Acer Aspire E 15
The Good
The Acer Aspire E 15 (E5-576G-5762) is a wonderful mix of fresh components, simple design and handy features that have disappeared from most other laptops. Battery life and performance are great for its class.
The Bad
Its size and weight are a bit much if you need a laptop you can regularly use on the go. The display is especially dim.
The Bottom Line
If you’ve bemoaned the loss of DVD burners, HDMI outputs and Ethernet jacks or you miss being able to easily add RAM and a hard drive on your own, the Acer Aspire E 15 is what you want. Its solid performance and battery life make it an even sweeter deal.
Acer’s Aspire E 15, specifically model E5-576G-5762, is an uncommonly good deal. It’s even good by Acer’s already high standards: The manufacturer has built some of our favorite budget-friendly PCs in the past, including the Aspire VX 15 gaming laptop.
The E 15 starts at an attractive price for components that are good enough for absolute basics such as email, web apps and streaming video and music, though you may not get away with using them all at the same time. Step up to the a configuration and you’ll get a new eighth-gen Intel Core i5 processor and discrete Nividia GeForce MX150 graphics, something rarely found at budget price.
| Brand name | Acer |
| Item Weight | 2.39 Kg |
| Product Dimensions | 38.2 x 25.9 x 3 cm |
| Batteries: | 1 Lithium ion batteries required. (included) |
| Item model number | E5-576G-5762 |
| Screen Size | 15.6 inches |
| Processor Brand | Intel |
| Processor Type | None |
| Processor Count | 4 |
| RAM Size | 8 GB |
| Computer Memory Type | DDR SDRAM |
| Hard Disk Technology | ssd |
| Hard Drive Interface | ATA |
| Graphics Card Interface | Integrated |
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 1 |
| Hardware Platform | PC |
| Operating System | None |
| Lithium Battery Energy Content | 28 watt_hours |
| Lithium Battery Packaging | Batteries contained in equipment |
| Number Of Lithium Ion Cells | 6 |
Regardless of the main components, though, you get the same base features across the models. That includes a good full-HD display, a bevy of ports — new and old — and even a DVD burner for those still working in the world of physical media. What’s more, you can open it up and add more memory and storage. It’s hard to say how the laptop will hold up over time, but out of the box, it’s an easy recommendation for a home office or a student who can live with its weight and size.
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ASUS C101PA-FS002 10.1-inch Touchscreen Chromebook Flip
The Good
A very long list of features for the price, including a QHD touch display, hybrid hinge and included stylus. Adding support for the Google Play app store means this Chromebook can access a wide range of software.
The Bad
The keyboard and touchpad both remind you this is a budget laptop, and the accelerometer is way too touchy. Running too many apps and browser windows at once eats up the RAM quickly, leading to slowdown.
The Bottom Line
The ASUS C101PA-FS002 will make a believer out of many Chromebook skeptics by offering great value, features and performance for a budget-priced laptop.
If you’re looking for a solid all-around laptop for a budget, the ASUS C101PA-FS002 should at or near the very top of your candidate list. Sure, there are plenty of Windows laptops and tablets in that price range (or lower), but none that I can think of offer this combination of a decent design, mostly metal construction, lag-free performance, long battery life, better-than-HD touchscreen, built-in stylus and a hybrid hinge that transforms the system into a tablet.
Despite the hybrid design, this is still a laptop first and a tablet second. For the opposite approach, an iPad plus a snap-on keyboard would cost about as much.
