Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After owning my 15'' Windows 7 Lenovo G560 for 4 years (Check out my review http://www.amazon.com/review/R2QEH2LASA3HM8/ if you're curious) I decided it was time for an upgrade. Getting this little Acer for $270 (tax included) was a dream come true since the specs sounded great for the price. Windows 8.1 felt like a bit of a learning curve, but once I played around with certain settings, it was in some ways easier to handle than my previous Windows 7 machine! Right away, I've been shocked with how excellent the battery life is (7 hours?!) compared to the 3-4 hours these days on my Lenovo. The fan is quiet and machine stays cool, though I have a portable laptop desk underneath to help. My 14'' ES1 thankfully has the ports on the side, instead of the back (which would have been a major annoyance for me with the 15'' version of the ES1). That's not to say I haven't had any issues with this machine: I ran into the widespread Windows 8.1 internet connectivity problem. After a good 2 days (tried everything under the sun, including Windows Updates and the TCP), I *finally* permanently fixed the issue, once I changed the Broadcom internet drivers to the older Microsoft drivers. Having owned this laptop for less than a week (the majority of that time has been configuring programs and transferring my data), I haven't had a whole lot of time to check out the audio/visual quality, but 720p is perfect. 1080p can either lag or doesn't play at all (either on VLC or Youtube). Although, an interesting thing about the internet browsers: similar to Safari being the best browser on Macs, Internet Explorer is lightning fast compared to Firefox or Chrome (which is sadly a resource hog). 1080p60 plays flawlessly in IE's Youtube, while FF or Chrome can stutter or get artifacts even with 720p Youtube videos. Firefox is my default, though it's best to go with your personal preferences for browsers. Older games (Sierra, etc) have no trouble playing, but don't expect newer games to play well based on the graphics card. For newer games, I only tested Plants Vs Zombies, which had to run on the lowest settings and without 3D (even on those settings, it was somewhat laggy). Related: the speakers being on the bottom of the machine is just another reason that you definitely want to use some nice headphones/IEMs. The speakers aren't horrible (though quiet or muffled, even on full volume), but a good pair of headphones definitely alleviates the muffled sound. Despite the minor issues, I can't recommend this laptop enough! I'll update my review accordingly if I run into anymore positives or negatives.