The Acer Aspire 5 has been one of our favorite budget laptops for years. It’s affordable, well-designed, and is a solid performer for the price. Now with the Acer Aspire 3 A315-24P-R7VH, you’re getting an even more affordable laptop that packs everything you need to go to class and get your projects done.
As with all budget devices, it’s not without compromises. Its mostly plastic body isn’t elegant nor the most durable material, and the 128GB of storage is a little thin. However, if you can overlook the plastic construction, the Acer Aspire 3 will feel like money well spent.
About the Acer A315-24P-R7VH
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 3 7320U
- Graphics: AMD Radeon
- RAM: 8GB LPDDR5
- Storage: 128GB SSD
- Display: 15.6-inch 1920 x 1080 LCD display
- Wireless connectivity: Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.1
- Weight: 3.75 pounds
- Size: 14.3 x 9.4 x 0.7 inches
The Acer Aspire 3 has a 15.6-inch Full HD (1080p) IPS screen, an AMD Ryzen 3 processor, 8GB RAM, and 128GB storage, which should be enough for most users, but the sub-$400 makes it even more incredible value.
With the Aspire 3, Acer once again proves that budget machines are the way to go. And, as long as your needs don’t include a whole lot of video editing or designing, this might just be the best laptop for you.
What we like
Good specs for the price
The AMD Ryzen 3 7320U is a capable processor when it comes to performing essential daily tasks such as web browsing, handling office productivity, college assignments, and streaming videos and movies. The AMD Ryzen 3 7320U was launched 3in September 2022 as part of the Ryzen 3 lineup, using the Zen 2 (Mendocino) architecture with Socket FP6, 4 cores, and 8 threads and operates at 2.4GHz by default, but can boost up to 4.1 GHz as needed.
On this Aspire 3, the processor is paired with 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD storage, and AMD Radeon graphics to deliver decent productivity performance, provided you remain within the basic threshold. Again, at this price, you’re buying a laptop for basic tasks, such as web browsing and web browsing. This is not a productivity workhorse, but it’s a better laptop than, let’s say, the SGIN laptop, making it a solid laptop for routine day-to-day tasks that don’t require much leverage from a machine.
The Aspire 3’s integrated Radeon graphics won’t win any awards either, with 3DMark scores that generally leave it in the “less than 15fps” category. But to be fair, 3DMark uses very high graphics settings, so it should be applied on machines with dedicated graphics. Still, you can get some casual gaming done on this laptop now and then.
Decent keyboard and screen
The Acer Aspire 3 has a decent keyboard, but the keyboard is just passable. The keys are like those found on many budget laptops, they often have more travel than those of some ultra-premium notebooks and have a slightly hollow feel.
Acer offers some good keyboards, and this one isn’t too bad at all. Thanks to the spare space on the keyboard deck, the A315-24P-R7VH easily fits in a NUM pad. There’s no keyboard backlight here though.
Good battery life
All the longest-lasting Windows laptops I’ve used over the last couple of years have had AMD Ryzen processors under the hood. However, the Acer Aspire 3 doesn’t belong in that category, its battery life is merely OK despite using one of them.
It lasts up to 7 hours and 43 minutes in general productivity, but eight hours and some more is precisely what I look for in a work laptop. For a budget laptop, this is very OK, since we’ve seen premium laptops like the Asus ZenBook Pro 14 OLED last less than the Acer Aspire. Even so, this is still respectable compared to some other budget laptops out there, it lasts longer than some Chromebooks in the same price range.
And while most laptops now use USB-C for charging, the Acer Aspire 3 uses a power adapter with a cylindrical adapter.
What we don’t like
Washed out display
The display on the Acer Aspire 3 is pretty basic, though that’s expected with a budget laptop like this. It’s an LCD with a 1080p resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate, which is fine for the price. It doesn’t have the best viewing angles, but it will get the job done.
There’s also a built-in webcam, but it isn’t the best you can find in a laptop – after all, 720p is pretty basic and can’t compare with 1080p available in more expensive laptops.
Simple, plastic construction
For the latest Aspire 3, Acer prioritized performance and specs over design. That means you should be contented with the plastic construction and not look forward to an aluminum shell and very lightweight profile.
However, for its price, the A315-24P-R7VH looks decent. It’s an all-plastic case that looks like it could be aluminum from a distance, or even up close. I find it sturdy enough for daily commute, and it has no signs of being poorly made. It’s on the lighter side for budget 15.6-inch laptops, weighing 3.92 pounds and measuring 14.29 x 0.74 x 9.35 inches. While it’s a little heavy to be ideal for everyday portable use, it will fit easily in a backpack for offsite meetings and university lectures.
Should you buy the Acer Aspire 3?
Yes, it’s a good budget laptop for class or work
The Acer Aspire 3 A315-24P-R7VH is an affordable laptop that offers better performance than most of its peers, looks good enough, and isn’t too chunky or heavy to carry around on a daily commute. It’s good enough for day-to-day tasks, like web browsing and word processing – but it won’t handle heavier workloads or gaming very well. The display, and battery life are all fine, while value is definitely on its side. Acer faces stiff competition in this price bracket, but with the Aspire 3, it competes relatively well. If all you need is a 15-inch laptop for basic tasks – work or college, a cheaper Aspire 5, a SGIN laptop, or even an Asus Chromebook would be ideal, too.
