Review of Acer Aspire Go 15 (AG15-31P): a low-cost Windows notebook for basic tasks

Acer has a lot of laptop lines in its arsenal, and it’s easy to get lost in them. Especially considering that within the main lines, there are also series that differ significantly. Models with the Go in the name are affordable laptops designed primarily for office work without heavy tasks and studying. The Acer Aspire Go 15 (AG15-31P) is just such a laptop, and we’ll talk about its capabilities today.

Specifications of Acer Aspire Go 15 (AG15-31P)

Package contents

The Acer Aspire Go 15 (AG15-31P) is an affordable model, so the package is appropriate. The box is made of recycled mustard-colored cardboard, with a laptop, a 65W power supply with a separate power cable, and documentation inside.

Design and construction

The design of the Acer Aspire Go 15 AG15-31P is neutral, without any features. Like most of the available Acer models. Sometimes it is quite difficult to distinguish one model from another. Although this is not a problem, a more recognizable appearance is left for more expensive models.

The body is made entirely of plastic, mostly silver-gray in color. The frame around the screen and the bottom cover are black. It has a matte surface and does not collect fingerprints. The plastic is thick, and the working surface practically does not bend. The top cover is just a little bit. The case also does not lend itself to twisting. So, despite the lack of metal, the design is reliable.

The top lid is decorated with a glossy Acer logo and the Aspire line name. Another logo is located under the display. The bezels are quite acceptable, with a webcam with an indicator and a pair of microphones above the screen.

The display unit is fixed with two tight hinges, and you can’t open the laptop without holding the main unit. The maximum opening angle is approximately 145°, and the display is securely fixed and hardly shakes.

In the open position, the notebook rests on two small legs at the back of the display unit. This allows the main unit to be slightly raised above the table surface, which improves the access of cold air and places the keyboard at a slight angle. This design is used in many models from different manufacturers.

The bottom panel is made of black plastic with a relief texture. You can see the cooling system through the perforations. There are four small rubber feet around the perimeter, and stereo speakers are located closer to the front edge.

The laptop is quite medium in size and weight: 362,9×239,7×18,9  mm, 1,75 kg. There will be no problems with regular transportation to the office, as it fits into a standard laptop compartment in modern backpacks.

Connectors

All connectors are located on the side. On the left there is USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2 with Power Delivery and DisplayPort, HDMI, USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, as well as a proprietary power supply jack. Although, if you have a 65W Type-C power supply, you can refuse the bundled PSU.

On the opposite side there is another USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, a 3.5 mm audio jack, activity indicators, and a Kensington Lock slot.

Acer Aspire Go 15 has all the most necessary connectors for comfortable work: video outputs, a pair of standard USB. The card reader could have been installed, but its presence is not critical for this model.

Display

The Acer Aspire Go 15 AG15-31P features a 15.6-inch IPS matte-finish display that effectively prevents glare. The resolution and refresh rate are standard: FullHD, 60 Hz. The matrix used is AU Optronics B156HAN02.1, which has a maximum brightness of 250 cd/m². This is not much, but it is quite enough for indoor work.

The screen has good viewing angles with almost no color distortion and a decrease in contrast at the extremes. The picture is generally pleasant, but it is noticeable that color gamut is not the strong point of the display. Acer promises 45% of the NTSC color space. There is a BlueShield mode to protect your eyes from excessive blue radiation.

Platform, performance and software

Acer Aspire Go 15 is powered by 12th generation Intel Alder Lake-N processors. These are energy-efficient, but not too powerful processors that have a classic configuration with the same cores.

Our configuration uses an octa-core, 8-thread Intel Core i3-N305, which has a frequency of 1.8 to 3.8 GHz. The maximum frequency of 3.8 GHz can be achieved by a single core. The TDP level is from 9 to 15 watts. Graphics are handled by an integrated Intel UHD Graphics accelerator with 32 executive units and a maximum frequency of up to 1.25 GHz.

There is 16 GB of LPDDR5 RAM, it is soldered on the board. Although in this case, you won’t be able to install more: the processor doesn’t support more capacity. The drive is a Western Digital PC SN740 NVMe SSD with a 512 GB PCIe 4.0 x4 interface. For an office or study scenario, this is quite enough. The laptop is equipped with a dual-band Wi-Fi 6 IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax wireless module and Bluetooth 5.1.

Acer Aspire Go 15 is not designed for heavy-duty tasks. This is an office laptop for working with documents, video calls, and basic photo processing. So the results in performance tests are quite expectedly low. But it is quite enough for its tasks.

In the maximum performance mode of the PCMark office benchmark, the laptop scores 3751 points, which is slightly lower than standard modern office laptops.

When the power supply is disconnected in performance mode, the result is slightly lower, but the difference is not dramatic.

The Western Digital PC SN740 SSD in this laptop demonstrates a read and write speed of about 3500 MB/s, which is more than enough for such a model.

You shouldn’t expect high performance from Intel UHD Graphics. But it is quite possible to play unpretentious, not the latest games:

The laptop comes with the AcerSense application, which has quite basic functionality. It diagnoses the system, installs important updates, sets up charging modes, and so on. And Acer PurifiedVoice Console, which is responsible for noise reduction based on machine learning.

Heating and stability of operation

The Acer Aspire Go 15 cooling system is active, with a single fan. Energy-efficient, low-power processors have some advantages. For example, low heating and stable operation under heavy loads.

In the AIDA64 stress test, Acer Aspire Go 15 components heat up to about 60°, so there is no question of throttling at all. In maximum performance mode, the average processor frequency is about 2.27 GHz, and the maximum is 2.4 GHz. Which is quite expected. Recall that the frequency of 3.8 GHz can be reached only at maximum load on one core.

A similar maximum performance mode, but on battery power, showed that the frequency drop is minimal. The average frequency is about 2.2 GHz, and the maximum is 2.3 GHz.

The sound of the fan is barely audible at maximum load, and the case remains cool.

Sound, webcamera and security

The sound of the Acer Aspire Go 15 is provided by simple stereo speakers located closer to the front edge of the laptop and directed downward. Their power and quality are sufficient for watching movies and videos. For music, however, I would have liked more low frequencies.

The webcam doesn’t have any special features, it’s a 720p module that’s common for budget laptops. It’s quite enough for video conferencing, but it’s advisable to have enough lighting.

The laptop doesn’t have any biometric unlocking methods. So you’ll have to enter your password or pin every time you’re in the office.

Keyboard and touchpad

Acer Aspire Go 15 has a full-size keyboard with an additional number pad. The layout is standard: a reduced top row of function keys, long Shift keys and arrows that are not separated from the main block. The key travel is quite short, but quite comfortable. The only significant complaint is the lack of backlighting. Although competitors for the same money have it.

The touchpad is plastic, but it has a nice surface that slides well with your fingers. The dimensions are average, but I wish the sensitivity was a bit higher. You have to make more movements to move the cursor across the screen.

Battery life

A 50 Wh battery is responsible for the battery life of the Acer Aspire Go 15. The manufacturer promises up to 11.5 hours of operation. Of course, this is with low display brightness and minimal load. In real conditions, the laptop can work for about 8 hours when working with documents, low brightness and Wi-Fi connection.