Acer Aspire Z5771-UR31P

Acer's  Aspire Z5571 comes across like the perfect commodity all-in-one. Its plastic case and clunky touch software won't win any design awards, but it has a 23-inch display, and just enough performance and overall capability to justify its cost. And on close comparison with its competitors, you'll find this all-in-one actually has a few notable advantages. I can't recommend the Aspire Z5571 if you shop based on a PC's looks, but it's worth considering for its workaday performance and solid core feature set.

As with most of Acer's other desktops, the Aspire Z5571's thick bezel is mostly inoffensive. The white trim around the black body has a retro-modern vibe to it that, if not original, shouldn't prove overly controversial. The enclosed foot on the front of the system acts as keyboard storage, which is fine, but also unnecessary, and makes the system appear chunky.

As the Aspire Z5571 has a touch screen, it also comes with a suite of touch-based software applications, none of which stand out. You're free to ignore them, as always, though you might entertain yourself for a few minutes with the various Microsoft Surface apps.

Acer's Clear.fi software is the other prominent application included with the Aspire Z5571. Designed to enable you stream media across your home network, Clear.fi emulates much of the networking functionality found in basic DLNA-capable PCs and consumer electronic devices, as well as streaming functionality from any of the various cloud services. Like touch software, Clear.fi does no real harm, and you might find it useful if you have other Acer products, but it's mostly redundant.

The Acer's core components look unremarkable, and for the most part they do little to make the system stand out from others in its class. The fast clock speed of its Core i3 CPU pays off compared with the slower Core i5 chip in the comparable Toshiba DX735-D3201 all-in-one. And while Hewlett-Packard offers a much more robust configuration in its Omni 220-1080qd for just $100 more than the Acer system, the Acer has an important feature that HP lacks: an HDMI input.

The Aspire Z5571 actually has both HDMI input and output. That means you can connect a laptop or a second display to the system easily, and also that you can input an external video component like a game console or a cable box. That turns the Aspire into a home media hub, which makes this system much more appealing in a dorm or another setting where you might have many media devices, but not enough room for more than one screen.

Finishing in the middle of the pack on our performance charts wouldn't normally be notable, but in this Acer system it signals that you can feel confident using this desktop for day-to-day computing. It's not meant for gaming, and you will hit the limit of its performance if you engage in any difficult multitasking or content creation, but in conjunction with its HDMI ports, this system would be perfect as an e-mail, word processing, and Web browsing hub that also serves as a display for connected devices. HP's Omni 220, while faster, can't offer the same versatility.

The Acer's other ports are two USB 3.0 jacks, four USB 2.0 inputs, an Ethernet input, S/PDIF output, and standard analog audio jacks. The USB 3.0 and S/PDIF jacks are the standout features on that list, and while they're not all that exotic, they at least argue that Acer put some thought into the other connectivity options on this PC.

Posted in: Acer