If you're on a tight budget, the Acer Aspire 3 with its lower price may appeal to you, though it offers moderate storage, average processing power, and graphics suitable for basic tasks. It's lighter and has a longer battery life, making it more portable and well-suited for everyday computing tasks. On the other hand, the Lenovo Legion 5 is priced higher but provides greater storage, more memory, a powerful processor, and a superior graphics card that could handle intensive gaming, 3D rendering, and engineering software. It also has a larger screen with a higher refresh rate for smoother visuals, though this comes at the cost of reduced battery life and increased weight, which may affect portability. Give Feedback
this description is based on the product variant with some specs and product variant with some specs. At the time of writing, the variant with some specs cost some dollars and the variant with some specs cost some dollars.
Advantages of the Acer Aspire 3 15
Good portability
Good battery life
Advantages of the Lenovo Legion 5 17"
Good for general use
Good for engineering and design
Good for gaming and AI
Good overall display quality
Good overall build quality
Good speakers
Very good keyboard
Key differences
General Use
6.6/10
7.2/10
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
244.0 nits
DISPLAY BRIGHTNESS
305.0 nits
9.5 Hours
BATTERY LIFE
4.5 Hours
6.2/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
8.5/10
7.6/10
PORTABILITY SCORE
5.8/10
The Lenovo Legion 5 17" is good for general use, while the Acer Aspire 3 15 is only fair.
The Acer Aspire 3 15, while ample for basic tasks, has less RAM and a weaker CPU compared to the Lenovo Legion 5 17", which not only has a stronger CPU and double the RAM for smoother performance but also offers superior screen quality, though its larger size and weight make it less portable and it has shorter battery life.
Gaming and AI
5.8/10
7.4/10
3.5/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
7.5/10
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
60Hz
REFRESH RATE
144Hz
No
SUPPORTS DLSS
Yes
No
MUX SWITCH / ADVANCED OPTIMUS
Yes
10.0/10
FAN NOISE SCORE
6.5/10
The Lenovo Legion 5 17" is good for gaming and AI, while the Acer Aspire 3 15 is poor.
The Lenovo Legion 5 17" offers a better gaming and 3D experience by featuring an Nvidia RTX 3060 with a higher screen refresh rate, while the Acer Aspire 3 15, equipped with an AMD Radeon 610M and a lower screen refresh rate, provides a more modest gaming capability.
Engineering and Design
5.9/10
7.6/10
4.1/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
7.4/10
3.5/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
7.5/10
8.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
The Lenovo Legion 5 17" is good for engineering and design, while the Acer Aspire 3 15 is poor.
The Acer Aspire 3 15, with less RAM, a weaker CPU and GPU, and a lower quality screen, is fair for engineering and design tasks, while the Lenovo Legion 5 17" is equipped with twice the RAM, a superior CPU and a more powerful GPU suitable for more demanding tasks, and a high-refresh-rate screen, making it good for such uses.
Screen Quality
6.2/10
7.3/10
15.6in
SIZE
17.3in
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
60Hz
REFRESH RATE
144Hz
244.0 nits
BRIGHTNESS
305.0 nits
The Lenovo Legion 5 17" has a better screen than the Acer Aspire 3 15 for general use, gaming and AI, and engineering and design.
The Acer Aspire 3 15 has a screen that provides adequate resolution and brightness for everyday tasks and basic engineering software, but its limited color gamut and lower refresh rate make it less suitable for color-critical design work and high-refresh gaming. In contrast, the Lenovo Legion 5 17" offers a better visual experience with higher resolution and wider color coverage, catering well to engineering and design professionals needing accuracy, yet it still falls short for gaming with a refresh rate that may not match the demands of fast-paced 3D games. General users may find either screen acceptable, but for specialized tasks like precise color work or competitive gaming, the limitations in color gamut and refresh rate could hinder performance.
Battery
9.5 Hours
4.5 Hours
The Acer Aspire 3 15 has 9.5 hours of battery life. The Lenovo Legion 5 17" has 4.5 hours of battery life.
Battery life estimate is based on a mix of common use patterns. More portable and higher performing laptops tend to have less battery life.
Portability
Good
Poor
15.6in
SIZE
17.3in
3.9 lbs
WEIGHT
6.5 lbs
0.7in
THICKNESS
1.0in
The Acer Aspire 3 15 has good portability, while the Lenovo Legion 5 17" has poor portability.
The most portable laptops are small, thin, and light.
Build Quality
6.2/10
7.4/10
The Lenovo Legion 5 17" has good build quality, while the Acer Aspire 3 15 has only fair build quality.
PerfectRec’s Build Quality Score incorporates case materials, display and keyboard flex, hinge quality, and overall reliability.
Cost
$330
$1,200
$0
$500
$1,000
$1,500
$2,000
The Acer Aspire 3 15 has a price of $330 and the Lenovo Legion 5 17" costs $1,200.
The Lenovo Legion 5 17" and Acer Aspire 3 15 are both good for content creation.
PerfectRec’s Content Creation Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for photo editing, video editing and other content creation tasks.
Software Development
7.0/10
7.0/10
4.1/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
7.4/10
8.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
6.2/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
8.5/10
The Lenovo Legion 5 17" and Acer Aspire 3 15 are both good for software development.
PerfectRec’s Software Development Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for software developers.
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How the Acer Aspire 3 15 and the Lenovo Legion 5 17" compare to other laptops
Alexander Tozzi, Ryan Lim, and Yannick Khong | March 2023
"The Acer Aspire 3 is okay for school use. It feels reasonably well-built, and it's easy to carry around. The display looks decently sharp and provides plenty of space for multitasking, but it doesn't get bright enough to combat glare. Its Intel Core i3-N305 CPU and integrated graphics can only handle simple tasks, like text processing, web browsing, and video playback, so it isn't ideal for students in more technical fields like 3D graphics. Unfortunately, the battery lasts only around six to seven hours of light use."
"The Lenovo Legion 5 17 is a current-gen 17-inch gaming laptop and equipped with the latest AMD CPU and a powerful GPU, that manages to reach its full potential. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600H is a very good choice for this laptop and able to maintain its performance level for long periods of time. Our test model only falls behind consistently in a direct comparison with its competitors that are often equipped with eight cores and 16 threads. Despite this, the Legion 5 17 leaves an excellent impression and is almost able to keep up with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 mobile GPU in synthetic benchmarks."
Get a great deal on the Acer Aspire 3 15 or the Lenovo Legion 5 17"
About Acer
Acer is a prominent Taiwanese electronics brand which makes a wide range of laptops, with multiple product lines catering to personal use, gaming, and business use. They are renowned for having exceptional value for money, as they frequently offer good specifications at a lower price than other manufacturers.
About Lenovo
Lenovo is a Chinese technology company, and one of the largest personal computer vendor. They are well known for a variety of technology products, including laptops. Their consumer series include their entry level IdeaPad and LOQ series and mid-to-high-end Yoga and Legion series. On the business-oriented side, their series include their entry-level ThinkBook series and mid-to-high-end ThinkPad series. Lenovo laptops offer strong performance for reasonable prices, and are often on sale.
This information was produced and vetted by the PerfectRec laptops team. We are a product research and recommendation organization that meticulously reviews and evaluates the latest laptop information and makes it digestible for you.
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Joe is an entrepreneur and lifelong electronics enthusiast with a Ph.D in Economics from the University of Michigan.
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