Acer Aspire 5050 Review
As the smaller 14.1″ brother of the 15.4″ Aspire 5102WLMi, the Acer Aspire 5050 certainly does what it is supposed to to well. The 1.6GHz AMD Turion64 x2 (or TL-50)-powered notebook is value for money, and like many other Acer notebooks, it fits the role of a student workhorse – at least, according to a review at NotebookReview.com.
The reviewer positively concludes that, “In the end the Aspire 5050 gets the job done for my purposes without draining my wallet. I did choose a few specific upgrades which increased the price, but I fully intend on having this unit for more than 3 years (remember my ancient desktop?). It is smaller and lighter than the conventional 15.4” budget model and I can carry it and a few accessories around in a slim bag or while on the couch. Once it completely boots up, it is responsive and has more than enough processing power to perform the tasks I normally execute. It has video outputs and doubles as my TV’s DVD player. Purchase timing was also a bonus as I now have a choice between XP or Vista. I am generally satisfied with the results of my purchase.”
May 18th, 2007 20:24
Bought Acer Aspire 5050 couple months ago. Adveritzed with AMD Turion64, MK36 (2GHz), and 1GB DDR2. Upon going to My Computer Properties, I discover it is really 1.6 GHz, and 768 MB RAM. Very disappointing. Anyone else have system advertized with one set of features, only to find out it is not what is adveritzed?
June 5th, 2007 19:30
I Bought a Aspire 5050 and am satisfyed with its performance suprizingly for World of Warcraft
BUT there is a BLUETOOTH switch that seems to do nothing and it looks like there is no BLUETOOTH device in it. Was this just my model or all of them?
June 18th, 2007 10:33
for ppl like ej:
Real 2GHz is performance index while real clock is at 1.6, it’s normal for any AMD processor, so they don’t need to explain every time to lame ppl that it’s as fast as 2.0 intel processor. Also, CPU may change it’s speed according to tasks you run to save power.
You get 768MB ram because integrated video uses rest for it’s purposes. You can set how much ram your video uses in bios or using configuration tools.
Bluetooth – not every model equiped with bluetooth or wi-fi, you should have choose the right model before you bought it.
Conclusion – acer is not recommended for lamers
June 21st, 2007 06:18
Yes that I second Alex’s reflection on Acer!! Acer is just not for the lamers…
August 7th, 2007 19:31
Unlike John and Alex, I can understand how frustrating it is to see the computer advertised with one set of numbers, but then look on the computer to see a totally different ones. Mine was the same way as yours ej, but checks out, the ram and processor speeds are right.
August 8th, 2007 04:18
i’ve had the 5050-3465 for a long time,
right now my everest utility shows it running at 800 mhz, i’m not freaked out. why? because if you set the power options in control panel to the “laptop / maximum power savings” option, it increases the laptop’s batterylife to about 1 hour 30 minutes / 2 hours. To do this it down clocks the CPU when it’s not in use.
also, if you’re seeing 1.6ghz instead of 2.0 ghz, you probably got a 5050 model that is a dual-core turion, where each core is running at 1.6ghz.
i’m thinking about replacing the 2.0 MK36 single core processor with a dual core socket zero processor… i wonder if the motherboard’s dinky bios will recognize it… or if it will be too hot for the fan to handle…
August 11th, 2007 19:44
I bought acer 5050-3785 model 3 weeks ago. To be honest, Overall I am not happy with it’s performance.
pros : Light weight, low price.
cons: Longer boot up time, Slow response, Heats up quickly, Fan runs very often, wireless network drops frequently, Memory 768M less than advertised, Slow hard disk, Poor sound quality etc.
I do not recommend this model for anyone. I would rather shell few bugs more and get either HP or Dell and have pleasant experience while you work with it.
August 13th, 2007 14:55
David i am having the same problem so i am taking my 5050 back and getting a Toshiba T2080 with the dual core intel
August 14th, 2007 14:08
David and Wesley, how much did you pay for your 5050? Did you have any hardware problems to speak of? Mine is giving me the blue-screen of death and I’ve been told it’s a hardware problem.
