Acer Aspire 5 15 vs Lenovo IdeaPad 3 14"

The Acer Aspire 5 15 offers a powerful CPU, ample RAM, and a sizable screen, all contributing to its efficacy for general use, yet it's heavier and has lesser battery life compared to the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 14", which is more portable and has longer battery life but comes with a less potent CPU and less RAM. Additionally, the Acer's storage is double that of the Lenovo, which along with a higher-quality screen, makes it more suitable for various tasks despite being less portable and having shorter battery life.

For general use, both the Acer Aspire 5 and the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 offer adequate resolution and brightness, ensuring comfortable everyday tasks like browsing and video streaming, though their panel types might not provide the most vivid colors or sharpest images. In engineering and design, while both laptops have displays that can handle detailed work, professionals might find the colors less accurate due to limited coverage of professional color gamuts, impacting tasks requiring precise color replication. Gamers and those into 3D applications may find both laptops lacking, as the refresh rates aren't high enough for the smooth visuals required in fast-paced games or high frame rate 3D rendering, while the resolution and panel types are satisfactory but not top-tier for this use case.

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

The Acer Aspire 5 15 and Lenovo IdeaPad 3 14" are both fair choices for gaming and 3D tasks because they have integrated GPUs—the Intel Iris Xe and AMD Vega 7, respectively—which provide moderate graphics performance but lack the power of dedicated gaming GPUs. Furthermore, they both have the same screen refresh rate of 60Hz, which is adequate for casual gaming but may not deliver the smoothest experience compared to higher refresh rates offered by dedicated gaming laptops.

The Acer Aspire 5 15 is better for engineering and design due to its higher RAM and better GPU, which contribute significantly to performance in demanding tasks, while the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 14" with less RAM and a less powerful GPU, may struggle with such intensive applications. Additionally, the Acer's larger screen offers better visual real estate for design work, although the Lenovo is lighter and may be preferred for its higher portability.

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.

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