Are you a half-introvert, half-extrovert, and want a laptop with a minimalist appearance but still has great power? The Acer Aspire 3 A315 2023 series will be the answer. It has made a striking visual impression since its launch nearly a year ago. Please join us for the Acer Aspire 3 A315-44 review article below.
Acer appears to have abandoned the “thin and light” concept of previous generations of the Aspire 3, which ran on 11th-generation Intel CPUs. In the 2023 version, powered by the new AMD Ryzen 7 CPU, the laptop’s thickness has been significantly increased. However, this increased thickness does not make it uglier or heavier; it is quite the opposite.
Acer Aspire 3 A315-44 Review
Design
The frame is square, the corners are less softly curved, and the body thickness looks thicker. Acer Aspire 3 A315 is still made of plastic, not aluminum, but still has a sturdy, massive, and sleeker look than previous Aspire 3 generations.
Regarding overall dimensions, our Acer Aspire 3 A315-44 review model features a 15.6-inch display, a body thickness of 17.8mm, and a weight of 1.4kg. The 2023 version of the Acer Aspire 3 is 2mm thinner than the 2022 version, which had a thickness of 20mm and a weight of 1.7kg. However, due to the significantly reduced thickness of the bottom part, the body, though thinner, actually feels thicker when viewed.
The first thing that catches our eye is the A-side of the laptop, with the word “Acer” in small letters on the top edge, instead of being large and placed in the middle like before. On the bottom edge of the A-side, there will be the word “Aspire” with the characters placed far apart. It creates a new visual highlight on the matte platinum silver background.
Looking at the A-side, you’ll find a radiator grille with large air vents separated by numerous thick air flaps. This design gives the impression of using a gaming laptop that is “disguised” as an office laptop.
The two hinges are large, and upon opening the lid, you can immediately notice their sturdiness—there is no wobbling. However, the hinges only open the lid to 170 degrees and do not allow it to lie completely flat.
Opening the lid, the Acer Aspire 3 15.6″ notebook features a conventional screen design with moderately thin black plastic borders. The top and bottom borders are still quite thick compared to the two side edges. The Acer logo, chrome-plated and centered on the bottom border, is complemented by a matte anti-glare layer on the screen.
The bottom D-side of the device is also black plastic, matching the screen frame. Different from the silver body. The surface has short diagonal stripes, giving a modern mechanical feel. The Acer Aspire 3’s heatsink features three large strips, revealing the fan cluster and copper pipes inside.
Finally, at the bottom of the two sides of the bottom, there are two small speaker grilles. The sound quality when listening to music and watching movies of this speaker set is quite normal. Enough to hear, clear and warm sound but lacking the refinement for an exceptional audio-visual experience.
Keyboard and trackpad
On the C-side of the laptop, we will have a slightly concave keyboard and a button layout in Lenovo’s language. Keys are arranged close together, without excess space, and the trackpad is small. However, pay attention to the palm rest. There are two small silicon strips on both sides, which prevent the screen and keyboard cluster from being pressed.
First, the buttons are moderately large, the surface is rough, and they are very grippy when pressed. However, the typing experience is not very pleasant: the key travel is short and feels quite shaky. This results in a shallow typing sensation and a rattling sound.
The trackpad is ample for my small hands but may feel narrow for those with larger hands. The trackpad area is small and can be challenging for those with larger hands. As for me, it can be more comfortable because my fingers are not that big.
The sensitivity, feel, and speed of the trackpad are average, lacking smoothness. The entire trackpad feels like a large, separate key. When I touch it, it feels slightly depressed rather than seamless and sturdy, as seen in other laptop models. Therefore, when using it, the feeling is not seamless and natural.
Connectivity
Acer Aspire 3 A315-44 Ryzen 7 features a wide range of connection ports, in my opinion. On the right side of the laptop, we will have a USB Type-C port, HDMI and USB-A. However, it is unfortunate that the Type-C port does not support charging and outputting images to an external screen.
