Acer Aspire V3 Hello Kitty Limited Edition Review

Written by Joey MacedaPublished • July 22, 2017

Acer recently launched what is considered as one of the most adorable laptops ever. When one of the world’s premier laptop brands meets Sanrio’s most beloved character, things like the Acer Aspire V3 Hello Kitty Limited Edition come to life. We got it, we fawned at it, and now we put it to the test. Other than the awesome cosmetics, what does this 13-inch laptop have to offer? Let’s find out.

Table of Contents

Design and Construction

Right from the moment you open the delightful pastel pink box, it just screams Hello Kitty– from the box itself, to the cute little envelope with your quick start guide, warranty documents, and a bunch of Hello Kitty stickers.

When you grab the laptop and get your first feel of handling it, you immediately feel like you’re holding a toy. It is light, thin, and has good portability. Most of the body, at least, seems to be made entirely out of plastic, and though it looks flimsy, it doesn’t feel that way. Being made of mostly white plastic, fingerprints should be near invisible, though dust may be an issue.

Flipping it open, it is quite a joy to look at. There’s a fairly standard 13.3-inch IPS display with an HD webcam above, and a pink Acer logo underneath. The chiclet keyboard comes in two-tone pink, and the trackpad has Hello Kitty’s face on it. The power button and LED battery indicators can also be found above the keyboard.

While it feels good to type on the keyboard, we wish it had a backlight to make typing in the dark easier. The trackpad was not that great, as it was unpleasant to slide your finger across it, and the buttons felt somewhat mushy.

Moving to the top cover, it is a departure from the standard V13’s faux brushed aluminum finish. We get an adorable Hello Kitty graphic on a field of pink hearts and polka dots, under a sheet of acrylic.

I/O is fairly standard, but functional. On the left side you have your charging port, RJ45 Ethernet, HDMI, USB 3.0 Type-A, and USB 3.1 Type-C. The right side houses two USB 2.0 ports, an audio combo jack, and a full size SD card slot.

Down under, you will see two Dolby Audio speakers (which we will discuss later), as well as four rubber feet, and 11 screws. Getting past these 11 screws allows you to upgrade the RAM up to 16GB (it comes with 4GB DDR3L SDRAM by default), and also maybe swap out the included 2.5″ 1TB HDD.

The overall build quality is average. It feels solid enough to get you by, and don’t expect it to brave through a ton of abuse. Where this laptop absolutely wins, is in the cosmetics department. From the Hello Kitty top cover and trackpad, to the pink hinges and keyboard, this is definitely a dream laptop for the Hello Kitty fans out there.

Display and Multimedia

The 13.3-inch IPS display runs at a resolution of 1920 x 1080 at 60Hz. Brightness is not too great even at 100%, details are not that sharp, but color reproduction is decent. The matte finish of the display minimizes glare in bright environments, though viewing angles could be better.

The HD webcam is nothing to boast, but is good enough for video calls, or a quick coffee shop selfie.

The audio on this laptop is very impressive. The Dolby speakers are very loud and clear, with great highs and mids, but bass could be better.

OS, Apps, and Storage

The Acer V3 Hello Kitty runs Windows 10 64-bit Home Edition. Adding even more to the Hello Kitty craze this laptop brings, the standard Windows boot screen was replaced with a custom Hello Kitty one, which is a nice touch. The default wallpaper is Hello Kitty themed as well.

You get a 1-month subscription to Microsoft Office 365, and common Windows 10 apps such as Mail, Weather, Skype, and Microsoft Edge are present. There is some proprietary bloatware, namely the Acer Collection app, and the Acer Quick Access app. The former seems to be some sort of Windows Store clone, while the latter has “Acer Signature Features”, a Bluelight Shield, Power-off USB charging, and Color Intelligence mode.

The laptop comes with a 1TB 2.5″ 5400RPM HDD. Out of the box, you have 911GB of usable storage.

Performance

Powering the Acer V3 Hello Kitty is an Intel Core i5-7200U processor (2 cores, 4 threads), and 4GB of DDR3L SDRAM. There is no dedicated GPU on this one, but having a Kaby Lake processor means that it comes equipped with integrated Intel HD Graphics 620. It was capable of doing some light photo editing work, playing light 2D platformer games like Super Meat Boy, and even less demanding 3D games like Rocket League at low to medium settings.

You will definitely want to upgrade that 4GB of RAM, as multitasking was not so comfortable, especially if Chrome is your web browser of choice. It can expand up to 16GB, though 8GB is more likely the sweet spot for this laptop. For even more performance, you may also swap out the included HDD for an SSD, though they are pricier.

We ran two benchmarks, CrystalDiskMark to test storage speed, and PCMark8 to test overall performance. Check out our scores below.

PCMark 8

Home – 2166
Creative – 2061
Work – 2563

CrystalDiskMark

Battery Life

We subjected the 4-cell li-ion battery to our standard video loop test, a 1080p movie looped with 50% brightness and 50% volume. It lasted a whopping 6 hours and 34 minutes before finally running out of juice. Charging only took 1 hour and 30 minutes to get from 0 to 100%.

Conclusion

The aesthetics speak for themselves and this laptop is a must have for Hello Kitty fans. As a functional laptop, it has a decent build quality, good audio, and a fairly decent upgrade path.

It’s good for everyday tasks such as web browsing, office work, media consumption, and even some light gaming. If you can get past the mediocre display and trackpad, it’s a surprisingly solid choice of a laptop.

It was truly a Hello Kitty experience using this laptop for a week, which lovers of Hello Kitty and all things kawaii will enjoy.

The Acer Aspire V3 Hello Kitty Limited Edition retails for Php45,999, and comes with a 2-year warranty. An installment plan is available with any HSBC credit card for up to 36 months at 0% interest at Villman stores.

Acer Aspire V3 Hello Kitty Limited Edition specs:
13.3-inch Full HD IPS LED Display
Intel Core i5-7200U Processor
Integrated Intel HD Graphics 620
4GB DDR3L SDRAM (upgradeable up to 16GB)
1TB 2.5″ 5400RPM HDD
WiFi 802.11ac
Bluetooth
HD Webcam
USB 3.1 Type-C
Windows 10 64-bit Home Edition
4-cell Li-Ion Battery

What we liked about it: