Aspire E1-421

Vince53

Four weeks of diligent searching have turned up no reviews of my beloved E1-421-0694, so I'll write one myself. THERE ARE OTHER VERSIONS OF THE E1-421 THAT ARE NOT SPANISH ONLY.

 

This bargain basement beauty is made and sold only in Latin America, and it comes with Windows 8 Single Language Edition. Despite some claims on the web, you cannot install English, nor can you upgrade the OS.

 

I bought it for 4,420 Mexican pesos ($349 US) at WalMart. The keyboard works well, the screen has a bright cheery 14" display, and the graphics are sharp enough to be easily readable.

 

It helps to remember that low-end laptops are often a collection of left-over parts. The CPU is the AMD dual-core E1-1200.

It's designed for Windows 7, even though the laptop has Windows 8 pre-installed. The CPU is soldered into the motherboard and cannot be upgraded, but don't worry--it works fine. It is less powerful than modern Celeron chips, but it is more powerful than any single-core chip ever made.

 

The video card is an AMD Radeon HD 7310 that is also soldered into the motherboard, and it works fine as well, for a simple reason: I realize and accept that you cannot play high-end games on a low-end laptop. Its 2 gigs of DDR3 RAM are more than adequate.

 

The E1-421 cruises the web quickly and smoothly, plays streaming videos very well, and downloads and installs programs easily. It has no trouble at all with aps from the Windows Store, including games, although I will not try any of my high-end games on it.

 

While I consider the Acer Eye webcam little more than a toy, I take it to an orphanage where the kids think it's fantastic. They have complex photos in different colors, with various borders and designs, and they figured it out without my help.

 

The only bloatware problem I had was the MacAfee Anti-virus trial program. It kept interrupting me to tell me that I had to pay to go past the trial subscription, and it fought hard to keep me from deleting it. I had to download the free Win Patrol and it fought that one for three days before I won.

 

A major strength of all low-end CPUs is that you can make them last longer, due to their lower operating temperature. I downloaded the free Coretemp program and it tells me that I am cruising at 52C (125F). When I use a cooling fan, or simply raise the back end, it cruises at 46C (115F) even after four hours of non-stop use.

 

There are, however, upgrade problems. Laptops, especially low-end ones, are harder to upgrade than desktops, because their drivers are more precise. The installation DVD is contained on the hard drive, so if you upgrade to a better version of Windows 8, you are likely to lose your drivers. Likewise, if you later try to upgrade to Windows 9. My advice: don't do it. This rig works fine with Windows 8. Incidentally, Windows 8.1 is not an upgrade; it is a complete operating system, and you could lose your drivers if you install it.

 

I kept getting pop-ups urging me to upgrade to a better version of the Webcam software, and I'm glad I refused. If the upgrade doesn't work, it's difficult to go back. The webcam works fine the way it is.

 

When I started it up, it wanted to install all the newest Windows 8 patches and updates. Go ahead. And I have it set to automatically install all new Win 8 updates. I have never had a problem with updates to any Windows operating systems, and I am having no problems with this one.

 

There is a very unexpected language problem. My powerful desktop computer also runs Windows 8. I signed this new laptop onto my account, and it quickly downloaded all kinds of photos from the cloud that were from my desktop. It also installed my desktop wallpaper. Unfortunately, it also turned my desktop Spanish, and you can't reverse it because the laptop is Single Language Edition. If you already have a Win 8 computer, you might want to put this one on a different account when you first turn it on.

 

Last thing: Don't like Windows 8? On the Start Page, drag the tile for Desktop to the top left corner. Now you only have to hit Enter to go to the Desktop. From the Desktop, download the free Classic Shell Start Button. Now it works like Windows XP and 7 with no harm done.

 

PROS

Low price.

Excels at everything except high-end graphics.

 

CONS

Cannot be upgraded past Windows 8 Single Language Edition (Spanish only).

Vince53

I found a "monitor monitor" on the web that gives you information on your laptop monitor. Although my  E1-421 was manufactured in 2013, the monitor was manufactured in 2009. Low-end laptops use left-over parts, you know.