Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've had this laptop for close to a month. I'm self-employed in the IT Industry for 30 years and know computers inside nad out. I'm also super frugal but I am a power user (20 browser windows open, Photoshop, Video Editing, sometimes CAD) NO GAMING though but gaming machines work well for my purpose. This is a mid-range laptop as far as gaming - if you're really into gaming you should be getting a laptop with a NVIDIA 1050 GPU and an Intel Processor with H at the end of the model instead of U. More power, but less battery life. This unit is a great compromise between powerful CPU and GPU with good battery life. It's a fantastic value if you are not one of the unlucky ones to run into issues. I wasn't so lucky and am returning it. The GOOD: - Can't beat the value for the power you get - Exceptional keyboard and touchpad feel The BAD - Below average screen brightness about 200 nits, average is 250-275. You'll have the brightness turned up all the way all the time. (yes it' IPS display but they had to cut corners somewhere to get this price) It should suffice for your average user. It's not usable outdoors when it's bright out though. - I had issues with it occasionally not waking up from sleep and system crashing when doing intensive graphic applications (this may be a software issue though so may be just fine for non-power user) Also the mouse pointer sometimes disappeared. Most of the time I could resolve by closing the lid and then opening and rewaking, MOST of the time. I wasn't willing to waste hours troubleshooting so it's going back. - Timeout on keyboard backlight not adjustable. It goes off in 30 seconds meaning (at least for me) 80% of the time I have to hit the shift key to wake the keyboard light up which sort of defeats the purpose of having a backlit keyboard so I can see the keys BEFORE I start typing (without having to press a key!) I thought this was very minor but over time it got very annoying. If you're a power user, I'd probably spend a little more on a different unit. If you're on a tight budget and want the most bang for your buck, I'd go ahead and give it a try. As you can see from the reviews it worked out fine for most people. But like buying tires for a car that had bald tires, everyone loves their brand new tires. It takes a while to see if the until continues to be stable. But it may in some cases be Microsoft's fault and not Acer when you run into problems.