Acer Aspire 6 Captain America Edition Review - Stylish Work Companion

Acer released an Avengers Infinity War themed line of limited edition laptops, a Captain America, Iron Man and Thanos versions. We have the Aspire 6 with Cap.

Acer Aspire 6 Captain America Edition

This is our full review of the Acer Aspire 6 Captain America Edition which turned out to be a great work companion with some gaming potential with it.

Acer Aspire 6 Captain America Edition Specs

Display: 15.6-inch IPS screen w/  Full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution at 141 ppi

CPU: 1.8GHz 8th Gen Intel Core i5-8250U octa-core processor

GPU: Nvidia GeForce MX150 2GB GDDR5 VRAM

RAM: 4GB (upgradable up to 16GB)

ROM: 1TB HDD

Selfie Camera: HD webcam

Battery: 48WHr

OS: Windows 10 Home

Connectivity: WiFi ac/abgn, Bluetooth 4.0, 1x SD card reader, 1x HDMI, 2x USB 2.0, 1x USB Type-C, 1x USB 3.0, SD card slot, RJ45

Others: Stereo speakers, dedicated mic

Dimensions: 381.6 x 263 x 19.95 mm

Weight: 2,100 g

Price: PHP 49,999

Disclaimer: This unit was loaned by Acer for an honest and fair review.

Unboxing/Accessories

The box

The unboxing experience is great. The main big box is the usual one you get with Acer but it has Marvel branding at one side. Inside it, is another box housing the laptop itself. The smaller box has minimal branding but it has a muted bronze, embossed Avengers Infinity War logo and Captain America's shield.

Accessories

Opening that box, you will be greeted with a 3D depiction of the Marvel logo with a red background. The contents include the laptop inside a carrying sleeve with Avengers printed on it, the power brick, power cord and some documents.

Build Quality/Design

The back cover of the Acer Aspire 6

The Acer Aspire Captain America Edition has a pretty premium feeling design. It has a certain heft in it that feels heavy yet comfortable to carry. The laptop is a combination of high quality plastic and metal. It has dimensions of 381.6mm x 263mm x 19.95mm and weighs just around 2.1 kg which is just right for a laptop.

At the bottom

The design itself is great. The Captain America aesthetics is just right. It is not too loud and it exudes Captain America's personality which is direct and disciplined. The combination of blue, black and silver is sleek and sexy. The star at the laptop lid is enough to turn heads as well. The track pad has a silver half star design with lines outlining it and spreading out. There is also a kind of muted dark blue Avengers logo on the laptop's surface.

Keyboard

Left side I/O ports

Right side I/O ports

The keyboard has chiclet style keys which is pretty common for laptops. The key travel is good enough for typing and has little to no sounds when pressed. The layout is also usable for gaming but is not suggested. They layout feels a little cramped up for us. The keyboard is also back lit with white LED lights, no RGB lighting. Kudos for including a full number pad. It is very useful for productivity.

Stylish design!

The touch pad is also good. It has a smooth surface that does not wear your fingers down when you constantly use it when working or browsing. It is placed right below the spacebar, however. so it can get in your way when typing.

It has ports on either side. There is a USB Type-C port, RJ-45 port, USB 3.0 port, HDMI and an SD card reader on the left. The charging port, 2x USB 2.0 ports and the 3.5 mm audio port on the right. At the bottom you can access most of the screws to open the laptop when you want to upgrade or switch out parts. There are stereo speakers at the bottom as well.

Just like with Acer Swift 3 that we reviewed before, the only problem we found in the design are the sharp edges. Especially at the are where your wrists rest when typing. It can be a bit distracting as you can feel them digging through your arms. 

Display

The big screen

The Acer Aspire 6 has a 15.6-inch FHD IPS display that really looks good. The images look sharp and vibrant. However, the screen brightness could do a little push as it does not look as bright as you would expect it to be. At first I thought it was because of the power options but I changed it to High Performance settings with maximum brightness and it still looks dim.

