Our Rating:
4.5
Acer Aspire 3 Review
Best Budget Laptop
of 2025!
Authors: Tina S, Catrina B, Danny N, Jordan E
Introduction
The Acer Aspire 3 is the embodiment of amazing value, when it comes to the budget category for laptops. In our daily testing and use of the Aspire 3, it consistently delivers on its promise of being reliable and has great performance for the vast majority of tasks we threw at it.
The Acer Aspire 3 ignores all of the extras you would expect in premium laptops that often inflate costs and instead pours its resources into the core components that dictate the daily user experience, with the base model selling for under $350 (usually on sale for $300)!
We can confidently say it exceeds the expectations for its class, providing a seamless and satisfying experience for students, professionals, and everyday users alike.
Design
The Acer Aspire 3 presents a design that is both refreshingly modern and eminently practical, engineered for the realities of daily life.
-
Construction: Constructed from a resilient polycarbonate, is engineered to withstand the rigors of daily transport and use. This material choice is a thoughtful one, providing a lightweight yet sturdy frame that feels solid and reliable when we were testing the product. With the 15.6-inch model weighing in at just 4 pounds, this laptop is very easy to transport and carry anywhere!
-
Minimalist & Thin: A clean, matte shell in classic silver or the new Ice-Blue finish looks refined on any desk while shrugging off fingerprints. At under 0.75 inch thick, it vanishes in a backpack, letting us slip through a crowded subway without feeling weighed down.
-
Sustainability: The chassis incorporates post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastics, and the device is Energy Star certified, ensuring lower power consumption throughout its lifespan. This commitment to being kinder to the planet adds an extra layer of value, allowing you to make a purchase that feels both smart and responsible.
​
Display
The display on the Acer Aspire 3 is a bright, clear, and capable, optimized for productivity and media consumption.
-
Full HD display: The commitment to a 1920x1080 screen resolution is a critical element of its value proposition. At this price point, you will find that other laptops compromise with lower-resolution panels that result in pixelated text and muddy images. There is also a touch-screen model that can be purchased for a slightly higher price (see models in pricing category below).
-
Clarity: The true star of the show is an In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel. When you choose a model with an IPS display, you are treated to vastly superior viewing angles and more consistent, vibrant colors. It eliminates the frustrating color shifting found on older panel technologies, ensuring the screen looks great from any angle. For us, this was a non-negotiable feature that elevates the entire user experience. During our testing, the laptops with IPS were a clear favorite for watching movies with family or sharing presentations with colleagues.
-
Anti-Glare Coating: The anti-glare, matte finish on the screen is exceptionally effective at cutting down distracting reflections, making it much easier to work in brightly lit rooms or near windows.
-
BlueLightShield Mode: Acer’s BlueLightShield technology actively works to reduce eye strain during those long work or study sessions, a benefit we certainly appreciated late at night. Flicking on the built-in blue-light filter during late-night essay sessions eased eye strain without tinting whites into a distracting amber.
Performance
This is the area where the Acer Aspire 3 delivers its most decisive victory, offering a level of core performance that shatters expectations for a budget laptop.
​
-
Modern Processor: Configurations featuring the latest AMD Ryzen 7000 series or modern Intel Core i-series chips deliver astonishingly snappy and responsive performance. In our daily workflow, apps launch instantly, complex websites load without a stutter, and heavy multitasking with dozens of browser tabs and multiple applications runs with an effortless fluidity that was once the exclusive domain of high-end machines.
-
NVMe SSD Advantage: The Aspire 3 comes equipped with a fast NVMe Solid-State Drive (SSD), a non-negotiable for a modern computing experience. The impact is profound: the system boots up in seconds, applications load in a flash, and file transfers are incredibly quick. In our daily use, the sheer speed and responsiveness provided by the SSD made the entire system feel exceptionally quick and agile.
-
Fan Efficiency: Every year Acer improves on the cooling efficiency of it's fans, increasing it's fan surface area by 78%. In our test of exporting a large file, surface temps stayed comfortable and fan ramps were gentle instead of jarring making this laptop great to us in quiet settings.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The input devices on the Aspire 3 are designed for comfort and productivity, providing a reliable and satisfying tactile experience for all-day use.
-
Comfortable and Capable Keyboard: The full-sized keyboard offers a surprisingly satisfying typing experience. The keys are well-spaced and provide a pleasant, tactile feedback with decent travel, making it comfortable for everything from firing off quick emails to writing long-form reports. It avoids the mushy, shallow feel that many other budget laptops have.
-
Full-Sized Layout with Numpad: The inclusion of a dedicated number pad is a massive win for anyone who works with spreadsheets or performs frequent numerical data entry. It’s a feature often found missing in budget class laptops.
-
Touchpad: The touchpad is impressively large, providing an expansive surface for smooth and easy navigation. Its surface allows for effortless gliding, and it capably handles all the multi-touch gestures essential for navigating the operating system efficiently. After a brief period of adjustment, it became a seamless and effective tool for our daily tasks.
​
Battery Life and Connectivity
The Aspire 3 is built for a modern, wireless world, offering the endurance and the ports needed to stay productive all day long.
-
Battery Endurance: Thanks to the incredible power efficiency of its modern processors and LPDDR5 memory, the Aspire 3 delivers phenomenal battery life. In our testing of models with the latest-generation chips, we were consistently averaging over 11 hours of mixed-use, including web browsing, video streaming, and document editing. If you're working for 16 hours, you'll likely need to bring your charger with you.
-
Modern Port Selection: Recent models come equipped USB Type-C ports and the latest Wi-Fi 6 standard. These features are essential for a modern day laptop, and the budget friendly Aspire 3 delivers. Two USB-A, a full-function USB-C, HDMI 2.1, and a headphone jack mean no dongle drama when plugging in peripherals or a projector.
Audio and Webcam
The audiovisual suite is perfectly tuned for the demands of modern communication, delivering clear and reliable performance for daily use.
-
Webcam: The laptop features an 720p HD front-facing camera that utilizes Acer's TNR (Temporal Noise Reduction) technology. This technology ensures high-quality imagery, especially in low-light conditions. In our use of the webcam, video recording and playback quality was flawless and a good experience.
-
Audio: Equipped with speakers that function very well for it's price point. The sound quality is good but not something you'd expect from a more premium laptop. We recommend plugging in headphones with this device if you are looking for a better audio quality.
-
Microphone: The laptop has a built-in microphone that works well for online meetings, especially with Acer PurifiedVoice technology and AI Noise Reduction, which filters out extra sound for clear communication. If you want to use a better microphone you can easily plug in your own, disabling the built-in microphone, for better communication in calls and meetings.
Conclusion: Best Budget Pick!
The overall package presented by the Acer Aspire 3 is exceptionally well-balanced for anyone prioritizing value, it is a masterclass in smart compromises!
Compared to other options in its class, the Aspire 3 delivers a level of value and performance that is simply unmatched. Knowing that you only spent $350 for this bang-for-your-buck laptop helps you sleep better at night.
​​
However, the line-up for the Acer Aspire 3 does not just end at at just $350. If you're willing to spend a little more, you can opt to buy the other better models at around the $400, $500, or $600 range if you are looking for better specs in a solid budget laptop (see different models below)!
​​
The Acer Aspire 3 stands out as the clear and smart budget laptop choice in 2025! It is a powerful testament to the fact that a limited budget does not have to mean a limited experience! 🎉🎉🎉