Reply With QuoteI've had two Acer laptops over the last four years - they do what I want and they haven't blown up.
Mostly I was buying on price/performance ratio and I've not been disappointed.
I've not seen a Gemstone in the plastic though ...
I was in John Lewis on Tuesday and was looking at one of these, the 18.4" version
http://www.acer.com/gemstoneblue/uk/
I really like the looks and seems to be well spected, well considering my currant laptop spec.
Anyone have any experience of the brand or advice to offer.
Cheers,
Ben
..... for I have become the Jedi of flippers
" an extravagance is anything you buy that is of no earthly use to your wife "
I've had two Acer laptops over the last four years - they do what I want and they haven't blown up.
Mostly I was buying on price/performance ratio and I've not been disappointed.
I've not seen a Gemstone in the plastic though ...
Fine as a desktop replacement, if you're not going to take it out and about too much. I've had two - one for work, motherboard failed after a couple of years but Acer changed it for £170 out of warranty, but it had travelled alot and spent quite a bit of time on building sites. My g/f still has one and still going okay, but only used at home.
Both myself and my old housemate had Acer laptops from the Travelmate series (about 2 years ago). They both seemed to run OK and did what they were supposed to do. Sort of.
After 11 months the hinges on mine gave way and snapped. The quality of the construction was (though I'm not so sure about now) appalling, with crap plastic and paint that rubbed off. This was the same with my mate's as well, just badly made! His battery also gave up the ghost after about 10 months. Both of them used to overheat unacceptably and rendered themselves useless if used actually on your lap! Finally, just to finish them off, the chargers died after about 12 months.
Basically, neither my friend nor myself would buy another Acer.
I my experience the Acer Laptops are very good value for money
I work for Leeds Building Society and we always used to buy Toshiba or Compaq Laptops but we were really pleased with a batch of Acer Laptops we purchased after been recommended them by a supplier. We have now started buying Acer and compliants are few.
I think alot of people buy a laptop and expect it to be as robust as a Desktop and perform hour after hour. They won't because computers produce heat lots of heat and laptops can't get rid of the heat like a desk top. I try and avoid DVD rewriters as these produce a tremendous amount of heat. Buy an external DVD rewriter and get the heat out of the Laptop. If you're wanting a computer that is on nearly all the time that is cheaper and performs best - buy a Desktop
Last comment - If you're still looking for a laptop/computer give Frank Wells (wellsy) a call - He supplies them for a living, gives real good deals and he's a top Bloke.
Lee
Originally Posted by ben4watches
Shit Ben - Ignore the advice on my last post - I didn't realise you wanted a CURRANT laptop - they're far to fruity for me to comment on :lol:
Try an Apple - they're fruity :lol:
Lee
Hi Ben,
I bought 4 after taking advice from a friend in the IT dept. at the BBC.
We has 2 of the carbon fibre models for the office,on 1 the hinge broke and 1 the hard drive went down just after the warranty expired.
The other 2 were cheaper ~£500 models (Aspire 5100 which I'm using to send this)) both of which the L click switch failed whilst under warranty which was classed as misuse and weren't covered.On 1 of these the battery failed and the replacement failed out of box.
We have now replaced them with 2 Sony Vaio's which are in a different class.
Biggest issue which I don't like is the keyboard flexes whilst typing.
ATB
Chris
A good point, I think. I almost always used portables (the first system I bought was merely luggable -- a KayPro II, with dual 360K floppies and 64K memory) until '95 or '96 when I wanted to set up a webserver in my office. Then I started to discover the joys of a big box for the computer: better cooling, lots of room to have spare disks, incremental upgrades, ....
Best wishes,
Bob
Acer is a decent low end brand that can take a beating - I have one for travel and on my desk. However, my favorite laptop brand is HP as in my experience, they are extremely sturdy ( e.g. survived drops, bangs and wallops) and I'm on an old HP Pavillion that is ...well, I've decided not to say it as it may go boom right after I do. :twisted:
Brother in Law has one which has been faultless since he got it - bought in the US last year.
