Acer E5-552G Review – Gaming Laptop With Many Hidden Capabilities

The Acer E5-552G uses the AMD APU FX8800 which is the sixth generation of the AMD APU processor family. This architecture with the code name “Carrizo” promises a more efficient performance per cycle. That is, the main chip computing system made by AMD is made much smarter in managing its resources every time it executes a command. Does it also provide a significant performance boost for gaming?

Design – Thinner with unique texture

Acer E5-552G – Comes with AMD Carrizo FX APU

Dimensions of 342mm long x 240mm wide, the Acer E5-552G can be said to be normal for a 15.6-inch notebook size. But for a thickness of 29.2mm, the laptop is priced at Rp. 7,999,000 is quite competitive with laptops that fall into the mid-high category such as the Xenom Pegasus for example. Front cover LCD at first glance appear normal. But when you look closely, Acer adds a unique texture similar to cloth fiber for finishing on all surfaces. This texture extends all the way to the bottom cover, keeping the surface fingerprint-free when carried from table to table.
Still in the bottom cover area, from the number and location of the existing ventilation (mesh holes) it can be ascertained that this laptop only relies on a single fan that works to cool the Carrizo FX SoC chip. Because the Acer E5-552G uses a semi uni-body concept, to access the components as well as the battery, the user inevitably has to open the bottom cover as a whole. Unfortunately pemmzchannel can’t provide a picture of the inside because it’s blocked by a seal.

Display Panels and Workstations

When opening the LID and extending the monitor panel to its maximum point, the open playing distance is about 175 degrees, this is above the average for other notebooks. With this degree of opening of the LID, the user is quite free to determine the position of the LCD span even if the work table often does not support the user’s height. There’s no need to worry, because during the open-close test, the hinge or hinge that supports the LCD panel is proven to be strong. Unfortunately, we still can’t open the LID with just one hand.

Down to the workstation, Acer made this area clean. There is not a single dedicated button, including the power button. Everything is moved to the keyboard board with key combinations. The power button that is integrated with the keyboard makes the sleep shortcut not work. Fortunately, the User can replace it by closing the LID.
The keyboard keys use a chicklet design and are quite large. There were no problems when we tried it. The build quality of the upper case is also quite good. Proven to be able to withstand the beats that are often uncontrolled when typing. The touchpad uses an all-in-one design that gives a broad impression. You can reach far corners of the monitor screen without lifting your finger from the touchpad. Unfortunately, when using the left or right button, it still often slips because of the slippery surface.

Specifications – flagship-class APU

Displays: 15.6″ HD 1366 x 768 resolution, Acer ComfyViewTM LED backlit TFT LCD
Processors: AMD Quad Core Processor FX-8800P (2 MB L2 cache, 2.1 GHz, 15 W)
Memory : Dual Channel 2*4GB DDR3 SDRAM
Hard Drives : 1TB HDD
Graphics : AMD Dual Graphics RadeonTM R8 M365DX with 2 GB of dedicated DDR3 VRAM
Optical Drives: DVD-Super Multi double-layer
Operating Systems: LINPUS
Cameras: 1366 x 768 resolution
Audio : Yes (Standard)
Networking : Wireless LAN Standard: IEEE 802.11b/g/n
Ethernet Technology: Gigabit Ethernet
Bluetooth 4.0
Keyboards: Yes (Standard)
Slots/Interfaces:
1 x Card Reader
1 x HDMI
1 x USB 2.0
2 x USB 3.0
1 x Network (RJ-45)
1 x Mic-in/Headphone-out
1 x Line in/Line out
Batteries : 4-cell, Lithium Ion (Li-Ion), 2520 mAh
System Dimensions: 342 x 240 29.2 (millimeters)
Weights : 2.4 Kg
Warranty: 1 year Acer Warranty
Bonus : Bag + Mouse