August 18th, 2007 08:22
I paid $399 + tax (but I had a gift card to use so it made it much less) for my Acer 5050-3785 about a month ago. I read somewhere else where you can change the RAM in the BIOS to not “share” as much RAM with the integrated video, so I changed mine to 64MB so now I have 958MB of actual usuable RAM available instead of the 768MB. Mine’s been working great – no blue screen of death (knock on wood) and I uninstalled Norton since I really have never used any type of Internet Security software since that WILL slow your system startup. I just do a clean re-install about twice a year to get rid of the accumulated junk … so start up for me seems fairly quick (of course my previous laptop is an old Compaq Presario 2100 2.0 Celeron – 3 years old … so I dont have much to compare with). I dont play games at all. I mainly surf the web – the usual (see how my SF Giants are doing, look for deals online, etc) … keep up on my Strongbad vids … and download pics and videos from my digital camera & camcorder. All in all – a great lightweight replacement laptop (under $400) for me with vista premium and a decent amount of RAM and a 14.1 widescreen lcd … 15.4 widescreens are for people that want a desktop replacement IMO – I wanted a true “portable” laptop and lastly this may not be a biggie to others since its more common nowadays but I now have actual USB 2.0 ports – I still had the 1.1’s on my Compaq. I dont quite go through laptops as fast as cell phones, but this should last another 2-3 years. Why spend $1200 for a Sony Core 2 Duo with 13.3 Widescreen and have to replace it in 3-4 years? I actually used the extra money I saved and bought a new Treo 755p and a Hitachi DVD/HDD hybrid camcorder. Lastly, the real only annoying thing about the laptop which I’ve gotten used is that there is no volume toggle other than the keyboard strokes and the useless bluetooth button – has anyone gotten it to work? Thanks.
August 18th, 2007 16:55
Hi,
Guys I recently bought and this laptop. The laptop works perfectly okay.
The only problem I have is regarding the sound. have changed the volem properties almost eveywhere to 100% but the output is far too low.
Did anyone else too has the same problem??
August 21st, 2007 23:33
You get 768MB ram because integrated video uses rest for it’s purposes. You can set how much ram your video uses in bios or using configuration tools.
August 28th, 2007 13:51
Yeah, The sound on this laptop is very low. I have the same problem so I just plug in the headphones.
August 30th, 2007 16:19
Thanks Joey… I was planning to get it replaced….
August 31st, 2007 22:31
I need softwrae for driver my laptop
September 18th, 2007 14:36
What is the deal with the bluetooth on this model? I tried to sync my SLVR with it and it said no device.
May 10th, 2008 07:25
yeah i am having the same problem i dont unerstand why my acer has a bluetooth switch when it doesnt work. also i have the bluetooth wizard and i have tried to sync things but will not work after the system restore. it worked when i first bought the damn thing but nw nothing… can any help me i tried downloading drivers but that didnt seem to work…. thanks…
August 23rd, 2008 19:43
I bought asper 5050 laptop
May I know the camera model in it?
September 9th, 2008 08:26
Got an Acer 3104NWLMi, Mobile AMD Sempron – and it too has a Bluetooth Switch that doesn’t light up.
(It has a Wireless Networking switch that does – another story).
I don’t know why they put such a useless switch without providing any notice that there is no Bluetooth adapter inbuilt.
Anyway, Ubuntu runs very well on it.
October 29th, 2008 21:48
I also have this Acer Aspire 5050, and i have no problem with it it works nicely and haven’t any complaints.
November 15th, 2008 14:23
They put the bluetooth switch there because there are variations of the 5050 that do in fact include the bluetooth module.
It does not make sense for Acer to create a new enclosure design just because some will have bluetooth and some won’t. Remember why you are buying an Acer in the first place. They are CHEAP! Acer has done an outstanding job in keeping the prices low for decent equipment. Every manufacturer does this, even my Dell Inspirion 8600 has the bluetooth button without the module.
Arindam: The fact that bluetooth is not mentioned anywhere in the specs serves as your notice. I’ve never seen a laptop that advertised features that it does not have.
There is good news however. You can add the bluetooth module to your computer, if you are comfortable with disassembling your laptop.
I have an Acer 4730Z that has the bluetooth button but it does not include the module. I bought the module off ebay and I installed it last night. Everything works perfectly. Go to ebay and type this in the search box: “Acer bluetooth module”
There are a few different ones so make sure you get the right one. Here is the one that I bought: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=170277722003
That seller has a bunch of them and I have left him good feedback.
Good luck!
December 27th, 2008 06:04
hi/1 we just bought Acer Aspire 4730z.
why does its bluutooth doesn’t work? everytime i click on the bluetooth button, it says “NO BLUETOOTH DEVICE”. does this model reall do not have bluetooth? thank you very much!