Acer Aspire 3 Review: An Affordable Laptop with Big Screen

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Acer Aspire 3: At First Glance

Acer has made a name for themselves through their unique design patterns. The Acer Aspire 3 and its predecessors are proof of this statement.

Even with their rather stylish design, they’ve been able to keep most of their products at affordable sales prices. For example, the Acer Aspire 3 laptop cost $506.12 as of the time of writing this review (October 2021).

Aside from beautiful design, can the Acer Aspire 3 deliver in terms of performance too? Read on to find out.

Acer Aspire 3: Design, Dimension & Weight

The Acer Aspire 3 laptop is a well-structured laptop with a big screen. Moreover, it doesn’t look bulky even with its large size.

Acer laptops are mostly made with plastic which makes them look less sturdy than other laptops made with aluminum. The Aspire 3 is neither thick nor very heavy for a 15.6″ laptop.

It looks just as good as its predecessors when they were released. However, the Acer Aspire 3’s lid and hinge design are slightly different from the ones that were on its predecessors.

Talking about the lid, there is a silver Acer logo on the lid that sits neatly at the center. This lid has a brushed and slightly textured pattern.

These textured patterns extend to the interior of the laptop – its keyboard deck, to be precise.

For typing, you get a comfortable keyboard. The keys on this laptop’s keyboard are quiet and offer good travel as well.

However, the keyboard deck area doesn’t feel very sturdy. The back panel moves inward a bit when you press down on the deck a little.

Regardless, the keyboard itself feels solid and user-friendly for typing. Furthermore, the key layout feels roomy given the presence of a dedicated number pad in the key-deck space.

The only disadvantage of this keyboard is that it isn’t backlit, but that is a minor problem since the keys work accurately.

The touchpad, on the other hand, fails to match the firm feel of the keyboard. Its surface is flimsy and it feels loose when touched.

Above the keyboard deck, you get a 15.6-inch display. Unfortunately, the bezels surrounding this display are quite thick.

I would have loved it if they were thinner because I’ve become accustomed to using laptops with thin bezels.

At the top bezel, there’s a well-placed integrated HD Webcam. However, this webcam delivers grainy videos because it offers only 640 by 480-pixel resolution, which is somehow below average.

Below the screen is a tinny audio output. The speakers can be described as “average” at best as they barely give out a loud sound.

Moving on to the display itself, you can buy the Acer Aspire 3 with either an HD or Full HD display resolution. Whichever one you buy, you will enjoy a good viewing experience on the Acer Aspire 3.

However, though the Full HD model is the better option, however, as expected it is more expensive. Our review unit features the HD display option.

As I mentioned earlier, since this is a 15″ display, it is a large screen – making it great for watching videos. However, the color representation looks a bit pale.

Moving on to the ports and connectivity, you get a USB Type-C port, a USB 3.0 port, an HDMI port, and an Ethernet jack, all on the left side of the port.

The laptop’s right side, on the other hand, features a pair of USB 2.0 ports, a headphone jack, and a power connector.

In terms of dimension, the Acer Aspire 3 measures 363.2 x 246.3 x 19.8 mm and weighs 1900 g. It is considerably compact and light enough for a 15-inch laptop.

In comparison, its sibling, Acer Aspire 5 A515-43 has the same weight but is slightly thicker.

Specifically, Acer Aspire 5 A515-43 measures 363.2 x 246.3 x 19.8 mm and weighs 1900 g.

In conclusion, considering all the design features discussed in this section, I will rate the laptop an eight in this design review.

Acer Aspire 3: Processor (CPU) Performance

Acer equipped Aspire 3 is with a 10th generation Intel Core i5 -1035G1 processor.

The Intel Core i5 1035G1 is a great processor when it comes to performing essential daily tasks such as web browsing, handling office productivity workloads, and streaming YouTube videos.

The quad-core processor comes with a base frequency of 1.00 GHz. Moreover, it can clock up to 3.60 GHz maximum frequency while still utilizing the 4 cores.

In Addition, this processor has 6 MB of cache memory.

To identify how well this processor can perform, a benchmark test was carried out using Cinebench R15 as the test tool. Cinebench R15 is a benchmark used for finding out how well a laptop’s processor can handle processor-based operations.

This benchmark test offers two sectors – single-core and multi-core.

In this test, Acer Aspire 3 scored 624 points in the multi-core performance aspect. It scored 164 in the single-core aspect.

In comparison, the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 scored 519 points in the multi-core aspect of the test. Meanwhile, the HP 250 G7 scored 561 in the same multi-core aspect.