There will be only 2 USB-A ports and a 3.5mm audio port on the right side. The number and type of ports are modest and simple but sufficient to meet all the needs of connecting mice, keyboards, and receivers. This ensures compatibility with different types of devices.
In addition, there are 2 power and battery status indicator lights located next to the AUX audio port. I find this a rather annoying drawback because these two indicator lights should be located on the C-side for easier monitoring. Placing them on the edge of the device is less convenient. When turning on the device or charging the battery, it is quite annoying to have to turn your head to the side. This is necessary to check if the device is on or charging.
Display
The worthy upgrade point on this new Acer Aspire 3 A315 AMD Ryzen 7 version has been to switch to an IPS panel that looks better and has more vibrant colors than the TN panel on other versions. In addition, the screen border looks “thin” and feels like it increases the display area.
Acer Aspire 3 A315-44 has Full HD+ resolution (1920 x 1080), 16:9 ratio, 45% NTSC, 60Hz, approximately 250 nits brightness, and Acer Comfy View technology. However, our audio-visual experience with this device is “not Comfy” as expected.
The anti-glare coating is meant to prevent glare and eye strain during long periods of use. However, it seems counterproductive as it makes the content and images appear dimmer. Combined with low brightness, watching movies or music videos with night scenes or low light will be difficult. This can cause eye strain.
The 45% NTSC color gamut only provides a basic level of color representation. It is sufficient for general use but does not offer vibrant or highly accurate colors. Not as bright and beautiful as we expected.
So, with a screen like this, what can we watch? Reading newspapers, watching cartoons, working with Excel, and writing documents in an office environment with moderate light are what we can do with this Acer Aspire 3 A315-44 review model. We rarely watch movies or TV series on this laptop because those contents have fewer colors than cartoons.
With animated movies, the characters, objects, and colors are basic and easy to watch on any screen. Therefore, animations are the easiest to watch on it. We also tested 4K HDR videos, and the fruit images were poorly rendered. The colors appeared dull, and the details were merely acceptable.
Regarding the quality of the webcam’s recording and display, we rate it as acceptable. Faces and backgrounds are processed quite well, retaining necessary details. The skin and hair are clear and well-defined, and the colors are rendered accurately.
Acer Aspire 3 A315-44 specifications
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 5700U 8-Core (Base Frequency 2.1 GHz, Up to 4.3 GHz with AMD Turbo Core Technology, 8 MB AMD L3 cache, 8 cores, 16 threads)
- Graphics: AMD Radeon Graphics Integrated
- Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 Home (64-bit)
- Memory: 16GB DDR4-3200MHz RAM
- Hard drive: 512GB PCIe NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive
- Display: 15.6″ FHD (1920 x 1080) LED-backlit Anti-glare 250 nits 45% NTSC, ComfyView
- Keyboard: Fullsize Keyboard with Numpad
- Wireless: Wi-Fi 6 (aka 802.11ax) + Bluetooth 5.1
- Webcam: 720p HD Camera
- Ports: 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Ports; 1 x USB 3.2(Type-C) Ports; 1x HDMI; 1 x RJ-45; 1 x Headphone and microphone combo jack
- Power Supply: 3-Cell 50Wh Li-Ion Battery; 3-pin 65 W AC adapter
- Dimensions: 14.29 x 9.5 x 0.78 inches
- Weight: 3.92 lbs
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Acer Aspire 3 A315-44 review test
In return for the unoptimized visual and typing experience, the configuration is superior and powerful in its price range with AMD Ryzen 7 5700U at 8 cores, 16 threads, the maximum clock speed of 4.3Ghz, and integrated GPU AMD Radeon Graphics, along with up to 16GB RAM. This configuration is nearly the best in its price range, effectively handling work, study, and gaming tasks.
Recently, I saw that Ultrabook lines often use RAM soldered to the motherboard. Acer Aspire 3 A315 is the same, but with a capacity of up to 16GB, so we don’t have to worry too much about upgrading. Now we need to add more SSD hard drive capacity to use it all, playing games and storing files without worrying about whether it’s enough.
