I've had my Aspire V5-531 for 2.5 years now & the other day it crashed (blue screen of death) while I was filing away all my downloads & pics etc. This was not long after I'd run a super cleaning program through it. Since then I haven't been able to get into my computer, it's claiming the operating system is not found (Windows 7) & it won't respond to Safe Mode command (F8), have checked BIOS that it's booting from the correct drive, seems it's definitely a hardware issue but the hard drive is absolutely buried in the heart of the computer, there's no access! You have to literally take the whole thing apart, keyboard, screen, everything to get at the HDD. Overall it's been a good computer to me (if not a little slow at times loading things) but this access issue has completely stumped me. Reluctant to disassemble it as so many small parts can easily get lost/broke. Just something to bear in mind when purchasing one.

The GOOD :D - dvd player, gd amount of ports, attractive smooth surface, camera ok, sound ok, access to net easy enough.
The BAD  >:(  - touchpad is over-sensitive, changes things when you don't want it to. Noticeably bendy body. Somewhat over-priced. Net connection sometimes fails.
Have had a mostly good experience with it so far, just a couple of annoyances I've noted. I give it 3/5.

 Ok I already wrote this once and then I went to the next page to confirm my review but the mouse did the same thing I was complaining about in my review. So here's what I had to say. Yeah, even though I can't be as technical as Mike T. was I completely agree that this mouse is jacked. At the slightest touch of the L or R key or if your trying to scroll up or down this mouse will throw u back a page in a second and you lose what you were working on. So if you dont constantly copy and paste you lose your info 3 out of 4 times. It's the bain of my Acer laptop exsistance! I wish I would have kept my Toshiba. That thing was a beast. But I grabbed this at an OfficeDepot that was closing and got it at a discount price of $289.00 and I thought that was a pretty good deal. Other than the mouse and webcam it's a good computer. I don't have any performance or speed issues and have plenty of space to download. I also like the extra USB's so I don't have to use an outside device. So I give it a 7/10, it would be 9/10 if not for mouse and cam. The webcam works fine and u can skype and its clear, it's just lacking the bell's and whistle's I've had w/ other webcam's. i.e. sketch mode, camoflauge, rainbow, black n white etc.. So know that I'm done w/ review, I HAVE TO copy the whole review in case I lose it on the next page like b4. Ya it's that bad! Arrgghhh!

Is it me or it's impossible to find instructions on how to tear down this stupid case? I have a v5-431, and cannot fully open it even after taking out the battery and all the screws. I can pry open the front just enough to reach the hard drive but past that, it gets so hard that I am afraid to pry further. (There's even a little screw covered with tape inside the memory section.

I would have really preferred distinct glidepad mouse keys.  Often I find the cursor has moved after pushing the right or left bottom of the pad.  Repetitive pushes will quickly get you off target.  Otherwise, I think it's a pretty good notebook, especially after adding an extra 4GB memory module.  Thanks Acer for selling this notebook with an empty memory slot!

This notebook sells for $459 at Target in Texas (Target being a large national chain in the USA, upscale from Walmart).  It was on sale for $329 the day I went into the store.  I found one that someone had cut the box seal, though they had never touched the computer (the black version shows fingerprints extremely well) and so I was offered an additional 15% off.  I walked out the door for $302.72 after 8.25% sales tax. 

I had no plans to buy a new notebook that day- I had just spent $385 an hour before at Microcenter on a 512 GB OCZ Agililty 4 SSD (returned to Microcenter the next day, because I found the exact same drive on Buy.com for $285-$10 for being a first time Buy.com user, and that drive is now in my desktop since at 9mm it won't fit in the notebook) to refresh my 2 year old notebook which has no USB 3.0, no webcam, no Bluetooth, no HDMI output, and is much thicker and heavier. Newegg contributed 8 GB dual-channel of low voltage, CAS 9 DDR3-1600 for $48 (free shipping) which the notebook picks up as CAS 8 at DDR3-1333 and ups the RAM score to 7.9 and had no negative impact on battery life compared to the single-channel 4 GB it shipped with.  Overall, since I don't game on my notebook, the only thing that could make me happier would be having access to an extended run battery which isn't available yet and perhaps easier access to replace the hard drive with an SSD.  This gives me a notebook I can do all my work on and if it is broken, stolen, or compromised in some way I won't shed too many tears.

Would you change your conclusion at that price point?  8)