Acer Laptop - Is this a good deal?

[Pat H]

What's the opinion on Acer? This would be my everyday computer. I mainly do emails, surfing, games & storing grandkids photos.

Price is $499.99
Includes notebook, six-cell lithium-ion battery, AC adapter
2.0GHz AMD Athlon 64 processor TF-36
AMD M780G chipset
15.6" diagonal widescreen HD TFT display with 1366x768 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio
2GB DDR2 667 SDRAM
320GB hard drive
SuperMulti drive, double-layer support
Acer InviLink Nplify 802.11b/g/Draft-N wireless LAN
Integrated ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics
WMV 9 support, H.264/AVC decoding
Support for simultaneous display on notebook LCD/external monitor
Two integrated stereo speakers
High-definition audio support
Microsoft DirectSound-compatible
Crystal Eye Web cam, mic; supports PrimaLite technology
10/100 ethernet
5-in-1 memory card reader: MMC, SD, MS, MS Pro, xD
Two USB 2.0 ports
VGA, RJ-45 ports
DC input
Headphone/speaker/line-out/mic jacks
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
MS Works 8.5
60 days of MS Office Home & Student 2007
McAfee Internet Security Suite trial
Adobe Acrobat Reader

 

[DaveNV]

Sounds like a fine machine for your needs. Not great, but a good worker that should provide a lot of use. Acer is an okay brand, on about the same quality level with Gateway these days.

You may want to see about whether there's room to add RAM. Two gigs isn't much. The six cell battery won't give a long time of use, but it should last a few hours, anyway. If you need it to be on battery power for longer, see about purchasing a nine cell battery. You'll want to do that when the laptop is new - buying one a couple of years later is nearly impossible.

If you like the touch and feel of the keyboard, and if the screen image is clear and bright, you're probably going to be happy with it. Definitely test it before buying, if you can. Nothing more annoying with a laptop than not liking the key design, or things like placement of the Delete key. Ctrl-Alt-Del is a pain when you can't find the darn Del key.

I'd probably buy it.

Dave

 

[JordanRHughes]

Looks like a decent machine. The only red flag for me though would be the integrated video. Though at least its Radeon, which is a far cry better than intel's integrated junk.
The res on the display is a little low also but not that big of a deal, especially if you are going to plug a monitor into it (which is what I do).

For $500 though man, that's a pretty solid deal.

What's the opinion on Acer? This would be my everyday computer. I mainly do emails, surfing, games & storing grandkids photos.

Price is $499.99
Includes notebook, six-cell lithium-ion battery, AC adapter
2.0GHz AMD Athlon 64 processor TF-36
AMD M780G chipset
15.6" diagonal widescreen HD TFT display with 1366x768 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio
2GB DDR2 667 SDRAM
320GB hard drive
SuperMulti drive, double-layer support
Acer InviLink Nplify 802.11b/g/Draft-N wireless LAN
Integrated ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics
WMV 9 support, H.264/AVC decoding
Support for simultaneous display on notebook LCD/external monitor
Two integrated stereo speakers
High-definition audio support
Microsoft DirectSound-compatible
Crystal Eye Web cam, mic; supports PrimaLite technology
10/100 ethernet
5-in-1 memory card reader: MMC, SD, MS, MS Pro, xD
Two USB 2.0 ports
VGA, RJ-45 ports
DC input
Headphone/speaker/line-out/mic jacks
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
MS Works 8.5
60 days of MS Office Home & Student 2007
McAfee Internet Security Suite trial
Adobe Acrobat Reader

 

[Elan]

Doesn't seem like a bad deal, but that's a pretty weak processor. What about this (for $30 more)?

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/497949/MSI-A6200-206US-156-LED-Widescreen/

 

[mrfred]

keep an eye out for sales. for $500, you should get 4G memory and 500M hard drive.

 

[isisdave]

I love my Acers, and they've all been very reliable. You should be able to get a little more powerful machine for $499, which is what I paid for my Aspire 5740-5513 notebook (Intel i3, 4Gb, 320Gb). Or find that model for a little less. Check the usual buying sites findable through Google, and also look in the Sunday papers' ads for Staples, Office Depot, OfficeMax, etc.

The only shortcoming I've found so far is that Acer rarely provides a Firewire port, which is only necessary for downloading video from video cameras.

 

[Timeshare Von]

I have an Acer mini and love it. It has a great battery life and is perfect for backpack traveling light.

 

[MULTIZ321]

Pat,

Have you seen the review of the Acer Aspire AS5741Z-5433 in PCMag.com?