Given that the Ryzen 7 5700U processor launched in 2021 now powers a laptop released in 2023, how does its performance hold up?
Testing with Cinebench R23 to measure the CPU’s power, I found that the scores accurately reflect the performance of this laptop. In the single-core range of under 1500 and multi-core over 8000, it will prove that the Aspire 3 2023 is a fast and powerful Ultrabook model, quite cool to serve very well for work from light to advanced.
I compared the Cinebench R23 performance score with two models with the same configuration, the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 2023 and the Dell Inspiron 15. You can see that the Acer Aspire 3 A315 with AMD Ryzen 7 scores 2-5% lower in multi-core performance compared to the other two models. However, it is only 5%, and you will not be able to notice the difference in actual use.
Next is the CPU performance test and the integrated GPU using the Geekbench 6 tool. The single-core and multi-core CPU scores, along with the GPU performance score, are quite impressive.
The CPU has a multi-core and single-core score of over 1500 points and 7000 points, indicating that this laptop has the right power to handle simple tasks lightly such as watching movies, surfing the web, office tasks, and playing light games. The smooth performance meets graphics needs, and the laptop handles heavy gaming very well.
Compare Geekbench 6 single and multi-core scores with 2 laptops similar to Cinebench R23. The results show that Lenovo seems to have not optimized the performance power of the processor and GPU well enough to keep up with Dell and Acer. The Dell Inspiron 15 is also not a very new laptop line, so it is natural that it is weak and cannot catch up with the newer Acer Aspire 3 2023.
The Acer Aspire 3 A315-44 has a benchmark score of only 1391 points for the 3DMark Time Spy test. In terms of specifications, it is comparable to and slightly better than, some laptops in the same price range under $500. However, this laptop can handle PUBG thanks to its 16GB RAM and relatively powerful AMD Radeon Graphics GPU.
The comparison table above confirms my statement. Despite having the same 16GB capacity and CPU, the 3DMark scores of the Lenovo and Dell models are significantly lower than those of the Aspire 3 in terms of gaming performance. Therefore, it is clear that Acer has done an excellent job optimizing the performance of the Aspire 3 2023.
Regarding the hard drive read and write speed, there is a small minus point for import and export capabilities, data copying and transferring, and the ability to launch applications and games at an acceptable level. The read and write speeds may lag compared to similar laptops with NVMe PCIe Gen 4 SSDs.
After discussing performance, I proceeded to test the game for you. PUBG poses a significant challenge for most ultrabooks in this segment, as many budget models feature only 8GB of RAM. However, the Acer Aspire 3 2023, upgraded to 16GB of RAM, has demonstrated its superiority. The laptop handles PUBG smoothly at the lowest settings, with well-reproduced graphics, stable character movements, and shooting sequences, maintaining an FPS consistently above 30.
However, when lying still, standing still, and aiming, the FPS can increase slightly to about 42. However, in terms of overall experience, the Acer Aspire 3 A315-44 can run PUBG and utilize 12-13GB of RAM, providing thrilling moments that make it worthwhile.
Battery life
The Acer Aspire 3 A315-44 boasts a stable configuration, and its battery life is also impressive. To test the battery, I charged it to 100%, unplugged the charger, and used it for office tasks, web browsing, document writing, and movie watching for approximately 3 hours. As shown below, the battery consumption was only 15%.
With enough battery life to watch movies and perform office tasks continuously for more than 10 hours, students will no longer have to worry about plugging in the charger or finding a power outlet. A long day of studying and working will become more comfortable and convenient than ever.
Final line
For us, Acer Aspire 3 A315-44 Ryzen 7 is a good choice if you only use it for watching movies, surfing the web, reading news, social networks, YouTube, playing light games, and PUBG because the performance of the R7 7500U chip and 16GB is also good. However, if you need a computer for basic graphics, video editing, digital drawing, or 3D tasks, you should consider your options carefully.
The Acer Aspire 3 A315 price starts from $459.99 and is available at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