I know what you’re thinking: “But wait: ASUS C101PA-FS002 use Google’s weird browser-only operating system. They won’t run any of my must-have software, and they’re useless when you’re off Wi-Fi.” And you’d be right about some or all of that — if it wasn’t 2017.
| Brand name | ASUS |
| Item Weight | 898 g |
| Product Dimensions | 18.2 x 26.3 x 1.5 cm |
| Batteries: | 1 Lithium ion batteries required. (included) |
| Item model number | C101PA-FS002 |
| Series | C101PA-FS002 |
| Color | Silver |
| Form Factor | Notebook |
| Screen Size | 10.1 inches |
| Screen Resolution | 1280 x 800 pixels |
| Maximum Display Resolution | 1280 x 800 pixels |
| Processor Brand | OP1 |
| Processor Speed | 2000 MHz |
| Processor Count | 2 |
| RAM Size | 4 GB |
| Hard Drive Size | 16 GB |
| Hard Disk Technology | eMMC |
| Graphics Chipset Brand | ARM |
| Graphics Card Description | MALI-T864 |
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 1 |
| Optical Drive Type | n/a |
| Operating System | Chrome OS |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 9 hours |
| Lithium Battery Energy Content | 38 watt_hours |
| Lithium Battery Packaging | Batteries contained in equipment |
| Number Of Lithium Ion Cells | 2 |
Yes, Chrome OS — while significantly evolved over the past few years — is still essentially the Chrome web browser with a laptop wrapped around it. But, Samsung and Google are using this new model, and its sister system, the Chromebook Plus, to showcase an important new Chrome OS feature coming to all new 2017 Chromebooks, as well as a handful of older models. These new systems are compatible with the Google Play Android app store, allowing you to download, install and run millions of Android apps, much as they would on any Android phone or tablet (with a few exceptions).
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Acer Aspire S3 13.3 inch Ultrabook (Intel Core i5-2467M
The Good
Acer’s Aspire S3 has a touchscreen that resists glare, a thin, light body that resists fingerprints and more solid-state storage than the competition — plus a fast Intel Core processor, impressive audio and exceptional battery life.
The Bad
This 13-inch Acer is saddled with a stiff, shallow keyboard, and the touchpad’s poor palm rejection means the cursor jumps around in documents. Uneven keyboard backlighting and a thick screen bezel detract from the appeal.
The Bottom Line
This Acer Aspire S3 isn’t the most inspiring thin notebook, but it’s a remarkably practical and cost-effective choice.
Many laptops this thin don’t have great performance. Many laptops this powerful don’t have great battery life. Many laptops this price skimp on the storage and memory you need. And the ones that don’t — our favorite laptops — typically are made of smooth metal and glass that attracts loads of glare and gobs of oily fingerprints.
The 13-inch Acer Aspire S3 — the white one — doesn’t suffer from any of those weaknesses. At 3.0 pounds and 0.57 inche thick, with a dual-core 2.3GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of solid-state storage and a crisp 1,920×1,080-pixel resolution IPS touchscreen, it’s as thin, fast and spacious as the competition.
In fact, the Aspire S3’s battery life is better than most. We got 9 hours, 45 minutes in our standard streaming video drain test, and I found I could typically work 6 to 7 full hours before needing to recharge. That’s just a stone’s throw away from the battery life we get with a MacBook Air, only this Acer has a far better screen and speakers.
| Brand name | Aspire |
| Item Weight | 1.35 Kg |
| Product Dimensions | 32.3 x 21.9 x 1.8 cm |
| Item model number | NX.M1FEK.007 |
| Series | Aspire S3-391-33214G52A |
| Form Factor | UltraThin |
| Screen Size | 13.3 inches |
| Processor Brand | Intel |
| Processor Type | Core i3 |
| Processor Speed | 1.8 GHz |
| Processor Count | 2 |
| RAM Size | 4 GB |
| Computer Memory Type | DDR3 SDRAM |
| Hard Drive Size | 500 GB |
| Hard Disk Technology | HDD |
| Graphics Card Description | Integrated |
| Graphics RAM Type | DDR3 SDRAM |
| Wireless Type | 802.11.a, 802.11.b, 802.11.g, 802.11.n |
| Operating System | Windows 8 |
| Software Included | Microsoft Office 2010 Starter |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 6 hours |
But the white Acer Aspire S3 also does something I’ve never seen before. It’s a thin metal touchscreen laptop that doesn’t trap light and grease. The pure white matte aluminum surfaces simply don’t pick up fingerprints. (Aside from a fine coating of dust, our S13 looks just as good today as when we took it out of the box weeks ago.) And where most every single laptop manufacturer covers their touchscreens in sheets of mirrorlike glass, the S3 has an antiglare coating.
