in a brushed aluminium chassis of only 1 inch thick, it certainly looks the part. Having a powerful and versatile processor (the i7 1.8 GHz by Intel), adds to the joy and allows for a great deal of multimedia performance. Coming combined with the medium graphics card, AMD Radeon R7 M265, lets you play several of the most demanding games on medium settings and the rest on low.
Weighing in at 5.2 pounds, and coming in a gray chassis of 15 by 10 by 1 inches, shows the Aspire V5-561G is not just a gaming laptop. One could say it’s most comfortable in its natural habitat; the school / professional setting. Looking like a business man and coming advertised with cloud services such as AcerCloud, it’s obvious that Acer is not specifically targeting the gamers maker with the Aspire V5-561G.
But don’t let that give you the wrong impression about its gaming performance. The combination of an intel processor (the i7-4500U) and an AMD graphics (the Radeon R7 M265) might be an uncommon one, but it is definitely a powerful one. Checking the stats at our friends at Notebookcheck, shows that the graphics card is capable of presenting an impressive set of high end games on medium settings. Examples are: The Elder Scrolls Online, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Batman: Arkham Origins, Total War: Rome II and Fifa 14.
The Aspire V5-561G is a versatile machine covering all the angles great gaming laptop under 800 dollars should cover: A good processor, a good graphics card and a great screen. Get the Aspire V5-561G if you are looking for a thinner and more business like exterior than the MSI. If you are looking for maximum gaming performance, than get the MSI GP60. It is the better gaming laptop for 800 dollars in all aspects: CPU, GPU and Screen.