Acer Laptops...good buys or steer clear ?

[1066familyman]

Thinking about buying a new 17 or 18" screen Acer laptop.

I only have experience of a Compaq and haven't been at all impressed. It's sort of put me off all Compaqs as a result to be honest.

Just wondering if anyone has experience of Acers in general that they could share please ?

Thanks in advance.

 

[jcdenton08]

I'd advise against them. I've heard a lot of criticism about poor build quality and lack of support.

I have a Gateway P-6860FX gaming rig, refurb from the States for £500.00 - sturdy and beautiful;

Mine was £510.00 delivered (e-bay) - nearly twice the spec of the basic ACER's, and with a top graphics card (only important if you're big on your gaming, like me).

 

[jevs]

We bought an Acer Aspire 5735 from PC world for my daughter for xmas. cost about £380 with 160gb hard drive and 3gb Ram, intel core 2 duo 2ghz...blah blah.

It's a lot slower than my 5 year old desk top with 1.8 chip, and 1gb RAM. Does what my daughter wants though but this is the first lap top we've owned so not sure what to expect.

 

[Mowgli]

I have one, worked brilliantly till that STUPID ****ING PIN, fell out so i have a dead battery and cant plug it into the mains, just needs that replacing but i got lazy and bought a pc instead.
Good laptop though.

 

[brightonlass2009]

I have an acer aspire 5315, and it's alright for the price.
They aren't a brilliant make of laptops, but they do the job and it works perfectly fine for what I need it for.

 

[bhaexpress]

That's interesting, I've worked on several Acers recently and all the owners where very happy with them. I wouldn't touch either a Gateway or a Sony with a sterilized barge pole, and that's through professional experience. Gateway used to have their European Support centre in Dublin but it's now closed. Gateway were subject to a class action brought about by disgruntled Gateway owners thanks to their truly dreadful support. They may be better now but I wouldn't buy one. I have yet to meet a satisfied Sony owner, they are expensive and have a serious reputation for being unreliable. best avoided. If you wanted to spend that sort of money a well speced IBM or HP is a better built machine.

The thing about the Acer is that many people buy them from PC World. I used to avoid PC World but have to say that recently I have been there for people with Acers and they are a hell of a lot better than they used to be.

 

[Mackenzie]

My 5735 is working fine, a no thrills puter that works.

 

[bhaexpress]

Steer clear without a doubt. They tend to look the business with lots of inputs & extra features & decent specs - but you get what you pay for. My old dear bought one last year and it took a matter of weeks for it to become painfully slow.

I highly recommend any of the Sony Vaio range. I have had mine for nearly 3 years & it's still running smoothly with no problems & the customer service was exceptional.

If it became slow are you sure it was the PC and not Spyware or some such ? 99% of the time that's the cause. PCs don't slow down like that they just stop completely.

 

[dougdeep]

I have an Aspire One and it's the Mutt's Nuts.

 

[1066familyman]

Steer clear without a doubt. They tend to look the business with lots of inputs & extra features & decent specs - but you get what you pay for. My old dear bought one last year and it took a matter of weeks for it to become painfully slow.

I highly recommend any of the Sony Vaio range. I have had mine for nearly 3 years & it's still running smoothly with no problems & the customer service was exceptional.

This is my worry. Acers seem to have particularly good spec and lots of fancy features. I'm very wary of gimmicky flashing lights on anything electrical though and value good build quality/performance and reliabilty above all else. But the Acers seem to be drawing me in.

I know you generally only get what you pay for and so even pushing the boat out( for us atleast ) by being prepared to go upto £700 ain't going to get me anything supa-dupa, but I'd expect it to get something that will last and perform well. I noticed the Sony's are always very expensive. I suppose the build quality must be very good on the entire Sony range.

 

[dougdeep]

Acer are of course the biggest selling laptops on the planet at present. So they can't be too bad.

 

[jcdenton08]

That's interesting, I've worked on several Acers recently and all the owners where very happy with them. I wouldn't touch either a Gateway or a Sony with a sterilized barge pole, and that's through professional experience. Gateway used to have their European Support centre in Dublin but it's now closed. Gateway were subject to a class action brought about by disgruntled Gateway owners thanks to their truly dreadful support. They may be better now but I wouldn't buy one. I have yet to meet a satisfied Sony owner, they are expensive and have a serious reputation for being unreliable. best avoided. If you wanted to spend that sort of money a well speced IBM or HP is a better built machine.

The thing about the Acer is that many people buy them from PC World. I used to avoid PC World but have to say that recently I have been there for people with Acers and they are a hell of a lot better than they used to be.

My girlfriend has a two year old Vaio, works like a dream. Also, the guy two posts above you loves his three year old Vaio.