Lenovo ThinkPad T430
The Good
The Lenovo ThinkPad has a comfortable and responsive keyboard, battery life that’ll last a work day and an adjustable screen with sturdy 180-degree hinges.
The Bad
Audio is muffled thanks to poor speaker placement, the display doesn’t pop, and the keyboard isn’t backlit.
The Bottom Line
This Lenovo ThinkPad takes a lot of the design and quality we like the ThinkPad brand for, and transforms it into a more casual Thinkpad, ideal for schoolwork and writing.
Thinkpads are often unremarkable laptops, but they have to be if they’re going to offer the basic utility of a notebook at temptingly low prices.
One of the best you can buy for work or school is the Lenovo ThinkPad .
| Brand name | Lenovo |
| Item Weight | 3.2 Kg |
| Product Dimensions | 23.1 x 34 x 3 cm |
| Item model number | ThinkPad T430 |
| Color | Black |
| Screen Size | 14.10 inches |
| Screen Resolution | 1600×900 |
| Maximum Display Resolution | 1600×900 |
| Processor Brand | Intel |
| Processor Type | Core i5 |
| Processor Speed | 2.60 GHz |
| RAM Size | 8 GB |
| Computer Memory Type | DDR3 SDRAM |
| Hard Drive Size | 240 GB |
| Hard Disk Technology | SSD |
| Hard Drive Interface | Solid State |
| Additional Drives | DVD+RW |
| Graphics Coprocessor | Intel HD Graphics 4000 |
| Graphics Card Description | Intel HD Graphics 4000 |
| Wireless Type | 802.11bgn |
| Number of Ethernet Ports | 1 |
| Number of Microphone Ports | 1 |
| Hardware Platform | PC |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Professional |
The ThinkPad has an impressively spacious keyboard that feels incredibly comfortable when typing, especially for a budget laptop. Individual keys are quick to respond, springy and slightly concave to comfortably fit your fingertips. The trackpad, located below it, is also very responsive and accurate. It feels very roomy for a 13-inch laptop; after using it awhile I much preferred it over my MacBook Air for any prolonged writing sessions. My only pet peeve is that the keyboard is not backlit, and it’s missing the classic ThinkPad trackpoint from the Windows 10 model.
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Acer Swift 1 SF113-31 LCD Notebook
The Good
The Acer Swift 1 is a thin, lightweight budget-friendly laptop that has a few higher-end features that make it a more attractive deal than competing systems at its price. Battery life is good at more than 9 hours.
The Bad
Its low-end components mean it can’t do much beyond basics and its limited storage will likely require some external option.
The Bottom Line
The Swift 1 is cheap, looks nice and has a good battery — just don’t give it anything more difficult to do than web browsing.
Acer’s Swift 1 shows not all low-cost laptops need to be thick, clunky or bad on battery life.
The 13.3-inch laptop is thin at 0.7 inches (14.95 mm), and weighs a trim 2.9 pounds (1.3 kg) with a body that’s finished in metal for a more premium appearance. It has a few other nice touches like a full-HD IPS display, a fingerprint reader and a fair amount of ports and more than 9 hours of battery life.
Don’t let the system’s looks fool you, however: There isn’t much going on inside this thing. Despite the “quad-core” processor it just doesn’t have a lot of power for anything more than basics. But if that’s all you need, the total package is more than fair for the price.
