This rather average laptop defied logic to become a best-seller on Amazon Prime Day

Lenovo IdeaPad 3 15-inch laptop - $299.99 from BestBuy
$299.99 at Best Buy

Lenovo IdeaPad 3 15-inch laptop - $299.99 from BestBuy
The Acer Aspire 5 may be a best seller on Amazon Prime Day, but the Intel Core i3-powered IdeaPad 3 from Lenovo delivers far more bang for your buck.

At the time of writing, Amazon’s best selling laptop for Amazon Prime Day (based on updates to the most popular product per category listings) is the Apple MacBook Air at just under $900.

However, the second best-selling model came as a serious surprise in the shape of the Ryzen-powered Acer Aspire 5, which is usually given barely any airtime thanks to superior Intel-powered equivalents.

At $360, the Aspire 5 (A515-43-R19L) doesn’t have the usual hallmarks of a chart topper and the deal isn't even any good. Amazon sold the exact same model in July 2019 for $269, which goes to show that all deals are not created equal.

Sure, it comes with an AMD Ryzen CPU, but it is a dual-core model rather than a faster quad-core one.

The fact it comes with 4GB of RAM and a 128GB PCIe SSD is questionable to say the least, as it means Windows will likely compete for resources with your applications, making your computer feel less nippy.

It's also worth noting that this is a bulky laptop at almost 1.8kg and comes with Windows 10 S, with an easy upgrade route to Windows 10 Home.

In fairness, we do love the fact that it has a backlit keyboard, Alexa compatibility (alongside Microsoft’s Cortana) and a full 15.6-inch IPS full HD display.

TechRadar is rounding up all the top deals over the Prime Day sales period, and we’ve put all the best Prime Day deals in an easy-to-navigate article to help you find the bargains you’re looking for.

Desire Athow
Managing Editor, TechRadar Pro

Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled in website builders and web hosting when DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium.

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