Cheap laptops are everywhere these days, but not everything is as good as it seems. Those rascally computer companies are trying to convince us that a laptop with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage is a steal at $500. Well, we’re having none of that malarkey around here. We found a solid deal at Amazon. The Acer Aspire 5 with a Ryzen processor and 128GB of onboard storage is just $332. That’s down from the usual $400 and a savings of $68.
This laptop features a Ryzen 3 3350U Zen 2 CPU with four cores (no threads) and a maximum boost to 3.5GHz. It also has 4GB of RAM, 128GB of NVMe SSD storage, and the screen is a 15.6-inch 1080p IPS display.
For connectivity, this laptop is packing 802.11ax Wi-Fi and it has Amazon Alexa built-in if you like that kind of thing. As this is a somewhat underpowered machine, it has Windows 11 Home in S Mode. That means it will only install and run apps in the Windows Store.
This laptop would be good for general use (similar to a Chromebook), but with the possibility to run Windows apps when you need it. It’s not a full-time PC, but if you need something as a “satellite” device when you’re not at home with your primary computer, this one will fit the bill.
Author: Ian Paul, Contributor
Ian is an independent writer based in Israel who has never met a tech subject he didn't like. He primarily covers Windows, PC and gaming hardware, video and music streaming services, social networks, and browsers. When he's not covering the news he's working on how-to tips for PC users, or tuning his eGPU setup.