| Brand name | Acer |
| Item Weight | 1.3 Kg |
| Product Dimensions | 22.5 x 32 x 1.5 cm |
| Batteries: | 1 Lithium ion batteries required. (included) |
| Item model number | NX.GNNEK.001 |
| Series | Swift 1 SF113-31-P4YX |
| Color | Gold |
| Form Factor | Notebook |
| Screen Size | 13.3 centimetres |
| Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
| Maximum Display Resolution | 1080p Full HD |
| Processor Brand | Intel |
| Processor Type | Pentium |
| Processor Speed | 4 GHz |
| Processor Count | 4 |
| RAM Size | 4 GB |
| Computer Memory Type | DDR3 SDRAM |
| Hard Drive Size | 128 GB |
| Hard Disk Technology | SDD |
| Graphics Card Description | HD Graphics 505 |
| Connectivity Type | 801_11_AC |
| Wireless Type | 801.11 AC |
| Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 2 |
| Number of HDMI Ports | 1 |
| Optical Drive Type | N/A |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Home |
| Software Included | Microsoft |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 10 hours |
| Lithium Battery Energy Content | 169.65 watt_hours |
| Lithium Battery Packaging | Batteries contained in equipment |
Acer makes a Swift 3, which also looks more expensive than it is, but is configured with more capable components. Oddly, though, a couple of the design choices Acer made with the Swift 3, namely its chamfered edges and anti-glare display, are a turn-off compared with the Swift 1’s nicer rounded edges and matte display.
The 1,920×1,080-resolution display is also an IPS panel with better off-angle viewing than you’d get with a cheaper TN panel you typically find on budget systems. The matte finish cuts reflections, too, which is good because the display just doesn’t get bright enough to fight bright lighting.
If you’re considering a laptop to use part-time with external peripherals, the Swift 1 should handle most of your needs. There’s an HDMI output for a display, a combo jack for speakers or headphones, one USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports, and one USB-C 3.1 (gen 1) port. There’s also an SD card slot, but no Ethernet jack so you’ll need an adapter if you don’t want to rely on the 802.11ac Wi-Fi.
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Dell Inspiron 7000 15.5-Inch Full HD IPS Gaming Laptop
The Good
A relatively inexpensive way to get a very decent graphics card for PC gaming. The reworked design is fun and has a premium look and feel.
The Bad
Investing in the GPU requires some cut corners, including a washed-out display and annoying touch pad.
The Bottom Line
This sharp-looking gaming laptop packs in graphics power, but spending a bit more might be a wiser long-term investment.
Nobody ever said PC gaming was an inexpensive hobby. And yet, there’s never been a better time to be a laptop gamer. After years of underpowered, overpriced gaming laptops, we now have a huge selection of well-made, high-performance systems, from very portable 13-inch ones to massive 17-inch and even 18-inch monsters.
| Brand name | Dell |
| Item Weight | 2.85 Kg |
| Product Dimensions | 27.5 x 2.5 x 38.9 cm |
| Batteries: | 1 Lithium ion batteries required. (included) |
| Item model number | YRV46 |
| Color | Black |
| Form Factor | NA |
| Screen Size | 15.6 centimetres |
| Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
| Maximum Display Resolution | 1080p Full HD |
| Processor Brand | Intel |
| Processor Type | None |
| Processor Speed | 3.8 GHz |
| Processor Count | 4 |
| RAM Size | 16 GB |
| Computer Memory Type | DDR4 SDRAM |
| Hard Drive Size | 1024 GB |
| Hard Disk Technology | Hybrid (HDD/SDD) |
| Graphics Card Description | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti with 4GB GDDR5 graphics memory |
| Graphics RAM Type | GDDR5 |
| Graphics Card Ram Size | 4000 |
| Connectivity Type | 801_11_AC |
| Wireless Type | 801.11 AC |
| Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 3 |
| Number of HDMI Ports | 1 |
| Optical Drive Type | No Optical Drive |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Home |
| Lithium Battery Energy Content | 56 watt_hours |
| Lithium Battery Packaging | Batteries contained in equipment |
And price is what makes this Dell Inspiron 15 7000 so interesting. Instead of making the workmanlike plastic laptop you’d expect from a 15-inch Inspiron, Dell has decided to see just how much gaming performance it can squeeze into a budget laptop. In some ways, it’s a very successful experiment, built around an Intel Core i5 CPU and Nvidia’s new GeForce 1050 graphics card.
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