Acer Aspire 5 17 vs ASUS TUF Gaming A17

The Acer Aspire 5 17 offers a solid balance for general use with a capable Intel i5 CPU, sufficient RAM, and a quality IPS screen, all wrapped in a lighter package, enhancing portability while also providing good battery life. Meanwhile, the ASUS TUF Gaming A17 steps up performance with a higher-tier AMD Ryzen 9 CPU and more RAM, a stronger GPU for demanding tasks, a quality IPS display as well, but trades off with reduced portability due to its heavier build and focuses on longevity with an extended battery life.

The ASUS TUF Gaming A17 provides a superior gaming and 3D experience due to its higher-end Nvidia RTX 4070 graphics processing unit (GPU) and a screen with a faster refresh rate of 144 Hz, which is beneficial for smoother visuals and gameplay.

The Acer Aspire 5 17 has an Intel i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and is noted for its screen quality due to a high contrast ratio, making it fair for engineering and design, but the ASUS TUF Gaming A17 with its more powerful AMD Ryzen 9 CPU, double the RAM, and a dedicated graphics card stands out, making it very good for demanding tasks despite having a lower screen contrast ratio. Portability and other factors like keyboard and speaker quality, though somewhat important, play a secondary role to these critical performance determinants.

PerfectRec’s Content Creation Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for photo editing, video editing and other content creation tasks.

For general use, both the Acer Aspire 5 17 and ASUS TUF Gaming A17 offer screens that don’t stand out in terms of resolution or brightness, impacting the overall quality and viewing experience. In engineering and design, the same screens may not cover wider color gamuts such as DCI-P3 and Adobe RGB fully, which is crucial for color-critical workflows, resulting in only a fair evaluation. When it comes to 3D, the lower refresh rates may not be ideal for fluid graphics rendering, making both laptops less suitable for high-frame rate gaming or intensive 3D applications despite their acceptable resolution and panel types.

Battery life estimate is based on a mix of common use patterns. More portable and higher performing laptops tend to have less battery life.

PerfectRec’s Build Quality Score incorporates case materials, display and keyboard flex, hinge quality, and overall reliability.

PerfectRec’s Software Development Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for software developers.