Acer Aspire 3 A315-24P-R7VH Slim Laptop | 15.6″ Full HD IPS Display | AMD Ryzen 3 7320U Quad-Core Processor | AMD Radeon Graphics | 8GB LPDDR5 | 128GB NVMe SSD | Wi-Fi 6 | Windows 11 Home in S Mode

Aspire 5 with 4gb RAM 128gb PCIe NVMe SSD drive notes (long, so you may want to skip this review):Aluminum cover, plastic housing.Left side ports – Ethernet cable, HDMI, USB 2.0, USB 3.0, Headphone jack.Right side ports – Kensington computer lock port, USB 2.0.Notably missing – no port for SD cards at all.Not a touch screen, but nice in color and clarity. (Opinions on screens and keyboards tend to vary widely – what suits me perfectly may seem to be junk to you, so YMMV).The speakers on the front underside – the sound is O.K. (for an inexpensive laptop) but volume is lacking.Power supplied through a proprietary Acer plug, not through a USB-C port. Cord can only attach to the laptop on the left side (as seen by the user at the keyboard).Windows “S” is installed; it is limited to running apps available only in the Microsoft Store.Suggested upgrade – move up to Windows 10 Home. It’s a free upgrade – with the caveat that you cannot return to “S” version.To upgrade to Home version (instructions as of the date of this review; I assume/accept no responsibility if things go awry. You may want to Google instructions to verify):Go to Settings.Then select Update & Security.In the left sidebar, click Activation.Then click “Go to the Store.”Press the “Get” button under the “Switch out of S Mode” section and in a very short time you’ll be assigned the Windows Home version.Suggested upgrade – if you want to encrypt your laptop you may want to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro or Windows 10 Enterprise. These upgrades are not free, check Microsoft for current pricing.The Aspire 5 has a TPM chip so encryption will not require a boot password (not your Windows password).If you want to set a boot password for the computer (not your Windows password) you can set that in BIOS. Don’t forget it – resetting a boot password on a laptop can be a pain and a half (or impossible) to rectify. See below on how to get into BIOS.The included 128GB PCIe NVMe SSD drive is (for me) large enough to hold Windows 10 Enterprise and the applications I use and is quick enough to run them. I’m in I.T. support (although semi-retired) and don’t use the Aspire 5 for computer games. YMMV.Suggested upgrade – add an additional SSD to the computer (screws are in the box, housing and cable required are inside the Aspire 5). You can Google videos on how to perform the upgrade. A second internal drive allows you to separate your data from your operating system and applications; if Windows ever has to be completely re-installed your data won’t be affected. If you keep your data in the Cloud you can set the second drive as the sync drive and not fill up “C:” drive.The chip, an AMD Ryzen 3 3200U, does pretty well for my purposes. Again, gamers may have a different opinion so YMMV. I’ve had no issues when viewing training or YouTube videos.The battery life won’t get me through a typical support day without at least some recharge time – Acer claims up to 7 1/2 hours but, of course, that depends on what you’re doing. Watching videos will eat more power than writing a project proposal in Word. YMMV, but I bought a second power cord to take with me to client offices while leaving the cord at my home office plugged in. I seem to be getting 5 hours, maybe a bit better, with the screen set to maximum brightness.The machine doesn’t get overly warm in use (again, I’m not a gamer), but I use a laptop board most of the time when the laptop isn’t on a hard surface, so there is nearly always some airflow under the machine.The included 4gb of included RAM is really the absolute minimum to think about with Windows 10.Suggested upgrade – add a single 4gb RAM chip in the empty slot (Google for videos on that) to bring the total to 8gb RAM. After installing the additional 4gb the computer will report 8gb installed with “5.94gb usable”. The ‘missing’ RAM is being commandeered by the Radeon software for the display. If you need/want more the machine can support up to 32gb (1 16gb chip in each slot, discarding the 4gb already installed). 16gb would require 1 8gb chip in each slot, discarding the 4gb already installed. For business purposes (Office, Chrome and You Tube videos) I’m finding the 8gb (5.94 available) to be acceptable. YMMV.How ‘easy’ the RAM and hard drive upgrades are depends on how comfortable you are working with computers. I found them quite simple. Be careful not to crack the plastic housing when removing the bottom cover. Using the correct plastic spudge is helpful, you can search Amazon for a selection of tools. (spudge = type of plastic or rubber pry bar). Google the ‘how-to’ videos first.”Bloatware” included with the computer isn’t completely over-the-top, but it does take a few minutes to delete all of the junk. The “Microsoft Office” included with the Aspire 5 is a 30-day trial version, not a full license.After uninstalling the bloatware I installed Microsoft Office365 with Access, Adobe Photoshop Elements, DIA (a program for diagramming), AllwaySync (a backup program), Google Chrome, Splashtop Business and Personal (remote access software), VLC Media Player and a couple of network utility applications. I have 78gb of free space left on “C” drive.The three small stickers showing Ryzen chip, Aspire 5 inclusions, and Radeon graphic chip that are stuck onto the hand rest part of the computer can be easily peeled off and leave no