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Anytime you go computer shopping, you'll notice that ACER computers are always the cheapest. Anybody own one? How does it compare to other computers. How long did it last or if you still currently have an ACER how long did you have it?
08-04-2017, 07:29 PM
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They're okay I guess, but they tend to cut some corners that similarly-positioned models from other brands do not.
For example, they tried to make a competitor to things like the MacBook, HP Spectre, and Dell XPS 13. The result was fine, but they cut out basic things like keyboard backlighting. The caps lock key didn't even have an indicator LED. Internally, they didn't put in NVMe storage and they left out Thunderbolt 3 connectivity.
They also tend to have less than stellar build quality, and the keyboards are often bizarrely laid out (like sticking the tilde key next to the caps lock key or putting a delete key next to the space bar or completely eliminating the function keys). Also check the battery life. Some of their models are right down shameful (like the Aspire S7 pulling off less than four hours -for reference I can get about 12 out of my laptop).
I've had one for a year. I am happy with it at this point. I had to spend some time cleaning it up because it came with a lot of unwanted software installed.
The battery life is definitely a lot less than 12 hours.
I've had a small notebook of theirs for about 8 years. Except for the battery, it still works fine. It even upgraded to Win10 with no problems, not even motherboard level drivers.
I bought a refurbished Acer Aspire lappy roughly nine years ago, and I love it. A few keys have popped off since, but it's still 100% usable. It could use a new battery, but very rarely is it unplugged for any length of time.
IMO Acer makes junk. They're cheap because they use cheap components. You get what you pay for.
Normally ranked at or near the bottom, small uptick this year.
Thank you for the links. Both sites rank Acer above Apple. Odd.
The second link, Consumer Affairs, ranks brands such as Fujitsu and Gateway fairly high. Gateway doesn't even sell in retail channels in the US, and Fujitsu seems to be the same. Wonder how they did their ratings? Hmmm.
How do you know they use "cheap components"? You disassembled one? You know their parts vendors (who they source components from) and how to judge their quality?
I had a bad experience with Dell once (very bad - wrote to management) but that does not mean Dell "makes junk".
I had a bad experience with Dell once (very bad - wrote to management) but that does not mean Dell "makes junk".
I kind of feel the same way about HP. Everybody has their likes and dislikes. My general experience with them is that they use really cheap components but hey maybe they are not all like that. They do actually make a line of servers that have to be good quality to remain on the market, so they have to be decent and they may have at least two lines of products, consumer and pro.
As for Acer, I used to work for a company back in the 90's that supplied PC's to a lot schools in my area. We sold them by the 100's and I was in charge of servicing them. Surprisingly we had very few failures. I would say that at most it would be 1 out of 100 and probably more like 1 out of 300 systems that would actually fail. I don't know about today but back then they had ISO certified factories and they manufactured their own motherboards and monitors among other things. The quality was surprisingly high.
As for Dell, it is the one company I have very good luck with. Sure they fail but at a very low rate. All systems fail at one time or another.
Interestingly, the way most manufacturers make "cheap" computers is not by using "cheap" components, in the sense that cheap has a pejorative connotation, such as unreliable or lower quality. A better term would be "low cost", and that's achieved by having lower resolution panels, slower processors, smaller batteries (= shorter running times), less memory and slower storage. These limitations work fine for Acer's target market.
Regarding components, keep in mind that there are few manufacturers producing in huge volume, so many brands will have the same components.
An interesting side note is that the greatest component fiasco ever was early failure of power capacitors a few years ago, which hit all segments.
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