Acer Aspire 5
Buy it if
Genuinely affordable
Skip it if
Average screen and battery
Where to get it
Acer Aspire 5
From £399
Indicative price at the time of review.
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When the budget is the hard limit, the Aspire 5 does the essentials without embarrassing itself: fine for documents, browsing and streaming, with more ports than pricier rivals. Don't expect heavy multitasking, but for note-taking it's plenty.
The good & the bad
Pros
- Genuinely affordable
- Lots of ports
- Upgradable RAM and storage
Cons
- Average screen and battery
- Heavier and thicker
How it compares
| Pick | WATTB Score | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.Apple MacBook Air (M3) | 96/100 | From £999 | overall |
| 2.ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED | 90/100 | From £799 | screen |
| 3.Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5 | 88/100 | From £549 | value |
| 4.Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3 | 84/100 | From £629 | portability |
| 5.Acer Aspire 5This pick | 82/100 | From £399 | budget |
Good to know
- Price
- From £399
- Chip
- Intel Core i3 / i5
- RAM
- 8GB (upgradable)
- Screen
- 15.6" FHD
- Battery
- ~8 hours
- Weight
- 1.7 kg
Insider tip · Add a cheap RAM stick to take it to 16GB — it transforms the multitasking on this model.
Researched by WATTB
- Published
- 10 February 2026
- Updated
- 30 August 2026
We research and rank options from public data, official information and published reviews. How we research →
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