residue (I was able to rub the remaining adhesive off easily with my thumb). I don’t know why the stickers are there – presumably if you’ve bought the machine you know what the details are without seeing sticky notes on the keyboard surface. If they’re for advertising purposes in the store it might be more cost effective to print advertising to be placed by the machine rather than label every machine on the production line. I also found the “Full 1080 HD” sticker on the screen bezel easy to take off. So I did. If Acer is interested in putting relevant data on stickers, how about putting the Make, Exact Model Number, Serial Number, and Date of Manufacture on a sticker? THAT one I would leave in place. As it is you need to flip the machine upside down to see the manufacturer’s information. (Sorry – this is a pet peeve of mine).A couple of quick notes for those who are new to Windows laptops – if the keyboard fails to light up, check the F8 key – it can toggle the light on/off. If you suddenly lose your WiFi connection check the F2 key – that toggles “Airplane Mode” on/off. Note that the “function” keys are set to use the little icons (F1 is sleep, F9 is mute, etc.). To use them as traditional function keys you need to hold down the “Fn” key simultaneously. Fn+F9, for instance, will cause the Outlook application to re-sync when you’ve got that desktop app open. If you prefer the traditional function key usage (not having to hold down the Fn key to use the keys within applications) you can toggle that in BIOS. To get into BIOS, reboot the computer and immediately start tapping the F2 key (no Fn key required).For me the ‘sweet spot’ of laptops is in the 14″ range (11″ for road trips). That being acknowledged I don’t find the extra width or weight of the Aspire 5 to be onerous – the thin screen bezel allows the claim to the 15.6″ screen while not unduly expanding the overall size of the laptop. At nearly 4 pounds it’s a bit heavier than the under-three-pounds-sweetness that I prefer but it’s not too bad. Especially after removing the weight of those ridiculous stickers. YMMV.If you need more power than this machine has, Acer does offer a similar package with upgrades to the Ryzen 5 chip, 8gb of RAM, and 250gb of hard drive space as well as some other goodies:https://www.amazon.com/Acer-A515-44-R41B-Hexa-Core-Processor-Graphics-dp-B087N4ZRXV/dp/B087N4ZRXV/ref=dp_ob_title_ceHTHRegards,Jim

TLDR: The Acer Aspire 3 “A315-24P” is an office laptop that lacks performance, or upgradeability, but has excellent battery life, and has a useful multi-function USB-C.The longer versionExteriorThis Aspire 3’s exterior shell is made almost entirely out of plastic. All panels, except the screen bezel are done in a bright silver finish.The chassis rigidity felt flimsy, although it’s no surprise considering it is almost entirely made out of plastic. The rigidity feels good enough at the hinges, so I don’t think cracking at the hinges would be a problem in the short term.ConnectivityOn the left side, you get 1x USB-C (10Gbps) port with PD and alt mode DP++, 1x USB-A (5Gbps) port, 1x HDMI 2.0 out, and the power jack. On the right side, you get 1x USB-A (5Gbps) port, and a 3.5mm audio out.For wireless, we get WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2The only thing that I feel is missing is an SD card reader, but I also don’t think it is a huge loss.The USB-C (10Gbps) port on this laptop is very useful, as it can also do Power Delivery (PD) starting at 30W, and going all the way up to 65W. It can also do alt-mode DisplayPort out. This means that you can hook this laptop up to a monitor with the same USB-C features, and get video out and power in through a single USB-C data cable. It also means you can charge this laptop off of a 30W USB-C charger, reducing the amount of power bricks you need to carry around.PerformanceThis laptop uses a Ryzen 3 7320U quad core CPU. Although the number would make you think it is a “Ryzen 7000 mobile” series, in actuality it is a Zen2 architecture, and closer in performance to “Ryzen 4000 mobile from 2019/2020”. And it is the lowest end Ryzen 3.One major difference from Ryzen 4000 mobile, is that the 7320U does feature newer LPDDR5 RAM.The overall performance out of this laptop is rather disappointing. It does feature 4 cores, 8 threads, and faster LPDDR5 Ram, but it doesn’t feel snappy. That’s not to say it is sluggish, but it does feel a little under-powered running Windows11.The gaming benchmark results were also underwhelming. You might think that having Radeon graphics would allow this laptop to handle light gaming, but the GPU performed worse than the “average” office laptop. I tried this using the latest available AMD Ryzen drivers, so this really seems to be a hardware limitation, rather than software.The 128GB SSD included on this laptop felt like it was very budget with regards to speed. I took some benchmarks of it, but the results weren’t pretty.Sequential Read: 904MB/s, Write: 836MB/sRandom Read: 269MB/s, Write: 193MB/sMaybe if the SSD was replaced with something that had significantly better random read/write, the overall performance of the laptop can be improved?Power, BatteryThe laptop comes with a 45W power brick, and the laptop has a 41.76Whr battery.This laptop can also run off of a USB-C PD charger that can output at least 30W. The laptop does not seem to use more than 65W power over PD.The 41.76Whr battery seems to be a good match for the CPU choice, as the battery can keep the laptop running for quite a long time.As a test, I ran a 1080p video stream on edge using WiFi, with maximum screen brightness, and 100% battery charge. The laptop ran for 6hrs, before shutting down from loss of power. I think that is a pretty good result.Thermals, and NoiseI am not sure if the heatsink is undersized, or if the fan has a cheap bearing in it, but this laptop gets quite loud under heavy load. The fan produces a high pitched whining sound at max load, and it’s quite annoying.Thankfully, this only happens while gaming, and this laptop cannot even handle light games, so the annoying fan noise only happens very rarely.ScreenThe screen felt better than what I had normally come to expect on these lower end laptops.For screen brightness, my best guess is 250nits at maximum brightness. I have a 220nit and 300nit screen, and the screen on this Acer felt like it was in between. 