Acer Aspire 3 15 vs Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2

The Acer Aspire 3 15 is equipped with an AMD Ryzen CPU and AMD Radeon GPU, paired with a 15.6-inch IPS display of Full HD resolution, making it suitable for engineering and design tasks that require fair processing power and screen real estate. Meanwhile, the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2, with its Intel i5 CPU and Intel Iris Xe graphics, provides slightly better computing performance and a higher-quality display despite its smaller 12.4-inch screen size, which benefits design work with sharp visuals, but may be less ideal for multitasking due to the smaller screen.

For general use, the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2's higher resolution and brightness make for a clearer and more vibrant display compared to the Acer Aspire 3 15, which offers satisfactory visual clarity but may not be as sharp or luminous. When it comes to engineering and design work, the Surface Laptop Go 2 provides a wider color range, essential for precision in color-critical tasks, whereas the Aspire 3's colors are suitable but less accurate for professional editing or modeling. However, both laptops have screens with lower refresh rates, which means neither is ideal for gaming or 3D work that benefit greatly from smoother motion and quicker screen updates.

Battery life estimate is based on a mix of common use patterns. More portable and higher performing laptops tend to have less battery life.

PerfectRec’s Build Quality Score incorporates case materials, display and keyboard flex, hinge quality, and overall reliability.

The Acer Aspire 3 15 with a moderate battery life and a larger, fair-quality screen offers a good balance for general computing tasks but is relatively heavier and bulkier, which could affect portability, while the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2, though smaller and highly portable with excellent portability, also provides a better screen quality and speaker quality but falls slightly behind in battery life compared to the Acer Aspire 3 15. Both have similar CPU and RAM capabilities, adequate for everyday use, and their keyboards and storage are reasonably good, while heat management and operating noise are notably excellent for the Acer and very good for the Microsoft device, contributing to a comfortable user experience.

PerfectRec’s Gaming and AI Score strongly emphasizes graphics processing capability, while also taking into account other factors that impact suitability for gaming and AI work.

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.

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.