Acer Aspire C24-865-UA91 Review

Nowadays, anyone looking to buy an All-In-One laptop has a wide selection to choose from, but the Acer Aspire C24-865-UA91 cuts a different stature, with a sleek design, reasonable pricing and strong overall performance. Its not surprising to see even mainstream manufacturers are flirting with the concept of affordable AIOs – even Apple have the 21.5-inch iMac that cost almost half its initial price, but it’s not still the most affordable around.

Then you have the Acer Aspire C24 that offers an Apple-like experience for even much less. Our review unit packs an Intel Core i5-8250U processor, 8GB RAM, and a 1TB mechanical hard drive. For the price you’re paying, the Aspire C24 looks like a kill for a stylish home-office AIO desktop this capable.

Design

Design-wise, Acer’s new Aspire C24 looks elegant and very practical. Its closest rivals the 21.5 Apple iMac sports an aluminum chassis while the Dell XPS 27 offers a signature black look, that easily competes with the exquisite work-horse theme of the HP Envy 27-b110. That’s what you get if you’re willing to spend almost double what you’re paying for the Acer C24.

On the other hand, our review model lacks a metallic construction, rather you have a plastic cabinet and a bezel-less screen and a silver lower front-bezel. The screen is supported by a silver V-stand that lets you rotate the screen lightly up to 45 degrees, but doesn’t allow for height and swivel adjustment. Still, we’re satisfied by the level of adjustment offered here, as it suffices for any home office, college dorm-room or as the main PC in your living room.

The thin profile (only 0.46-inches) is as a result of an Intel Core i5-8250U processor, mostly used on premium ultraportable laptops, which further includes the integrated graphics processor that allows for a slim AIO desktop. Perhaps the only omission on design is the lack of VESA mount support, which makes it difficult when you need to switch to a third-party stand.

Ports

The Aspire C24 uses very thin bezels, hence you don’t have enough space for a webcam. As a necessity, Acer uses an uses an external webcam and microphone that are mounted on the top bezel, but connects via a pair of USB 2.0 ports on the upper-back panel, next to the built-in speakers.

The rear-panel holds most of the I/O inputs: two USB 3.1 ports, an HDMI-out port, and a Gigabit Ethernet ports, complemented by built-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.3. The thin profile doesn’t allow for an optical drive, but you can snag an external optical drive is you must. Also bundled into the package are a wireless keyboard and mouse.

Display

A 23.8-inch IPS, non-gloss display blends well with the slender Aspire C24 profile. Our review unit comes with a 1080p resolution, which looks great from any angle. The thin bezels give the Full HD display a pleasant look, with sharp, accurate picture that’s true of the content displayed. You’ll find the full HD display even better when using it for photos or movies, where its accurate picture suffices for extremely pleasant picture. While you won’t using this AIO for gaming, it still does a good job displaying modest colors on modern titles.

As mentioned earlier, the Acer Aspire C24-865-UA91 is meant to directly compete with the likes of Apple’s iMac that features an incredible Retina display, making it the best of the best, and you only wish it was any cheaper.  The 1080p is one area where Acer reveals itself to be an upgraded version of a much less expensive system, contrary to the common idea of a luxury PC offered at a low price.

Acer Aspire C24-865-UA91– Performance

The new Aspire C24-865-UA91 is powered by an Intel Core i5-8250U, a low-voltage dual-core CPU with a base clock of 1.6 GHz and a Turbo Boost maximum of 3.4 GHz. That is most likely enough for daily productivity tasks that you’d likely perform on this PC, and the 8GB RAM is equally enough for basic multitasking. We are talking of computing tasks that include web browsing, video conferencing (via the included webcam), MS Office Suite projects including word and spreadsheets. This Aspire C24 will only slow down if you load it up with complex tasks like media encoding and Photoshop projects.

Even with the exemplary performance as a genera-use PC, the choice of storage does get in the way of things. Yes, 1TB hard drive storage in a budget system is more than welcome, but the hard disk rotates at 5400RPM, meaning it gets as slow as they can go. As a result, you’ll notice some lag when switching between Chrome and MS Office, with Windows interface animations occasionally lagging. That’s expected of the traditional spinning hard drives, that don’t benefit from the snappy performance of solid-state-drives (SSD) or Optane Memory Modules, used in most systems lately.

An SSD or Optane Memory Module has little effect on execution time for processor-intensive activities, but it does boost the user experience on things like app launch and refresh, smooth resizing of Windows as well as restarting the PC.

Gaming Performance

The Aspire uses an integrated UHD Graphics 620, which only works to keep the screen apps running, meaning you won’t be playing modern AAA titles here. Again, all-in-one desktop PCs are meant for productivity and other professional use, and rarely used for serious gaming.  The only kind of gaming you can do here is basic web-based games.

If you must play when not working, while keeping the price as low as possible, you’ll have to do with a tower PC-monitor combo. If that sounds like something you can consider, the CyberpowerPC Gamer Xtreme GXiVR8060A7 offers the best bang for your buck, and the value Acer SB220Q bi monitor delivers the sleek look of the Aspire C24. For an entry level gaming and productivity combination, this will stand the test of time while saving you a few dollars along the way.

The Aspire C24-865-UA91 offers lots of computer in a sleek, stylish and functional All-In-One desktop PC with decent performance at a very competitive price. The processor used here is more than sufficient for most home-office users who need the flexibility of Windows OS over macOS, or those looking for a cheaper alternative to the 21.5-inch Apple iMac.

Is there a better alternative?

With the right budget, you can’t miss a better alternative in the AIO niche. First, there is the 21.5-inch Apple iMac, that’s a big name in the all-in-one category and for a good reason. It costs a few hundred dollars more, but its good value considering its fast hardware and outstanding 4K Retina display.

Then there is the Lenovo Ideacentre AIO 520-24AST, sporting a 23-inch display, an AMD A 12-9720P processor, a Full HD touchscreen, Radeon R7 graphics card and a 1TB (7200rpm), which is a better storage option than what the Aspire delivers, for around the same price.

Should you buy it?

Yes. The Acer Aspire C24-865-UA91 is enough computer for home-officer users who need a beautiful, performant and versatile all-in-one, but don’t care about a discrete graphics card. This is true at every price point this all-in-one competes, though, an upgrade to a solid state is recommended. It may not look like much, but the Acer Aspire C24 has class – and a fast processor, too.