Professional’s Score
Professionals
- Spacious keyboard with quantity pad
- First rate webcam
- Stable video playback efficiency
- First rate enterprise app efficiency
- All-day battery life
Cons
- Poor gaming efficiency
- Primary 1080p show
- Small 128GB SSD
Our Verdict
The Acer Aspire 3 represents a wise set of trade-offs. It’s simply one of many best-built laptops we’ve examined for underneath $500/£500, with sturdy development and a spacious keyboard and trackpad. Whereas it received’t give players a lot pleasure, it’s a lots competent work machine that’ll make you look and sound good on Zoom calls.
Worth When Reviewed
$329.99
Greatest Costs In the present day: Acer Aspire 3 (2022)
$279.99
$329.99
$389.99
$389.99
Within the crowded area of price range laptops, there’s no scarcity of low-cost and but a dearth of high quality. The Acer Aspire 3 reveals up properly on this class, sporting easy, low-profile styling, a full-size keyboard full with a quantity pad, and a large display screen that’s a pleasure to videoconference on.
Whereas there’s no scarcity of trade-offs for the low worth level, Acer has made even handed selections to provide a machine that provides you loads of bang for comparatively couple of bucks.
Design & construct
Weighing in at slightly below 4lb (1.81kg), the Aspire 3 isn’t precisely light-weight. However in change for some additional weight, you do get a large 15.6in show and sufficient room for a full-width keyboard.
As somebody who lives and dies by the spreadsheet I’m a sucker for a quantity pad on my keyboards, so getting one on such an inexpensive machine is fairly candy. This keyboard feels pretty strong underneath the fingers, with out an excessive amount of flex or bounce in heavy typing.
That issues, as a result of price range machines typically sacrifice chassis construction to chop prices, and the outcomes can really feel flimsy and even result in bounce on the monitor pad, inflicting the mouse cursor to bounce across the display screen. However no such fear on this Acer: it’s really a pleasure to sort on.
The Aspire 3’s large keyboard with quantity pad is a pleasure to sort on.
PCWorld / Robert Strohmeyer
In entrance of that broad keyboard, we discover a comparatively spacious 3in by 5in touchpad. In contrast to these of different Acer laptops we’ve tried, this trackpad feels agency and easy to the contact, and responds with a decisive, however quiet, click on. We discovered it tracks properly with each single-digit and multi-touch gestures.
Although considerably cumbersome at round 0.75in thick, the Aspire 3 makes room for a wholesome array of ports. The whole laptop computer appears and feels considerably extra strong than most different price range laptops we’ve examined. It’s a machine match for a working grownup, not an inexpensive, plastic child’s laptop.
Our solely important grievance with the construct high quality is that the display screen wobbles a bit after we transfer it round whereas open, quite than sitting agency. This implies the webcam picture will wobble throughout use in case you transfer the machine, which we skilled in our testing.
Show & audio
Acer’s price range laptops have lengthy stood out for his or her 1080p shows. The Aspire 3 comes equally outfitted, although because the market advances the competitors is bringing the identical decision to their price range strains as properly, so it now not stands out from the gang on this entrance.
That stated, in case you’re shopping for a laptop computer in 2023, 1080p is the bottom decision a purchaser ought to settle for, since 768p barely matches most fashionable net pages of their native decision. Responsive net design is good and all, but when your 15in laptop computer display screen triggers a minimised format with the browser window maximized, you would possibly as properly be searching on an iPad Mini.
The Aspire 3 places you squarely within the acceptable decision vary for present gadgets, however as I stated, that’s the naked minimal we’d need at this level. General, we appreciated the look of the Aspire 3’s show for motion pictures and video. Color high quality was respectable, although unremarkable, and shiny sufficient for comfy use in full solar.
A pair of small, downward-pointing audio system kick out pretty loud audio that we discovered properly tuned for video conferencing and YouTube movies, however just a bit tinny for any music with a lot bass.
Webcam & microphone
In videoconferencing exams, the Aspire 3 blew away our expectations for an financial system laptop computer. The HD webcam produced crisp, clear video and the mic picked up and filtered voices from the background noise fairly properly.
Facet by aspect with a Macbook Professional, we significantly appreciated the Aspire 3’s low-light webcam efficiency. Geared up with Temporal Noise Discount, the high-def cam cleans up in any other case grainy low-light video and will increase the publicity ranges to ship a shiny, crisp picture that outperforms many of the different built-in webcams we’ve tried, even on a lot pricier computer systems.
Equally, the mic cleans up in-room audio with Acer PurifiedVoice software program that filters out noise and sends clear, crisp sound to your recipient. For a pc on this worth vary, that’s saying quite a bit. General, with its picture and voice seize high quality, we’d quite bounce on a Zoom with the Acer Aspire 3 than with some machines at quadruple the value.
