A year and a half ago on Prime Day I picked up the Acer Aspire E 15. Wiped the storage and installed Linux. All was well with the world. When holiday time came six months later to get a laptop for a family member I seem to recall Amazon pointing me to this model as the newer version. I had to spend the better part of a day getting the Windows 10 rolled out, saying 'no' to its various information and identity harvesting options. Then I had to disable 'S Mode', a Microsoft "security" implementation which prevents you from installing any non-Microsoft browser or search engine. Or any other software that didn't funnel through the Microsoft Store monopoly.With everyone was working and schooling from home due to covid, a shared laptop was problematic so I just did a repeat order of this affordable model, the Aspire 5. I was already aware that storage was in short supply, with only a 128 GB SSD in place (about enough to hold Windows, Office, and breathing room).And unlike the Aspire E 15, this model didn't include an optical drive (spun by marketers as "it's a benefit, it's super slim!"). But since my wife uses more storage than the kid, I figured her Christmas gifts would include both this laptop and a large SD card to compensate for the shortcomings of this model. This was when we discovered that this model includes no SD card slot. Instant buyer's remorse.I'd already planned on spending a bit more to replace the internal SSD with a 512 GB or 1 TB to prevent the problems that come from installs defaulting to a barely existent C: drive, leaving 0 MB of space on your system drive.Already knowing what her gift was going to be, my wife bought an external DVD drive for around $20 to compensate for what this model doesn't have. And external storage, since this has no internal hard drive for user storage. But having to add on an external SD card reader as well to manage photos from her camera is, as they say, just a bridge too far. Having to compensate by adding all these components after market is turning this thing into a Frankenstein.I like Acer. Unlike the HP laptops I've had, this model and the 15 don't have issues with overheating. As performance goes, this is fine for typical home use but as you would expect, this would not be appropriate for gamers. With the limited number of USB ports, and components no longer included that need to be added on, you could probably expect also to have to buy a USB hub if you ever anticipate using an external keyboard or mouse. But your best bet is probably to just spend a little more and get a different model.