The Acer Aspire E5-55x series was released in several AMD processor options. Starting from the AMD APU A8, APU A10 and AMD APU FX, which are the pemmzchannel reviews this time. With the flagship CPU in the APU family, pemmzchannel hopes to get an overview of AMD’s development results for their mobile platform after this review of the Acer E5-552G.
Acer and AMD seem to understand very well that dual channel memory configuration is the perfect solution on the APU platform. For this reason, the Acer E5-552G is equipped with 4GB of dual memory since it left the factory. For the GPU, Acer decided to brand the Acer E5-552G using the AMD Radeo R8 M365DX. Dual graphics are generated onboard the R7 Graphics GPU on the FX 8800P and the dedicated AMD Radeon R5 GPU. As for storage, users have to be satisfied with a 1TB 5400rpm HDD as the default SKU marketed in Indonesia.

Ports And Connectivity

Acer E5-552G – Right – DVD Super Multi, USB 2.0, Charging port

Acer E5-552G – Left – S-sub, RJ45 LAN, HDMI, 2x USB 3, Audio Combo

The connectivity side and the arrangement of ports on the Acer E5-552G are standard. For Networking, the E5-552G is equipped with a combo wifi card 802.11 b/g/n plus Bluetooth 4.0 as well as gigabit ethernet for those of you who still rely on a wired connection. For ports, you can find a Combo audio port, 2 USB 3.0, HDMI port, RJ45 Gigabit port, VGA (D-sub), and Kenshington lock on the left. While on the right, there is only one USB 2.0, charging port and Optical disc drive that uses DVD super multi. Don’t miss the SD card reader on the front right next to the area indicator.

Performance – Performance hampered by compatibility

The AMD APU FX8800P on the Acer E5-552G is set to use a 15W TDP. Therefore, the base clockspeed offered is not too high, around 2.1GHz only. But it can still run even higher up to 3.4GHz. FYI, TDP 15W This will still be shared with the onboard GPU when the GPU is active when opening game applications or other applications that require graphics computing. The pemmzchannel hypothesis, this is what makes the GPU performance drop when the load starts to get high. Because the onboard GPU seems to be forced to lower the clock when the CPU wants to run faster. This is very likely to happen when you use applications that do not support dual graphics or HSA (Heterogenous System Architecture). But when you meet an application that supports it, for example the synthetic benchmark application that pemmzchannel uses, the resulting performance is better than the combination of the blue middle-class ULV CPU combined with the green low-end GPU. Especially if DDR3 2133MHz is easy to find in Indonesia at a low price. It can definitely be more.

Temperature & Noise

With a TDP of 15W, logically there is no need to use dual fans to cool the AMD FX8800P. But in fact, this SoC is quite “sticky” as well as hot after 30 minutes of use with a load of 90%. The heat itself is quite successful in touching the center area of the keyboard although luckily it doesn’t spread to the palm rest. If Acer added a deep freeze feature on the E5-552G, pemmzchannel guarantees that CPU throttling is much less. No need to use a master cooler fan either, a second-tier vendor-made fan is also sufficient. deals?

The noise level from the fan rotation can still be tolerated, not much different from “gaming laptops” at the equivalent price level. It’s just that the fan position at the top right often makes the bottom case depressed until it collides with the fan rotation. So don’t ever lift the wrong one when this notebook is on. It is better to lift with both hands with the palms in the palm rest area.

Conclusion – Gaming Laptop with Lots of Hidden Capabilities

Why did pemmzchannel finally approve the marketing of this product which is claimed to be a gaming laptop. In fact, with the current variety of AAA games, the Acer E5-552G’s “ready to play” performance still needs to be questioned. The reason is, for each game you have to manually adjust the graphics settings even if you have used the latest driver (crimson) which provides general presets. But for those of you who like to experiment, this laptop actually still has a lot of hidden performance. Starting from the HSA 1.0 feature, UVD 6 (Universal Video Decoder) which now supports HEVC/H.265 video format decoding up to 4K resolution, as well as the possibility of upgrading RAM up to a clockspeed of 2133MHz. For those of you who have used it, share your experiences with the Acer E5-552G later in the comments column pemmzchannel.

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