The display is driven by Intel UHD 620 intergrated GPU and a discrete Nvidia GeForce MX150 GPU with 2GB of GDRR5 RAM. With the inclusion of the GeForce MX150, you can definitely do some gaming and redering with the Acer Aspire 6.

You can play videos up to 1080p at 60 fps with no problems as well.

Overall, the display looks great especially at its native resolution with a small caveat when it comes to the bezels.

Battery

During our usage of the Acer Aspire 6 during this review, we ran it at the High Performance battery option all the time. We did this to make sure that we are pushing every bit of performane out of the machine. The battery lasted for 7 hours while doing usual work stuff like writing, surfing the net, some YouTube and Photoshop.

During game sessions, we lasted up to 4 to 5 hours of straight gaming before needing to whip out the charger. It is a decent battery life for a laptop and could definitely last you a full work day. We still recommend that you bring your charger though.

Audio

Speakers are found at the bottom

The stereo speakers included with Acer Aspire 6 are pretty good. Due to the placement, which is at the bottom side of the device, it can have varying performance on different surfaces. For example, a glass, metal or wood surface can provide natural amplification for the speakers. It creates a fairly loud audio during movies, music and videos. However, place the laptop on a carpeted surface and the sound can be muffled.

The built-in mic performs well too. During some of my gaming sessions, I used it for voice chat and my buddies can hear me loud and clear. I also tried it for Messenger calls and the person I am talking too said that she can hear me loud and clear.

Camera

The 720p camera

You will not use the Aspire 6 for selfies. We mean, you should not. The HD resolution webcam is meant for video conferences and calls. Yes, you can take photos using it but it will not yield great results.

It can record 720p videos at 30 fps and 360p at 60 fps.

Performance

Geekbench 4 CPU benchmark

The Acer Aspire 6 has potential in terms of performance. The 8th Gen Intel Core i5-8250U octa-core processor that can run up to 1.8GHz is a great processor for both multitasking and some gaming.

OpenGL score

Partner that with the Nvidia GeForce MX150 GPU with 2GB of GDDR5 memory then you have a pretty sweet rig.

Cinebench

However, you will need to upgrade the RAM as the Acer Aspire 6 only comes with a 4GB of RAM but it can be upgraded up to 16GB.

The specs

The 4GB of RAM is a good start when it comes to usual daily workloads such as web browsing using Chrome, Spotify, Adobe Photoshop for basic photo editing and MS Word. However, you will feel some stutters after sometime. This is because some of these apps are memory hungry and 4GB sometimes is not enough.

Decent performance

In terms of gaming, I threw in NBA 2K18 as a base test and at a mix of low to medium settings the game ran at 30 - 45 FPS. There are a lot of stutters though and load times are pretty long due to the lack of SSD. I then switched games to Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Edition and since it uses emulated graphics from Arcade games, it runs at a smooth 60 fps.

It can also get a bit hot in terms of thermals when its under heavy load. Thermal throttling is present during gaming. When the temperature get's high, NBA 2K18 stutters.

The performance overall is great. Yes, 4GB of RAM is a problem in terms of memory hungry apps but you can easily max it out to 16GB. The lack of SSD counterpart though is a bit of a miss for Acer here. Other than that, we enjoyed using the Acer Aspire 6.

Pros - Sturdy metal build, Excellent design, Great 1080p display, Nice keyboard ergonomics, Gaming-ready GPU, Good speakers

Cons - Thermal management, lack of SSD, could be heavy for some

Verdict

The Acer Aspire 6 Captain America Edition is a great collectible laptop if you are into Marvel comics and movies. You can expect good performance out of the box with a bit of upgrade room in terms of the RAM and HDD.

It is a good work laptop with some gaming potential since it has a decent CPU and a gaming ready Nvidia GeForce MX150 GPU. It has good battery life as well. Just a bit of upgrade and better thermal management and you can easily have this as both a play/work companion.

Build / Design - 4.5
Display - 4
Audio - 4.5
Battery - 4.5
Camera - 2
Performance - 4
Average - 4.08/5