FOR

• Strong performance
• Lots of ports
• Good battery life
• Very affordable

AGAINST

• Bulky design
• Filled with bloatware

Every once in a while, a laptop comes along that defies its low price. Yet again, the Acer Aspire E 15 is one of those laptops. Punching well above its weight class, the 15-inch machine has a sharp 1080p display, good performance and a wide variety of ports.

The laptop’s keyboard is comfortable, its battery life is decent and it stays cool under a heavy workload. Despite a few notable shortcomings — a poor webcam, bulky design and unwelcome bloatware — the Aspire E 15 offers excellent bang for your buck, which is why it’s one of the best laptops under $500 and one of the best laptops for college students on a budget.

Acer Aspire E 15 price and configuration options

Acer offers the Aspire E 15 in a number of configurations at a variety of prices. The $307.99 base model that I reviewed is the least expensive. It comes equipped with an Intel Core i3-8130U CPU, 6GB of RAM and a 1TB HDD.

My colleague, Henry T. Casey, reviewed the $599 model, which comes with a more powerful Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and a Nvidia GeForce MX150 graphics card. Check out our face-off between that configuration of the Aspire E 15 and the Asus VivoBook S15, another recommended mid-range laptop.  For $799, the high-end Aspire E 15 upgrades you to a Core i7 CPU.

Acer Aspire E 15 design

The Aspire E 15 is what we’ve come to expect from a 15-inch budget laptop. It’s big, heavy and not particularly easy on the eyes. The laptop’s smooth black deck is made of chunky plastic, but a brushed metal texture gives it a deceivingly premium appearance.