Eldest son has one and he's about to send it back under warranty. Screen randomly displays pink dots and the return spring one of the touchpad mouse keys has gone so it's always in the down position. Bought in the UK last year.
I guess it's like most things, there's good batches and not so good batches.
Re Laptops and big boxes. My IBM T41 is as robust as any big box and sits in it's docking station in an operational state 24 hrs/day most days of the week and has done now for over 2 years. Before that, it was my works computer and was docked/used 10 hrs a day at work and then some on an evening at home. Only real advantages of big boxes is games play and disk capacity, though the latter I've addressed with a Maxtor external drive. :) I have a big box which I built myself, but it's relegated to being a print server now. :roll:
Best Regards - Peter
I'd hate to be with you when you're on your own.
It is difficult to find a laptop with SCSI (although there are probably some out there somewhere). ECC, registered memory? ;)
Best wishes,
Bob
True.It is difficult to find a laptop with SCSI (although there are probably some out there somewhere). ECC, registered memory? ;)
Best wishes,
BobBut then, with everything built in, why would you want SCSI in a laptop? :wink: :bom:
Best Regards - Peter
I'd hate to be with you when you're on your own.
Cheers Lee
The T series IBM's as stated above have cosistantly proved to be
one of the most robust products. Every engineer I know uses them.
Frank
The simple fact of the matter is that with little effort you'll find computer forums where none of the members would never touch a, say, Sony because they find them unreliable, over-priced and under-specced. Or HP. Or Dell, or well you name the brand. Most of them, Macs included, are made in one of three Far East factories and rebranded. The components are standard throughout - Acer didn't say to their factory 'hey guys, we want 'em cheap, so stick hard drive cast-offs in'.
In choosing one to buy, write the model with the spec you like on a piece of paper, then another until you've specced and priced half a dozen, cover your eyes and pick one.
I've had reasonable luck with all three of my heavily used machines, a 2001 Compaq, a 2004 Dell (both eBay purchases) and the Dell I bought new last January.
I've had a couple of Acers, and they were "OK". A couple of problems that were fixed under warranty, but mostly "OK".
Bearing in mind that a large percentage of any laptop will be generic parts, I think Glamdring got it about right. I bought Fujitsu and Gateway models to replace the Acers, based on spec and price.
Thanks for all your input and advice.
I have been using a 17" hp laptop for the last 3 years and it has never left my desk so I suppose you could ask whether I actually need a laptop. I mainly bought it for space saving reasons and it has proved faultless apart from over heating occassionally and the battery has long since been able to hold a charge.
The sensible thing would be buy a desk top and run my laptop as a second pc. I would guess a well spected deskyop would be a lot cheaper than a comparable laptop.
I would have upgraded a long time ago but being the worlds worst technophobe I have shyed away from doing so as I have no idea of setting these things up with all my email settings and security and web stuff.
I guess I will get around to replacing it soon when I decide I am up to the task :)
Cheers,
Ben
..... for I have become the Jedi of flippers
" an extravagance is anything you buy that is of no earthly use to your wife "
Shame I don't live a bit close I'd have come and done it for you
regards Lee
Acer Laptops
As a alternative to PC world i was recommend Laptops2go
They have a huge range of acer laptops
see here
https://www.laptops2go.co.uk/collections/acer-laptops
They also offer free returns
https://www.laptops2go.co.uk/
Last edited by siqbal19891; 24th February 2020 at 12:21.
Holly thread resurection!
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
A first post advert. That'll go down well
Best Regards - Peter
I'd hate to be with you when you're on your own.
Okay my bad, our Parisien's 2009 bump this morning was topped
Love it when you read a whole thread to see its from over a decade ago. This post from the past has just used up some of my future, or present... Or is it past..
Bye bye:
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