250nits is typical for office laptops, and meant to be used indoors.I don’t have a way to measure Color Gamut, or Contrast Ratio, but they felt good enough that I was unable to notice any glaring problems with them.The panel did not exhibit any issues with “IPS glow”, or any other defects.For Blur (Ghosting), it felt minimal enough that I did not notice anything while watching videos.Speakers, Camera, and MicThese all felt like they were “good enough”. I would say that these were all at the bare minimum of expected performance, and if you wanted better quality, well that’s what the USB ports and 3.5mm audio jack are for.The Camera does not have an internal privacy shutter, but acer provides a clip on cover.Keyboard and TrackpadThe keyboard felt okay. It’s an average keyboard laptop. It had decent tactile feedback, and I had no issues with the keyboard not registering key strokes, even when the key was pressed on its corner.The keyboard has no backlight whatsoever, but it does feature a handy numpad.The trackpad is nice and large, and it’s what I would expect from a 2023 laptop. It does seem to be made out of glass, as it is a very smooth, especially once it is lubed up with finger grease. The click on the trackpad gives a nice audible “click” and has a nice tactile feedback.Upgradeability and RepairabilityThe upgradeability of this laptop is very limited. All 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM is soldered on, and there is no expansion slot. Only the SSD can be upgraded.The bottom cover comes off quite easily. It’s only held on with a bunch of screws, all of them the same length, and some plastic tabs around the edges that come loose easily.The insides are mostly easy to access. The CPU cooler, Battery, and SSD slot are all very easy to access.The CPU cooler being very easy to clean is an excellent feature, especially if you live in a dusty house hold.Software (Bloatware)This laptop comes loaded with “Win 11 Home in S-mode”, which felt like both a blessing and a curse.What is “S-mode”, and why would I say that?Succinctly, “S” is for “Security”, and this feature locks the user out of installing all apps that are not in the “Microsoft Store”. This is a useful feature for light users who don’t need anything more than email, web browser, and MS office, so that they don’t accidentally install malware. However, for power users, like myself, who want to run some 3rd party benchmarking apps, Win11 will make you go through some extra hoops to unlock this.For instance, this laptop doesn’t even come loaded with Acer care center, and whichever free trial antivirus software that is normally included. Except, I wanted to use some of the features in acer care center.S-mode can be unlocked, but it’s irreversible for some reason, so only do this if you need to.Concluding remarksI have mixed feelings with this laptop. On the one hand, it features a very useful USB-C DP w/ Alt-mode DP port, excellent battery life, and a decent screen that movies and streams can be enjoyed on. On the other hand, this laptop feels slightly under-powered with what is installed on it, and it lacks any upgradeability path, aside from having a better SSD.I think I would give this laptop an overall rating of 3.5/5. It’s a very limited laptop, but not everyone will need more performance than this.

This is a great budget laptop that punches above it’s price point thanks to a very good processor and solid specs. It’s perfect for everyday use (videos, email, Internet, even light gaming) – which makes it a good option for most people who do not need something geared towards heavy gaming resource intensive activities.If you just want something that is quick and get’s the job done for everyday use… then this laptop is a good option for you.The main specs include:- AMD Ryzen 3 7320U Quad-Core Processor (Up to 4.1GHz) *Check out the benchmarks results for this processor….- 15.6″ Full HD Acer ComfyView Widescreen LED-backlit IPS Display *The screen is good, with a clear and crisp display- 8GB LPDDR5 Onboard Memory and 128GB NVMe SSD *Ram is not upgradable, but you can upgrade the SSD drive- 1 – USB Type-C Port USB 3.2 Gen 2 (up to 10 Gbps) DisplayPort over USB Type-C & USB Charging, 2 – USB 3.2 Gen 1 Ports and 1 – HDMI 2.1 Port with HDCP support *Good port selection and ability to plug in an extra monitorI have used this as my daily driver for two weeks now and I have not found any lag or delays on regular tasks, it just runs smooth and fast. Again – the processor + good integrated graphics make this little laptop surprisingly good considering the price point.I wish it had a better webcam and upgradable RAM – but the overall package is very good and I’m happy to recommend this to others. Even better if you can grab it on sale!