Acer’s Aspire 3 (A315-24P; $399) laptop has plodded along almost unchanged over several generations of hardware, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s an effective, simple budget laptop that ...

Acer also includes a not-quite-full number pad. It’s got the numbers all in order, but it doesn’t have the right column with a large + and Enter key. Instead it squeezes + and - above the numbers and ...

On the Aspire 3, the only departure from the basic black of its plastic enclosure is the brushed-texture pattern on the lid and keyboard deck. Otherwise, the Aspire 3 is about as vanilla as black ...