Acer Aspire E3-111-C0WA 200-Dollar Mini Laptop

Meet the Acer Aspire E3-111-C0WA, currently the cheapest notebook PC with Windows operating system. It’s a small 200-dollar 11.6-incher and of course an entry-level one. The E3-111-C0WA is based on the low-performance Intel Celeron N2830 dual-core processor, just like many 250-dollar 15.6-inch laptops. And, it has the same display resolution as the bigger alternatives: 1366-by-768 pixels. On the smaller screen size the same resolution gives a sharper picture, which is a plus, while the screen real estate inside Windows and applications remains the same because of the equal pixel-count.

Back to the performance, it is among the lowest on the laptop market, but satisfactory for light day-to-day work in programs like web browsers and text editors. You can read a detailed overview of the N2830 Celeron here. Since it has only 2GB of RAM and the Celeron with the very basic Intel HD integrated graphics, the E3-111-C0WA isn’t suitable for heavy multitasking, demanding photo/video applications or serious gaming. However, the games which are not graphics rendering-intensive, such as those based on web and Flash will work fine. On the positive side, RAM is upgradeable up to 8GB. But, this laptop doesn’t have doors on the bottom for easier RAM and HDD upgrades, so you’ll have to unscrew and remove the whole bottom panel in order to access these components.

Hard drive space is the smallest you can find in laptops these days. It’s only 320GB and the notebook doesn’t have a built-in DVD burner. For external DVDs and other peripherals, this little machine provides web camera, stereo speakers, Wi-Fi and Ethernet LAN network interfaces, three USB ports, an HDMI video connector, and a media card reader. In this aspect, it’s equally well equipped as the vast majority of modern laptops.

With a thickness of 0.8″ and weight of 2.8 pounds, the Acer Aspire E3-111-C0WA is good for carrying around, taking on trips, or typing on the lap. As a downside for users who regularly enter large amounts of numeric data, the chiclet keyboard doesn’t have a separate numeric pad. That feature is reserved for 15.6″ and larger notebooks. Touchscreen support is missing. If you want it on a similar (but pricier) alternative, you should take a look at the Asus X200MA-RCLT07, also offering larger RAM and HDD capacities.

As for the chassis, it is made of silver-colored plastics with metal-like brushed finish on it. The design is very simplistic, yet elegant.

According to Acer, the battery life is respectable “five hours”.