I haven't but I need a new laptop. What do you all think about this one?
I quite like the widescreen and also the gig of RAM but to be truthfull I have very little idea about laptops. All I know is I want to get the best one possible for my £400/500 budget.
Does anyone have any better suggestions?
Thanks in advance-
Catherine
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Don't worry Acer isn't a small company. In fact in some continents they are the largest or second largest computer supplier surpassing Dell, HP, IBM... So they aren't a back street computer builder or "here today gone tomorrow" merchants.
Because they are so huge, they have huge buying power and that is why there laptops are so cheap but yet have better specs than the like of Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo etc.
Build quality is good and they offer a wide range for all budgets. Acer would definitly be one of the top three manufacturers I would look at if I were in the market for a laptop.
For your budget you probably can't do any better than Acer for a new laptop, to get maximum "bang for your buck".
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agreed.
after say dell toshiba and sony, acer must be in 4th place.
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agreed.
after say dell toshiba and sony, acer must be in 4th place. They have, I think, also been in the top spot at least in the last two years.
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Build quality is good and they offer a wide range for all budgets. Acer would definitly be one of the top three manufacturers I would look at if I were in the market for a laptop. I don't know where you get the idea that build quality is good - and the reason they are cheaper than the likes of IBM, Asus etc is because the quality is nowhere near the same.
Personally I would never buy an Acer laptop, just seen and heard of too many problems.
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I don't know where you get the idea that build quality is good - and the reason they are cheaper than the likes of IBM, Asus etc is because the quality is nowhere near the same.
Personally I would never buy an Acer laptop, just seen and heard of too many problems. I would second that, Have recently made a corporate decision to use Dell or Toshiba notebooks, All the Acers in the company we have had problems with except mine
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On the contrary, I've heard read many reviews and know a few people who have Acers that are happy with them.
Toshiba haven't had good press in the past especially with regards to build quality, though no doubt they've improved it since then. Secondly, Dell's build is good but they use non-standard parts (especially on their desktops) which means your limited in upgrade capabilities and spare parts options. Dell has recently received a lot of bad press about their customer service.
Just because a computer is cheaper than others it doesn't mean build quality is skimped on, it might just mean that profit margins are lower on each pc/laptop, and not a decrease in product quality?
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I got a cheap acer lappy a couple of months ago and it's fine.
(I work in IT and like to think I know a thing or two about PCs)
It's def. a cheap lappy, there's no doubt about it. The quality is nothing like the same as my dad's uber-dell, or the gfs vaio, or indeed gfs sisters ferrari acer.
It does, however, seem better all-round than the dell machines for the same money(my mum has one) and at the end of the day it does the job.
I bought the cheapest one from ebuyer (around 380 I think) and it's sound - need to upgrade the ram (512-1gb) and/or reformat it (so much preinstalled junk!!), but aside from that it's fine. It's not great - but what do you want for <£400? A rubber biscuit?
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So the one I posted on the link is quite a good one for my buck then?
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it seems ok ish.
but i would prefer a dell or a toshiba for about the same dosh.
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I had a look. I work in IT and it looks good for he money.
The appearance of Windows Vista has put me off buying new just now - am am not sure it would run all my old freeware programs that were designed for XP.
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It would be better if you could get a Intel Core 2 Duo chip rather than a Turion, simply because the equivalent Core 2 Duo offers more power than the Turion and is generally more power efficient.
I've looked at the Acer range and have found others that are also worth considering at around £500
TravelMate 3273WXMi
Aspire 5633WLMi (three different versions available)
Have a look at their full price list complete with specs:
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Have you tried looking at tesco for the laptop. I bought my Acer from them 12 months ago for £398 with a decent spec. The only problem I've had was the hinge on the lcd cover cracked due to excessive use but sent it off to Acer to repair under warranty and got it sorted within 2 weeks. Apparentley this is a common problem with Acer laptops. Apart from that its been a great budget laptop. The ferrari F1 team use Acer laptops so if they're good enough for them, its good enough for me.
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The ferrari F1 team use Acer laptops so if they're good enough for them, its good enough for me. I suspect that is more to do with how much Acer pay Ferrari to use them than how good they are though!
Acer aren't bad but also have a look at Dell, they have some good deals and a lot of businesses seem to use Dell laptops.
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Lamborghini currently have a range of branded laptops by Asus (I think).
What next Bentley, Skoda, BMW laptops?
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Lamborghini currently have a range of branded laptops by Asus (I think).
What next Bentley, Skoda, BMW laptops?
Hehe!
I looked on Tesco's website (thanks for the hint) and sorted through all the brands of Laptop. There was 'Tesco Value' and I thought crikey.......turns out it was only a laptop bag. Jeez - what next....Tesco Value making laptops!
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Hehe!
I looked on Tesco's website (thanks for the hint) and sorted through all the brands of Laptop. There was 'Tesco Value' and I thought crikey.......turns out it was only a laptop bag. Jeez - what next....Tesco Value making laptops! Well you might actually have hit something there. They've already entered the software market with a £20 Tesco branded office suite, albeit based on Ability Office, but making PCs is something I can well see Tesco doing. Watch this space!
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The reviews on Acer products are good as for the money they provide alot - however very few reviews last longer than a few days - and from my experiences alot of Acer laptops start failing after a few months.
Non standard parts in Dell may have been a problem in the past, not so much now but for a laptop thats hardly a concern as you aren't going to be swapping parts.
Yes I agree that profit margins may be less - but build quality on an Acer is definately far below the likes of the manufacturers I mentioned above.
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Thanks for all the comments and helpful words guys - I think I've learnt a lot about computers today. Both with me surfing and researching and from you useful MSE'rs!
My next two questions therefore (simply encouraging debate y'see... ) are:
- MS Vista - good thing or bad thing for a home user?
- Where can I get me a cheap recent version of MS Office?
Catherine
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Personally I wouldn't bother with vista, numerous reasons including lack of maturity, some progs still not ported over(drivers too), a less powerful (or less well memory spec'd) machine may struggle - and also you may start to find lots of windows xp products coming down in price now.