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Acer Laptops :are they crap ?

gayan

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The title speaks for itself, I'm thinking of buying a laptop and I noticed that ACER has the cheapest line of Laptops compared to the features they offer.. What I wanna know from TPU guys whether the cheap price tag of ACERs' indicate that they are crap as well or not...

Here is a lappy I laid my eyes on. :D
http://laptop.lk/product_details.php?productid=816
it costs around US$ 700.
Not hoping to go for a high end lappy since I'm keeping my desktop as well (For gaming yada yada)
And If I'm to buy a high-end lappy, my own definition of so called "High-end" will cost me an arm and a leg too :p
TIA :)
 

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its usually down to the specific models, and not the brands themselves. You'll have to research that model, not the acer brand.
 
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I've never held Acer in high regard, most of the people I know who own Acers complain about them.
My school also "recommends" Acer laptops, which is a bad sign...
 

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The title speaks for itself, I'm thinking of buying a laptop and I noticed that ACER has the cheapest line of Laptops compared to the features they offer.. What I wanna know from TPU guys whether the cheap price tag of ACERs' indicate that they are crap as well or not...

Here is a lappy I laid my eyes on. :D
http://laptop.lk/product_details.php?productid=816
it costs around US$ 700.
Not hoping to go for a high end lappy since I'm keeping my desktop as well (For gaming yada yada)
And If I'm to buy a high-end lappy, my own definition of so called "High-end" will cost me an arm and a leg too :p
TIA :)

Hello gayan,

here is my opinion. Acer series laptops are really not expensive for the hardware you get. But I belive the laptops are like snickers - you can have two similar models, but one has quality beyond the other.
I tend to stay away from Acer laptops, and recommend that to everyone who listen to my opinion. I heard a couple of times from different people, that they are not satisfied with their Acer laptop.
But in the end the decision is of course all yours. You should get more opinions (i know that out there, there is a lot of people that are indeed satisfied with Acer laptops), and then make your decision.

One question though - I saw a warranty only for a year. That seems a rather short warranty. Can it be extended?

Regards
 

gayan

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Hello gayan,

here is my opinion. Acer series laptops are really not expensive for the hardware you get. But I belive the laptops are like snickers - you can have two similar models, but one has quality beyond the other.
I tend to stay away from Acer laptops, and recommend that to everyone who listen to my opinion. I heard a couple of times from different people, that they are not satisfied with their Acer laptop.
But in the end the decision is of course all yours. You should get more opinions (i know that out there, there is a lot of people that are indeed satisfied with Acer laptops), and then make your decision.

One question though - I saw a warranty only for a year. That seems a rather short warranty. Can it be extended?

Regards

Thanks chimera :)
In my country we get 3 years warranty mostly for ASUS lappies only. That's also way expensive compared to the hardware configuration.. an Asus Celeron- M will cost the same as the Acer lappy I posted above.. I'm reluctant about the 1 year warranty and that's why I'm struggling whether to pick an Acer or not and I don't think that they will extend the warranty, have to talk to them :D
 

gayan

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its usually down to the specific models, and not the brands themselves. You'll have to research that model, not the acer brand.

I'm referring to the different brands with same configuration ;)
 
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weve had acer comps at college, there not fast nor are they lappy's but they have been very reliable ive never heard of a problem needing to be fixed with them i gues there just slow due to old componants
 
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I spent a lot of time researching Acer after spotting their Gemstone Blue range of laptops.

It seems like Acer can be hit and miss, they can make really poor products, but then make amazing ones. Take their old PDA line, the N310/N311 was fantasic, the N30, not so much.

From what I've been able to tell, the Gemstone Blue and Extensza range are rather good, but I'd try and find a specific review/opinion on that model first.
 
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I bought the Acer Extensa EX5620-4025 about 6 months ago for only $399 then upgraded the processor to a T5750 and the RAM to 2GB (also put XP on it). I love the thing. If you know much about hardware then you shouldn't care about the brand name on the laptop. The only moving parts in this thing (hard drive, CPU/system fan, optical drive) can all be replaced easily if needed. Otherwise everything else is pretty much standard if you compare the low end of different makers. The hinges for the display are pretty solid, the only gripe is that I can't find any of the higher capacity batteries for this model (oh well, I bought it cause it was so cheap and most batteries will run you over $100). The plastic is a little thinner than my girlfriends work laptop (Compaq that is built like a tank). Just treat it like you would a computer and it'll be fine.
 
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get a dell or lenovo. acer's are poor quality
 

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Acer to me is fine, but I would choose asus, dell or lenovo
 

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I use laptops all day everyday and at moment have HP and Acer. There are small differences which for me distinguish top tier and mid tier.

From a usuability point of view, my Acer was designed by someone who doesn't use laptops very much. The hot air exhaust is on the back, and if resting on your lap is easy to cover over. The USBs are on back, with non on side. If you are using on lap it is easy to put undue pressure on things plugged in. The keys are flimisier, and after a year the backspace fails to register very occasionally. Finally it is rigid, but not rock solid.

