Acer announces budget-friendly TravelMate B3 11.6-inch laptops and convertibles with Intel Gemini Lake-R CPUs

The new TravelMate B3 series is part of Acer’s education-oriented models, just like the new entry-level Comet Lake Chromebooks unveiled the other day. However, the B3 lineup is Windows-based and powered by the even more affordable Gemini Lake Refresh CPUs, plus it features slightly smaller 11.6-inch screens, but it also offers convertible variants in addition to regular laptops.

In order to keep prices as low as possible, the B3 chassis are made of rugged plastic that can withstand a good beating in the educational environments. These models are not exactly thin like other more advanced lineups, as they are clearly designed for durability rather than esthetics and mobility. To this end, even if they feature a smaller display, the total weight of the B3 models is around 3.28 lbs (3.08 lbs for the non-convertible).

Speaking of smaller displays, the 11.6-inch screens are IPS grade and come with 768p and 1080p options in a 16:9 aspect ratio. Users can choose among three CPU options including Intel’s dual-core Celeron N4020, quad-core Celeron N4120 and quad-core Pentium Silver N5030 CPUs that can be coupled with either 4 GB or 8 GB of DDR4 RAM. The storage component may include 64 GB / 128 GB of eMMC iNAND flash memory chips or NVMe SSDs with 128 GB / 256 GB capacities. On the graphics side, the CPUs come with the modest UHD 600 / 605 iGPUs.

Among the connectivity features we can find Ethernet jack + WiFi5 + Bluetooth 5.0, 2x USB-C 3.2 Gen1 and 1x USB-A 3.2 Gen1 connectors, HDMI out, a microSD card reader, audio jacks, plus a 720p webcam. The included batteries have a 48 Wh rating and they should last for up to 12 hours.

As far as prices go, the regular TravelMate B3 models start at US$239, whereas the Spin B3 convertibles have a starting price of US$329, and both variants will begin shipping in April.