The Acer TravelMate P259-MG-71UU is a delightful all round performer that can serve very well for either business or leisure, whichever you feel like getting caught up in. Charmingly, it can additionally play most recent games as well as the vast majority of the older ones. Powerful, effective and somewhat cheap, it manages to pack in enough goodies to keep the fun times coming at you endlessly like a bullet train on greased wheels. It’s grandly powerful attempt is however let down by a not too bright screen and rather average battery life compared to those of its rivals.
For this review of the Acer TravelMate P259-MG-71UU, we shall start with the ehh… exterior as always. Considering that this particular laptop is ostensibly designed for varied use by varied people for varied purposes, Acer wisely decided not to make it flashy by sporting weird alien logos and whatnots. The case is simply pleasing and functional, and is largely made out of plastic. On the bottom, you get a hatch for changing or retrofitting either the SDD or hard drive memory, which is bound to extend the device’s shelf life and usability. Build quality is generally excellent and shows much care and effort in ensuring proper finishing and looks.
Connectivity options are pretty extensive. On the right, you get the audio jack, a sole USB 2.0 port, DVD burner and charging socket. On the left are the security cable slot, a USB 3.1 Gen 1. Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI out slot and 2 USB 3.0 ports. While the front is additionally not neglected and packs an SD card slot. A webcam with a maximum resolution of 1280 x 720 is available that tries hard but ends up producing grainy, noise filled images and videos.
The keyboard and touchpad generally provide precise and tactile feedback. For you gamers, the keyboard is not backlit for more immersive gaming, a slight which am sure you will be able to forgive if you put your mind to it. On the 15.6-inch screen of the Acer TravelMate P259-MG-71UU, the maximum resolution is on paper excellent at 1920 x 1080. However, with poor contrast and brightness levels the screen wastes no time in disappointing, especially outdoors.
Powering everything is an Intel Core i7-6500U that grins at 2.5 GHZ and can be dramatically boosted to over 3 GHZ by turbo if necessary or desired. Graphics are handled by a 2 GB Nvidia GeForce 940MX coupled with 16 GB of system RAM. Storage options are excellent and comprise a 256 GB SDD as well as a 1 TB HDD. Dual-band Wi-Fi and Windows 7 Professional OS complete the rest of the specifications.
As to be expected, packing such heavy-hitting artillery the Acer Travel mate is rather excellent with normal, everyday tasks. Multitasking is buttery-smooth and totally painless. Gaming performance too is more than adequate with most of the presently available games being very playable on medium settings. Speaker performance is loud but tinny, while the cooling fans are relatively quiet. Battery juice is average with slightly less than 5 hours of video playback possible before the device dies on you.
Price is a hefty 1000 Euros and barely worth it with competitors out there offering similar or better performance cheaper and flashier. Is the Acer TravelMate P259-MG-71UU for you? Only if you have the cash to throw away.