Posted on 05/28/2007 8:47:00 PM PDT by gov_bean_ counter
Has anyone had any experience with Acer laptop computers?
my flat panel monitor is an Acer and it’s great. Don’t know about the PCs
I can only tell you about my Acer LCD monitor experience. Bought at major price reduction as a back-up to CRTs. During testing, burn-in failed totally after 3 weeks. Acer honored their warranty. I had to pay to ship the dead unit back. Week later new unit arrived. Lasted one week. No more Acer, ever. If the unit had been my only one I would have been in deep trouble.
Since laptop LCD’s are the single most expensive component to repair you might want to reconsider buying Acer products for a student whom reliability is critical.
bought my frau one for christmas and she likes it.
I’d go for a ThinkPad; even a refurb. Bulletproof.
Reviews/ratings of Acer laptops:
http://reviews.cnet.com/4566-3121_7-0.html?filter=1000036_5245355_&tag=dffl2_6
I agree. My first laptop was an IBM ThinkPad 1400. It was built like a tank.
How much of your kid’s time do you want them troubleshooting, recovering from crashes, downloading patches, and installing anti-virus and spyware?
How long would you like the computer to last without having to buy another one?
If your kid’s time is valuable and you don’t want to waste an inordinate amount of their time, and would rather see them be productive, get a Mac. $1099 for a laptop is not much, and you can make installment payments. Also, I recommend the ProCare.
Also, you can get 10% off most Macs if you buy a refreshed or returned Mac. They’re still guaranteed.
Many schools are very Mac friendly. I urge you to do your homework. Time is money.
NO!! Don’t do it!!!
I’ve worked on three in the last month. All three bought new by people I know. They just flat out suck. They don’t even format their drives with the NTFS file system for a Windows XP install, they use FAT32 lol! The laptops were terrible. Being someone who works on computers on the side, I remember telling my wife that I wish more people would buy the dammed things because we would be rich!
I’ll second Covenantor’s remarks - with any PC (but especially a laptop) find out what hoops you’ll have to jump through in order to get it repaired. Find out if your child can send it in or if you have to present it yourself. Nail them down about what is covered under warranty and for how long.
The screen typically represents 75-85% of the total cost of a laptop. Make sure that, if repairs are needed, the unit doesn’t need to be shipped to China (or Mars).
When I return machines for service I always make certain that I am allowed to retain my hard drive (unless of course, the problem IS the hard drive ;’} They don’t need to know what is on the drive.
Personally, I’ll pay extra for a machine that can be seviced locally.
Good luck.
Mrs. F. has a cheapie Celeron Acer laptop (< $400 new) running XP.
It’s good for getting around on the internet (wirelessly — 802.11g included) and for watching DVDs. Its runs Office 2000 well.
It has stickers claiming that it’s “Vista ready,” but without a massive increase of RAM over 512 MB I doubt it.
Bottom line: It’s been good for basic computing over the last 6 months.
Go for the “Core 2 Duo”, which is better than “Dual Core”.
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