The HP is all the above but the complete opposite. I have also dropped it numerous times and I have probably done more damage to the floor. Acer stuff is ok, and not expensive, so you get what you pay for.

To be fair to Acer, I had a Fujitsu Siemens before the HP and it was dreadfully built. Every part in the device was changed at some point, including the screen. It made me think of the story of the roadsweeper who proudly claimed he had his broom for 20 years, adding in that time it has had 15 new heads and 10 new handles.
 

Tau

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Acer makes a cheap prodcut period. They user lower end plastics, as well as assembly. (I hate working on Acer laptops)

If budget is an issue then get an acer... though for $50 more you could get a gateway that will smoke the acer in terms of quality.

For a laptop though i would suggest one of the DV7T's from HP or a Business class Toshiba/HP/IBM (not the lenovo branded, the Thinkpads)
 
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get a dell or lenovo. acer's are poor quality

Let me put it this way and see if you will touch an Acer...

Acer/Gateway/Emachine *Same company*

Acer makes a few good notebooks and those ones are really good, 90% of their line is trash that should be look at like an Emachine.

Dell's quality in notebooks has fallen to trash across their lines... I used to deal with Dell notebooks, after getting near a 30% RMA rate, that came to a quick halt, even with US based business support lines for RMA's they dink around with you for hours.

Lenovo's I love, no issues yet, up to about 30 now with no RMA's and no problems. Very easy to work on, replace common parts *even the lcd*, easy to get to heatsinks and fans for cleaning. Only drawback is built in software for wireless cards sucks, but you can fix that by loading a different driver. Driverpacks.net has a nice cd with W.Lan drivers that will install the Dell 1370 I believe it is for the realtek wireless cards.
 

gayan

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I bought the Acer Extensa EX5620-4025 about 6 months ago for only $399 then upgraded the processor to a T5750 and the RAM to 2GB (also put XP on it). I love the thing. If you know much about hardware then you shouldn't care about the brand name on the laptop. The only moving parts in this thing (hard drive, CPU/system fan, optical drive) can all be replaced easily if needed. Otherwise everything else is pretty much standard if you compare the low end of different makers. The hinges for the display are pretty solid, the only gripe is that I can't find any of the higher capacity batteries for this model (oh well, I bought it cause it was so cheap and most batteries will run you over $100). The plastic is a little thinner than my girlfriends work laptop (Compaq that is built like a tank). Just treat it like you would a computer and it'll be fine.

My Only concern is the motherboard which is not easily replaceable, I mean harder to find.. :D
 

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Lenovo's I love, no issues yet, up to about 30 now with no RMA's and no problems. Very easy to work on, replace common parts *even the lcd*, easy to get to heatsinks and fans for cleaning. Only drawback is built in software for wireless cards sucks, but you can fix that by loading a different driver. Driverpacks.net has a nice cd with W.Lan drivers that will install the Dell 1370 I believe it is for the realtek wireless cards.

I never really thought of Lenovo. I might give them a look next time.
 
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Let me put it this way and see if you will touch an Acer...

Acer/Gateway/Emachine *Same company*

Acer makes a few good notebooks and those ones are really good, 90% of their line is trash that should be look at like an Emachine.

Dell's quality in notebooks has fallen to trash across their lines... I used to deal with Dell notebooks, after getting near a 30% RMA rate, that came to a quick halt, even with US based business support lines for RMA's they dink around with you for hours.

Lenovo's I love, no issues yet, up to about 30 now with no RMA's and no problems. Very easy to work on, replace common parts *even the lcd*, easy to get to heatsinks and fans for cleaning. Only drawback is built in software for wireless cards sucks, but you can fix that by loading a different driver. Driverpacks.net has a nice cd with W.Lan drivers that will install the Dell 1370 I believe it is for the realtek wireless cards.

my dell is mine 3 notebook in 3 years. first i had a Gericom ego 1650 (2006), ASUS a6Km (2007) and the current one a DELL inspiron 1520 (6464). the first two can't compare to my DELL. interesting my was MADE IN IRELAND.
 
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I have an Acer Aspire 5100 and it is the cheapest P.O.S. I've ever held. You pick it up on one side, and hear and see all the internals and case flex under its own weight. As a result of this, there is a mother board issue with the hard drive controller, meaning I have to take it apart one day and attempt to solder it back into working order. Its a known issue with that line, as many many people complain of the 0200 Disk Error (a symptom of this exact problem) but because it can be easily explained by 'failing hard drive', Acer does nothing. No recall, no RMA. And when it fails again on the customer, most just get a new laptop. Only reason I found it was because of a couple of forum posts detailing a fix on a different forum. Shoddy end user support, shoddy product... I'm real glad I didn't pay for this thing. I got it for free to see if I could fix it.
 
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my dell is mine 3 notebook in 3 years. first i had a Gericom ego 1650 (2006), ASUS a6Km (2007) and the current one a DELL inspiron 1520 (6464). the first two can't compare to my DELL. interesting my was MADE IN IRELAND.