Richard

 

[ownsmany]

I have 3 (yes 3 ) acers. I love them. I use all the time as my primary home / travel computer. I ended up with 3 - as my kids are always wanting the computer. I would recommend the extended warrenty. One of mine is broken now, and I didn't purchase the extended plan (urgh).

Good luck.

 

[Elan]

Here's a much better laptop (core i3 mobile, 4GB DDR3, 500GB HD, 9 cell battery), IMHO, for only $50 more:

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellst...cd=10550055-249294-996424068&dgc=CJ&cid=24471

 

[John Cummings]

Pat,

Have you seen the review of the Acer Aspire AS5741Z-5433 in PCMag.com?

Richard

That review is for a different model laptop. It has the dual core Intel Pentium. When checking reviews, you have to look only at the specific model you are interested in as the reviews often vary widely between different models of the same brand.

Consumer Reports rates the Acer as the worst of all the laptops in this category.

 

[John Cummings]

You can get many laptops with more memory for a better price. I consider 2GB of RAM to be a minimum especially for gaming.

I definitely would buy on-line. I only buy Dell computers on-line from the Dell Small Business division ( anybody can buy there ). I have bought 5 laptops and 2 desktops from Dell and never had a problem with them. Their prices go up and down almost on a daily basis depending on what discounts and free upgrades they are offering that day.

I also recommend Amazon.com. I have bought many things from them. They generally have very good prices and no sales tax and free shipping. Their customer service is good. There is a secret to shopping Amazon.com. Don't just go to their web site. Instead do a search for the item you are interested in including model number ( i.e. Dell Vostro 1520 prices ). You will often find a cheaper price through one of Amazon's 3rd party vendors. You will still be buying it from Amazon but it will come from the 3rd party vendor. I have saved as much as 40% off of the price for the same item listed directly on Amazon.com. It just takes a little looking.

Cnet and NexTag are both good sites for comparing prices and if you plug in your Zip Code, you will get the out the door price including shipping and sales tax if any. Both Cnet and NexTag should come up in a search for the product. This applies to all products and not just computers.

 

[beachsands]

keep an eye out for sales. for $500, you should get 4G memory and 500M hard drive.

I bought a Lenovo for $450 with 4gig Ram, 500 gig HD built in camera, stereo sound system, a way better machine then a ACER. I also have an Acer as well and would never buy another. No sound volume whats so ever. It did a total crash on me a month after I bought it and the recovery disks would not work so i had to pack it up and send it acer so they could do what ever they do. Since then I have also replaced the Hard Drive. In my opinion stay away from Acer computers.

Joel

 

[Clemson Fan]

You should check-out the Acer Timeline series. I bought the 12" netbook version a couple of months ago and I really love it. What makes the timeline series special is that they're very thin and light and the battery easily lasts for 8+ hours. They're able to achieve this b/c they use these newer intel ultra low voltage (ULV) processors which are still very speedy with a low power consumption. Also, it remains cool in your lap and doesn't heat up like a normal laptop.

The timeline series comes in all different sizes and configurations. I think 2 of the better places to shop for them are www.tigerdirect.com and www.newegg.com

I highly recommend the acer timeline series!

 

[moumou]

I have an Acer mini and love it. It has a great battery life and is perfect for backpack traveling light.

 

[JordanRHughes]

Definitely, the Acer machines are pretty solid and are really reasonably priced.

Looks like a decent machine. The only red flag for me though would be the integrated video. Though at least its Radeon, which is a far cry better than intel's integrated junk.
The res on the display is a little low also but not that big of a deal, especially if you are going to plug a monitor into it (which is what I do).

For $500 though man, that's a pretty solid deal.

You should check-out the Acer Timeline series. I bought the 12" netbook version a couple of months ago and I really love it. What makes the timeline series special is that they're very thin and light and the battery easily lasts for 8+ hours. They're able to achieve this b/c they use these newer intel ultra low voltage (ULV) processors which are still very speedy with a low power consumption. Also, it remains cool in your lap and doesn't heat up like a normal laptop.

The timeline series comes in all different sizes and configurations. I think 2 of the better places to shop for them are www.tigerdirect.com and www.newegg.com

I highly recommend the acer timeline series!

 

[tompalm]

keep an eye out for sales. for $500, you should get 4G memory and 500M hard drive.

concur with this. I would not buy unless it had 4Gs of memory. Also, Consumer Reports ranks HP and Toshiba as the best notebooks. I usually buy computers from Costco just because they give you a two year warranty with the company that you bought the computer from. That extra year is worth about $100, but it is included in the price at Costco.

If you don't need a notebook, go for a desktop and get a lot better video card, display, more memory and cooling for about the same price.