When looking for the best netbook and the best laptop, it’s always good to start at the lower end, then moving your way up as you zero in on the right specs you want. Your journey starts with the Acer Travelmate. With a good battery life and fair selection of ports, you’ll be surprised by what Acer is asking for in return.
Why We Like It – Acer Travelmate
The Acer Travelmate isn’t much to look at compared to average laptops these days, but it does fill in for day to day tasks, like emails, streaming, social media, and browsing.
- Good battery life
- Fair selection of ports
- Very affordable
- RAM is soldered
- Hardware is showing its age
Power & Performance
The best way to describe the Acer Travelmate P6’s performance is: it could be worse. It could be using a single-core CPU—it isn’t, but the dual-core Intel Celeron N3050 isn’t that much better. Even the Intel Celeron N3350 inside the HP Chromebook 14 would run circles around the N3050. To be fair, both would do better with a more modern Intel Core i5, or Intel Core i7. Thankfully, its 1366×768 is easier to handle than a full HD display. Read our Acer Swift 3 SF314 review for a laptop with long battery life.
Battery
Compared to the similarly priced Lenovo 300E, the battery life on the Travelmate P6 Acer is really good for its price. On a single charge, you can get up to 10 hours, which is plenty of time to browse, watch videos, or work before needing a power source.
Ports & Expandability
Aside from Wi-Fi, you’re looking at a good selection of ports, though they’re hardly modern. You’ll find HDMI, USB 3.0 and 2.0, but not Type C, and audio jack. Unfortunately, expanding its RAM isn’t possible; it’s soldered to the board. You can, however, expand storage via SD card slot. If you’re interested in a Mac, then read our Apple Macbook 13-Inch 2.3gHz 256GB review.
Build Quality
There’s nothing particularly special about the P6 Acer Travelmate’s build; it’s mostly plastic (aside from hardware). It’s fairly thick though, which lends a helping hand by reducing overall bending and flexing. The HP Spectre X360 13 8th Gen is built with all aluminum, but comes with a higher price.
Value
Taking into consideration this Acer Travelmate P6 review, it’s difficult to find a place for this laptop. It needs a much faster CPU to battle with business laptops, nor does it have the specs for any light gaming. What it does offer is a really low price of $255, but is it worth considering? In this day and age, you’re better off going the extra mile and getting a Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon.
Acer Travelmate Wrap Up
To say the Acer Travelmate is “bad,” would be disingenuous. It’s closer to being outdated than anything else. That’s why its price is so low. Can it provide value? Sure, if your only concern is checking emails, streaming, and perhaps office work. Its battery is good for that. But that’s as far as it goes.
