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The new Acer Aspire 3 (A315-24P-R75B) is a budget laptop with a 15.6 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel IPS LCD display, 8GB of RAM, at least 128GB of solid state storage, and a starting price under $400.
It’s also one of the first laptops to hit the market featuring an AMD Mendocino processor. That’s a new line of chips that combine older Zen 2 CPU cores with newer RDNA 2 integrated graphics.
Specifically, Acer’s laptop is available with AMD Ryzen 3 7320U or Ryzen 5 7520U processor options. They’re both 15-watt, 4-core, 8-thread chips with Zen 2 CPU cores and AMD Radeon 610M graphics.
The difference is that the Ryzen 3 7320U processor has 2.4 GHz base and 4.1 GHz boost speeds, while the Ryzen 5 7520U chip’s frequencies range from 2.8 GHz to 4.3 GHz.
Both chips also features AMD Radeon 610M graphics with two GPU cores clocked at 1.9 GHz. While the limited number of GPU cores will probably make this a poor fit for gaming or other tasks that require a high-end GPU, the chip does have enough horsepower to drive up to four displays.
Overall AMD is positioning Mendocino processors as chips that can bring longer-battery life and decent (if not stellar) performance to laptops with price tags starting at around $400… like the new Acer Aspire 3.
In case there was any doubt that Acer is positioning the laptop as a budget device, it ships with Windows 11 Home in S Mode (which offers a stripped-down version of Windows that’s optimized for entry-level hardware). But users can switch to a standard Windows 11 Home installation for free.
The laptop’s other features include support for WiFi 6, stereo speakers, LPDDR5 memory (which is not user upgradeable) and PCIe storage (that is upgradeable). Ports include:
- 1 x HDMI
- 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C (10 Gbps w/support for video-out and 45W charging)
- 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports
- 1 x 3.5mm audio jack
The laptop measures 14.3″ x 9.4″ x 0.74″ and weighs just under 4 pounds.
Would be perfect for ChromeOS Flex enthusiasts.
show me a 15W Mendecino product in a sub 13″ chassis…
Perhaps the creators of this “budget” device forgot about used hardware. While everyone may not wish to acquire a similarly priced, much higher spec machine, I’d expect logical people will.
More than used hardware I would look at previous generation one, you can get hexacore 5500U laptops for little more than 300€. The problem is that if you consider the general public most people will think Ryzen 7xxx > Ryzen 5xxx and they will accept the higher price and reduced core count.
Acer hardly has to worry that the few consumers capable of making an informed decision will — that leaves the vast majority potential buyers! Consider the way electronics are now being marketed, sans specifications; people capable of understanding them plainly are a minority.
Too bad the memory can’t upgraded, that’s deal breaker for me. As much as I like my Acer Aspire touchscreen with a Pentium 3556U, purchased in 2015, this budget laptop would be a nice replacement for a few of my older machines. Except for being limited to 8GB of RAM that can’t be replaced if something goes wrong with it.
What can go wrong with soldered-in RAM? Barring poking hard at it with a sharp instrument or a powerful electromagnetic pulse, it’s extremely unlikely to fail.