Okay, so I snagged this Acer Aspire 5 for under $240 and honestly? Mind blown. My ancient Dell Latitude was practically a fossil compared to this thing.

The 13th Gen i5 processor handles my daily tasks like a champ - web browsing, docs, Netflix marathons. Passmark score hit 11,500 which is wild for this price range. First thing I did? Yeeted it out of S mode and deleted all the bloatware.

Screen's actually nice! 15.6" FHD touch display with decent colors. Keyboard's backlit (thank god) though the white-on-gray lettering can be tricky in certain light. Battery lasts about 8 hours - not MacBook level but solid for the price.

Biggest gripe? No USB-C port (seriously Acer?) and the power brick belongs in 2010. Also heard some units have fan rattling issues - mine's fine but watch out.

Verdict: If you need a cheap workhorse for school/office that won't die in a year, this is it. Just don't expect to game or edit 4K videos.