On its left aspect, the Aspire 3 has a DC energy portm a USB-C port, a full-size HDMI port, and a USB-A port.
PCWorld / Robert Strohmeyer
Connectivity
One upside of a much bigger laptop computer is the capability for lots of helpful connectors. Alongside the left aspect you’ll discover the DC in, a single USB-C port, a full-size HDMI port, and a USB-A port. On the proper, you get a Kensington lock port, one other USB-A, and a headphone jack. What you don’t get at this worth is a second USB-C port, which is changing into frequent on higher laptops as of late, or a card reader slot.
For many customers, this complement of ports might be lots and getting each a USB-C and a full HDMI port on such an inexpensive laptop computer isn’t unhealthy. If you happen to do must learn an SD card, you’ll be able to all the time plug an adapter into one of many USB ports.
The precise aspect of the Aspire 3 gives a Kensington lock port, a USB-A port, and a headphone jack.
PCWorld / Robert Strohmeyer
Efficiency
If you happen to’re spending this sort of cash on a laptop computer, you need to mood your efficiency expectations significantly. With its Quad-core 2.4GHz AMD Ryzen 7320U course of and Radeon graphics, the Acer Aspire 3 is not any exception, delivering respectable efficiency in fundamental enterprise duties, however notably sub-par outcomes for graphics and gaming.
In relation to enterprise productiveness efficiency, the Acer Aspire 3 is middle-of-the-pack for inexpensive laptops.
PCWorld / Robert Strohmeyer
Our PCMark 10 check measures the machine’s efficiency in on a regular basis workplace duties starting from phrase processing and spreadsheets to video conferencing.
The Aspire 3 gave a middle-of-the-pack efficiency of 4,284 in a area of barely pricier machines we’ve examined in latest months, notably outperforming the three,902 rating of the Intel-equipped Aspire 5. It is a good factor as a result of this machine is constructed to enchantment to highschool and small-business customers. If you happen to’re searching for an inexpensive laptop computer for back-to-school within the fall or want to switch an growing older work machine on a price range, this efficiency signifies an honest funding.
For motion pictures and video playback, the Aspire 3 once more outperforms different price range techniques we’ve examined. On our multi-thread Cinebench 15 check, the Aspire 3 got here in on the high of the pack of price range laptops with a rating of 1,925. On the single-thread Cinebench check, its rating of 435 beat out the others we now have a end result for.
The Acer Aspire 3’s video efficiency in our Cinebench check is considerably higher than different price range laptops we’ve examined.
PCWorld / Robert Strohmeyer
As with the all-threads check, the video playback efficiency on the Aspire 3 beats out comparable financial system laptops we’ve examined.
PCWorld / Robert Strohmeyer
The place the Aspire 3 falls very quick, even in opposition to different low-cost laptops we’ve examined, is its gaming graphics efficiency. In our 3DMark TimeSpy 1.2 check, this machine was downright pitiful with a rating of 584, lower than half that of the Aspire 5. Whether or not that is acceptable or not depends upon how you are feeling about gaming, in fact. If you happen to’re shopping for this to put in writing or surf the net, you received’t care. But when it is a pupil laptop computer, let’s simply say you received’t have to fret about video games distracting you from examine time.
The Aspire 3 is not any gaming laptop computer, with the bottom 3D rating in any of our latest budget-laptop exams.
PCWorld / Robert Strohmeyer
Battery life
Battery life was one in every of extra constructive areas for the Aspire 3.
In our exams taking part in again a film on repeat till the battery died, it averaged about eight hours of life persistently. That’s nearly a full work day and in case you’re not taking part in video continually and perhaps take a lunch break, it needs to be greater than sufficient to get you thru the day.
If it’s essential to cost up, the Aspire 3’s tiny charging brick is among the most compact round, so it slips into your bag with out taking on an excessive amount of area.
Verdict
In a world the place price range constraints pressure compromises, the Acer Aspire 3 represents a wise set of trade-offs.
It’s simply among the finest price range laptops we’ve examined, with sturdy development and a spacious keyboard and trackpad. Whereas it received’t give players a lot pleasure, it’s a lots competent work machine that’ll make you look and sound good on Zoom calls.
If you happen to’re out there for a fundamental enterprise laptop computer or pupil laptop computer, you’ll wish to take a more in-depth look.
Specs
- CPU: Quad-core 2.4GHz AMD Ryzen 7320U
- Reminiscence: 8GB
- Graphics/GPU: AMD Radeon
- Show: 15.6-inch LED-backlit LCD
- Storage: 128GB
- Connectivity: 1 HDMI Port, 2 USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, 1 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Sort-C port
- Networking: IEEE 802.11ax Wi-Fi
- Biometrics: None
- Battery capability: 40 watt-hour
- Dimensions: 0.74 inches x 14.3 inches x 9.4 inches
- Weight: 3.97 kilos