About to buy a couple of laptops

S

Stormwalker

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 8, 2004
Messages
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I know nothing about laptops, and briefly learned a thing or two by reading the faqs on this forum. I hate to be the stereotypical poster that posts "what should I get?" or whatever, I actually have one picked out. I was just wondering if I could swing it by a few other people and get some last minute opinions.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115325

I am planning on ordering 2 of them, and they will be used for fieldwork (auditing). Let me know if I am way off base in trying to find a decent laptop. I'm placing the order in an hour or so.

Thanks for any opinions or input.
 
I placed an order for one of my clients in October for a sister model.

I was very impressed with it, and would happily suggest that laptop over anything of equivalent specs or price that you'd get at Best Buy or anything.

Far better than the Toshibas, Dells, HPs, etc. in that price range, as far as quality goes.
 
I only have one gripe about those acer notebooks. The batteries they come with suck ass. Most of there cheap notebooks I've seen are like that. Battery life is listed as up to 2 hours on the egg which is sad as most notebooks with those specs will hit 3 or higher. Other then that acer seems to have some good units. If battery life means much of anything see if you can get a bigger battery for it(not sure if you can). If not then go for it.
 
Not a big fan of xga myself. Check with acer and see if they have a 6 cell battery or something you can get for it. Otherwise the asus has more of the battery life you should get with that platforum.
 
Be warned about these laptops.

We were foolish and purchased about 20 or so Acer Travelmates for our corporate fleet about a year ago. I will never purchase another Acer notebook again.

1.) Travelmates are cheaply made. Not much to be said here about this because unless you get something like a IBM/Lenovo or some variant of a Toughbook, you get a notebook made out of plastic. Some of them didn't even survive being toted around the office, much less field work. The hinges are poor, the outside is prone to getting deep scratches and grooves, and some of the latches have begun to broke.

2.) Out of the 25 Acer notebooks we have, we've had to RMA 6 of them. There are countless others that come back with Windows related problems (issues with the Intel 2200BG cards come to mind instantly) that have to be serviced. Acer's recovery mechanism is somewhat slick, but if you have to do it fairly frequently, what's the use?

3.) Forget about support. Acer's phone techs are the worst. phone. techs. evar. Whenever I deal with them, I have to force them to email me information, otherwise they will not record it.All but one conversation with these guys has been painful and downright anger inducing. Some of these guys are the rudest people i've ever had the hassle of calling. (Which says alot, I used to do L1 and L2 support for Dell many moons ago). I had an RMA in limbo for weeks, simply because one joker didn't want to complete a ticket number. I can't speak to the depths of their troubleshooting knowledge personally, but I do know that they have sent several of my colleagues beyond frustration.

Above all, the price is nice. But seriously, think about the caveats above. IMO, I would recommend something like an Lenovo R50E, any entry level Toshiba or Fujitsu, or even a VAIO before an Acer. Think twice about this purchase, especially if this field work is any level of being physically demanding on the notebook.
 
if they are built like ^^^ said, definately take a look at the R50e. i'm sorry but i recommend it to everyone as a great, solid built IBM notebook. :)
 
I would look in to IBM or hell even HP laptops before anything else. Remember you get what you pay for.
 
I have a Acer I am happy with it, as a cheap notebook. This notebook cost me something like $500 came with a new router and printer. Now it is nothing special and I use it at a desk alot, but I do do take it out alot also. The plastic isnt as good as other laptops, but good enough.
But if you are going to use a laptop on the go alot, I would suggest a IBM.
 
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