I'm talking about hundreds or Dell notebooks, their quality control is horse****, and their support is worse, they think everyone is an idiot, and they don't like it when you tell them whats wrong, got a bad wireless card you better be ready for 6 hours of on the phone.
 

Tau

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Let me put it this way and see if you will touch an Acer...

Acer/Gateway/Emachine *Same company*

Acer makes a few good notebooks and those ones are really good, 90% of their line is trash that should be look at like an Emachine.

Dell's quality in notebooks has fallen to trash across their lines... I used to deal with Dell notebooks, after getting near a 30% RMA rate, that came to a quick halt, even with US based business support lines for RMA's they dink around with you for hours.

Lenovo's I love, no issues yet, up to about 30 now with no RMA's and no problems. Very easy to work on, replace common parts *even the lcd*, easy to get to heatsinks and fans for cleaning. Only drawback is built in software for wireless cards sucks, but you can fix that by loading a different driver. Driverpacks.net has a nice cd with W.Lan drivers that will install the Dell 1370 I believe it is for the realtek wireless cards.

Gateway is their own company BTW, Acer just bought Emachines a few months ago.

I'm talking about hundreds or Dell notebooks, their quality control is horse****, and their support is worse, they think everyone is an idiot, and they don't like it when you tell them whats wrong, got a bad wireless card you better be ready for 6 hours of on the phone.

The Dell quality control is not the best, though neither is Acers or Emachines... Dell support on the other hand is top notch (I deal with them ALOT, im talking 50+ machines a month sent back to them.

I have never been a fan of Lenovo laptops, they feel cheap to me, though the IBM branded Thinkpads are basically the industry workhorses.

If you are looking for a middle ground, the Gateways are good performers for the price, decent build quality and easy to service/maintaine.

Gateways are amoungst my favorite to fix (Laptop Tech), HPs being the worst.

Though any of the business class laptops will hold up substantially better than the consumer grade, they also meet tighter QC standards, as well as have better service times. Most HP business class that i end up sending in to HP i can send in on monday, and have it back to me wednesday morning. To me that is OUTSTANDING turnaround. Though i have only seen this on HP business class as they do all the servicing in house.
 
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Gateway is their own company BTW, Acer just bought Emachines a few months ago.
http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=42415

Wrong Acer owns them both...

The Dell quality control is not the best, though neither is Acers or Emachines... Dell support on the other hand is top notch

Tell that to the BBB, who revoked their membership.

Lenovo's do feel sorta cheap, but so does anything else under about $1000, but the fact of how well they hold up is not an arguable point, their RMA rate is great and they are easy to deal with every time no matter who you are.
 

crtecha

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I've heard both good and bad. I have one at work thats been murder by dust(I work in a manufacturing plant). The things sings never had to mess with it. Now my friend on the other hand bought a similar model and the thing died after 6 months and gave him nothing but problems. So its kinda like every other product you have good luck and bad.
 
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It shouldn't be a surprise though if you treat a laptop like crap it's going to fail on you eventually. If you're really worried about quality, there are some manufacture refurbed Panasonic Toughbooks you can get for a decent price. Honestly, all laptops are crap (mine included) unless you pay the money and buy a Toughbook which is the only 'real' ruggidized laptop. My brother used to be a resealler for them, I know the competition's semi-ruggidized models as well.... not the same. I've seen these dropped from 4ft.+, water poured all over the keyboard, etc. with my own eyes and they always worked.

As far as the flex in an Acer laptop, do what I do, pick it up with both hands (novel idea there). The Dell's I've used at work are much more solid but mine at $440 (after upgrades) was faster than any other laptop up to ~$850 at the time I bought it. I've replaced thermal pads and all the thermal paste with higher quality pads and MX-2. Mine has a USB port on the side, the air inteke is on the bottom though which is my biggest issue with any laptops (put it on the side!!). The headphone jacks are on the front which I hate but I have a USB sound card anyway since the output had too much interference and would give me a headache when watching a movie for too long.

In the end you get what you pay for. I wanted a cheap laptop that I could simply upgrade myself into a fast machine that I knew I'd baby. If that's what you're looking for then I'd recommend Acer. Go to some computer stores where you live and handle them in person, that's the best way to compare.
 

Tau

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http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=42415

Wrong Acer owns them both...



Tell that to the BBB, who revoked their membership.

Lenovo's do feel sorta cheap, but so does anything else under about $1000, but the fact of how well they hold up is not an arguable point, their RMA rate is great and they are easy to deal with every time no matter who you are.

Interesting, I thoguth gateway was still their own, i stand corrected :twitch:
 
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As far as the flex in an Acer laptop, do what I do, pick it up with both hands (novel idea there).

Thanks Captain Obvious, you've illuminated my life with previously unrealized advice. Any product that's marketed to be a 'portable' solution, shouldn't have the disclaimer 'Portable, until you try and move it.' Just seems to me a little rigidity in the case, a shocking concept I'm sure, would go a long way.
 
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