I have had the Acer Aspire 5 for about a week now.  I am a teacher and sharing a laptop for work and for my photography hobby was not working out.  So far I am very pleased with this purchase with a few cons.Pros-This thing starts up super fast, the finger print scanner is something I never thought I'd love as much as I do.  At school I type my password in 18, 657 times a day so one less step is wonderful.  The processor is fast, as fast as I need it to be anyway.  Some reviewers have commented about poor screen quality, but I have found it to be crisp and accurate on color when using Lightroom or watching Netflix.  WiFi is snappy and I have not had issues downloading and installing apps.  The backlit keyboard is another feature I didn't know I loved until I had it.  This machine is lightweight, the build is plastic but still seems sturdy, and it powers through me through lesson plans, Google Classroom, and my photography hobby.  Note I said hobby--a professional photographer may need more than this. It does come with a HDD upgrade kit.  So with a screwdriver and a YouTube video I think anyone can easily upgrade this. I have not upgraded it as I don't see the need.  Oh, and I was easily able to put Cortana to sleep. I do not want any listening devices in my home.Cons-There is no optical drive.  This was not an issue for me, but may be for someone else.  The speakers are so-so.  Not bad, but not good.  If you want to stream music, I suggest external speakers, but for Netflix binging it's fine.  This laptop will not meet the needs of a serious online gamer in memory, graphics, or processor speed.  Just saying.To sum up-This is a good machine for online education, watching videos, any Office or Google app, surfing the web, light gaming, and supporting my photography hobby.  It's fast enough for the regular user, has good screen graphics, and has a few extras that make it convenient for a busy working mom.  For the price, I think you would be hard pressed to find something better.