This Gateway is a beast of a machine, and has no problems whatsoever. Also, they supplied a full version of Vista x64 on CD, with the standard system restore options.

All round top notch.

 

[bhaexpress]

It was bought at a time when Vista was relatively new, and as an OS it is pretty renowned for draining computer resources as it is, so I've assumed that was the reason, altho Spyware may well have been a contributing factor.

I'm surprised about your criticism of Vaio's I must admit. The one I own is one of the lower-end models and it has by far surpassed any other PC I have ever owned, despite taking its fair share of abuse - inc. gaming & video rendering.

Well I know a lot of Vaio users who would never have another. It's worth noting that very few companies buy them as Dells, HP, IBM a,d Toshiba offer a lot better value.

 

[Frutos]

I've got a Dell Studio 1737, works perfectly fine for what I require.

First laptop I've ever owned, and at this stage I'd gladly recommend it.

 

[bhaexpress]

My girlfriend has a two year old Vaio, works like a dream. Also, the guy two posts above you loves his three year old Vaio.

This Gateway is a beast of a machine, and has no problems whatsoever. Also, they supplied a full version of Vista x64 on CD, with the standard system restore options.

All round top notch.

As I say, my opinions are based on professional experience and over the years I would not buy either machine. Gateways are very rare now and as I say Sonys are overpriced and there's quite a few people on here that have had them and would agree with me.

Mind you, why hasn't somebody said 'Get a Mac' yet ?

 

[Foolg]

I have a 5735 acer, 3gb ram and 160 hard drive. Im really pleased with it, considering it was £300 and is far better spec than anything else for that price. It isnt the quickest, but for the money its fine.
My dad has a vaio and is pleased with that aswell, was about £380 but is only 2gb and 160 and that was in the sale. Its a faster laptop, just depends what you want really, but we are pleased and would recommend both!

 

[1066familyman]

As I say, my opinions are based on professional experience and over the years I would not buy either machine. Gateways are very rare now and as I say Sonys are overpriced and there's quite a few people on here that have had them and would agree with me.

Mind you, why hasn't somebody said 'Get a Mac' yet ?[/QUOTE]


From all the prices I've seen, I couldn't afford one. Besides which, I think I'd be totally out of my depth tech wise


Interesting to hear what you say about Sony's. My wife is convinced that they are over-priced and trading on the name alone. I just assumed you got what you pay for and that Sonys are obviously very good quality all round.

 

[dougdeep]

Laptops - Which? Reviews

 

[bhaexpress]

As I say, my opinions are based on professional experience and over the years I would not buy either machine. Gateways are very rare now and as I say Sonys are overpriced and there's quite a few people on here that have had them and would agree with me.

Mind you, why hasn't somebody said 'Get a Mac' yet ?[/QUOTE]


From all the prices I've seen, I couldn't afford one. Besides which, I think I'd be totally out of my depth tech wise


Interesting to hear what you say about Sony's. My wife is convinced that they are over-priced and trading on the name alone. I just assumed you got what you pay for and that Sonys are obviously very good quality all round.

Well first things first. Macs have a reputation for being more reliable than PCs. Granted in the early days there were a lot of badly made noname and cheap PCs around like Tiny and Time (they merged but still went out of business). There was also a lot more software available to the PC but Mac software had to be evaluated and licensed via Apple thus they had better quality control and thus more stable although they're not as foolproof as some Mac owners imply. However, Since I would say Windows 2000 the quality of software and hardware for PCs has improved and they are as reliable as any Mac.

Macs are supposedly easier however that's something that is normally said by somebody who started on a Mac but now uses a PC. Frankly I have used Macs on occasion but as I have PC background I prefer the PC. The last Mac I worked on I hated thanks to it's keyboard which had small buttons and not enough feel for my likes when depressed. However a lot of people would prefer that. It's more a question of what you're used to. A lot of the graphics type applications which used to be the preserve of Mac can now be done on a PC and therefore Macs in business are getting rarer. One thing that used to put people off Macs was that they were not easy to intergrate on to PC Wans and Lans which is why a lot of firms changed to PCs.

For home use it's a matter of personal preference but a Mac will always cost more than a PC with the same performance.

Sonys are frankly not worth the extra cost, an IBM is a much better machine but you could get a very high spec Dell of even HP or Asus for the sort of money that a moderate Sony would cost and as I say I have seen too many that have packed up.

I used to have a Sony PC which, had it not been on sale would have been a lot more expensive than as a Toshiba or any number of other TVs. I agree with your wife, you are paying for the name, you're not getting anything better.

 

[Acker79]

I have an acer aspire 6920, I'm very satisfied with it. It's is a bit big and heavy (is widescreen, blu ray, surround sound, full HD) but I'm not really travelling with it, so that doesn't bother me.