From these results, we can say the Acer Aspire 3 has a better processor performance than most of its competitors.

Hence, I will give it a score of seve in this processor performance review.

Acer Aspire 3: Memory (RAM) Performance

The Acer Aspire 3 comes with a 4 GB DDR4 SDRAM. Despite having only one RAM slot, the Aspire 3’s memory is upgradeable to 8 GB.

To determine this laptop’s RAM performance capabilities, we consulted the PCMark 10 benchmark. The PCMark 10 is a tool used for determining the RAM performance of laptops.

In other words, it is a tool designed to perform a productive real-world performance test on a PC or tablet.

On the PCMark test, the Aspire 3 achieved an overall score of 3,163 points. In comparison, the Acer Aspire 5 scored 3,187 on the same test.

Meanwhile, the Lenovo ThinkPad L580 scored 3,292. Apparently, Acer Aspire 3 scores below its predecessor and its competitor.

Regardless, the Acer Aspire 3’s performance is commendable.

Therefore, it scores a six in this memory performance review.

Acer Aspire 3: Storage Option & Performance

The Acer Aspire 3 comes with a 256 SSD storage drive. Unfortunately, the laptop does not come with an SD card slot for storage expansion.

As always, a regular benchmark test was conducted to obtain an accurate real-life performance of Acer Aspire 3 with this SSD storage.

A Crystaldiskmark was used to analyze the read/write speeds of this laptop’s storage. The Crystaldiskmark benchmark indicates how fast or slow the read and write speeds of a laptop’s storage drive are.

Clearly, a read speed performance means how long a file takes to open. Meanwhile, the write speed means how long a file takes to save.

On the CrystalDiskMark test, the Acer Aspire 3 notched up 900 MBps read speed and 600 MBps write speed.

In conclusion, the Acer Aspire 3 scores an eight in this storage review for its good storage option and its reasonably fast performance speed.

Acer Aspire 3: Graphics Card Option & Performance

The Acer Aspire 3 comes with an Intel UHD graphics card. This GPU shares memory with the processor.

This means that it doesn’t come with a dedicated VRAM.

A VRAM is an abbreviation of video random access memory. It is the amount of dedicated RAM the GPU has to use. The VRAM stores graphic data that are basically dedicated to processing graphics-related tasks such as playing a high premium game, viewing videos and images clearly.

Based on this short explanation, you can guess that a GPU with a dedicated VRAM will perform graphics tasks after. On the contrary, a GPU that shares the system, memory with the CPU (otherwise known as “integrated” GPU) does not do see well with graphics-intensive tasks.

The implication is that you should not expect Acer Aspire 3 to play graphics-intensive video games or use it for graphics-intensive applications.

Before I discuss the performance of Intel UHD graphics card on Aspire 3, let me quickly share the specs of this GPU.

The Intel UHD graphics card on the Aspire 3 has a base frequency of 300 MHz and a boost frequency of 1050 MHz respectively.

To ascertain this graphics card’s performance capabilities, we made use of the 3DMark benchmark. 3DMark is a standard benchmark tool designed to determine the hardware graphics performance on a PC or tablet.

On this benchmark test, Acer Aspire 3 scored 8,508. Meanwhile, the Lenovo V330 scored 8,244 on the same test.

Based on the scores, Aspire 3 performed better than its competitor.

In conclusion, the Acer Aspire 3 scores a seven.

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Acer Aspire 3: Battery Life & Performance

The Acer Aspire 3 comes with a 2-cell Lithium-Ion battery. The manufacturer advertised that the battery can last up to 8 hours.

At first, we can’t say the manufacturer is correct or wrong. A quick test run will determine how far the laptop can go.

The battery runtime test included video playback tests and web streaming tests. During this test, the Wi-Fi was turned on and the laptop’s display brightness was set to 50%.

On the web surfing test, the Acer Aspire 3 offered up to 6 hours 40 minutes of runtime. Meanwhile, it offered 6 hours and 20 minutes on the video playback.

Comparatively, the ASUS Vivobook L403 lasted up to 10 hours. Acer’s Chromebook also lasted close to 10 hours.

This performance is based on the same test that was carried out on Aspire 3. In conclusion, the Acer Aspire 3 scores a six in this battery performance review.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

On a final note, Acer Aspire 3 is a midrange laptop designed for light computing tasks. So, if you need a laptop for surfing the web, streaming Netflix, or reading and sending emails, this laptop will work for you.

However, if you’re looking for a laptop for heavy computing workload or gaming, Acer Aspire 3 may not be for you.

This laptop is most suitable for students and office workers that perform light tasks.

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