Acer Switch 3 Update: Overshadowed Variant Looms As Safety Switch For Cautious Buyers By Joseph Patrick | May 02, 2017 10:11 AM EDT Acer caused quite a stir recently with the release of the Acer Switch 5 and the Acer 2-in-1 hybrid PCs. Both will be available later this year and cautious users who are still apprehensive could consider the entry-level Acer Switch 3. The Acer Switch 3 costs half the SRP of the Acer Switch 5 at $399 and comes with specs that have been slashed a bit. That includes a mobile device sporting a 12.2-inch IPS touch screen (1920x1200) display and powered by Intel Celeron and Pentium chipsets. Other specs include an HD Graphics 610 GPU, 4 GB LPDDR3 RAM, the much-hyped kickstand and eMMC storage options of 32, 64 and 128 GB. As far as longevity, the Acer Switch 3 has 8 hours of battery life which could be variable depending on how one uses it. One feature taken out will be the fingerprint sensor, one of the advanced biometric security features for the Acer Switch 5, Anandtech reported. Depending on the market where the Acer Switch 3 ends up, the $399 price tag seems pretty fair. Folks who have yet to find out what makes the hybrid such a hit can resort to the entry-level version and then decide if the more expensive Acer Switch 5 is truly worth the hype. The Acer Switch 3 and 5 are obviously alternatives offered to the Microsoft Surface Studio series, a 2-in-1 termed many as “laplets” that comes at a steep price, The Verge reported. Hence, the Acer Switch 5 (which runs on the latest Intel Core i5 and i7 chipsets) looms as a logical buy folks may want to check out. Acer doesn’t really need to address the low-end market but the Acer Switch 3 is already tempting as it is. The power users who want to make sure that they don’t fall short are still advised to go for the Acer Switch 5, something they can easily carry and use whenever and wherever.