Laptop: Dell vs Acer?

[imamartian]

Which of these would you choose?

 

[Deluks]

Aw come on, give us a clue as to specs etc?

 

[imamartian]

lol, no, that'd be too easy.

I was after a quick straw poll about the company/kit generally

 

[yottie]

Never had a Dell, but have been using Acer Aspire 1360 for some-time,
great machine

 

[imamartian]

The two laptops i'm after are the same spec, and the same price...i've just not had any experience of Acer or Dell....

 

[bron]

I've personally always used Toshiba laptops, but one of the companies I deal with use alot of Dell desktop machines. The one thing I will say for dell is their returns for faulty parts is pretty bloody good. I often send them goosed hard drives and get replacements the day after I let them know of a problem.

I've never dealt with Acer.

 

[Diyisfun]

I've personally always used Toshiba laptops, but one of the companies I deal with use alot of Dell desktop machines. The one thing I will say for dell is their returns for faulty parts is pretty b****y good. I often send them goosed hard drives and get replacements the day after I let them know of a problem.

I've never dealt with Acer.

Is that because they are used to having faulty kit.

 

[MarkBarl]

Never seen an Acer in a business environment but lots of Dells. Have also had good experience with their returns. They picked up a laptop on a Friday I had it back by Wednesday with fully documented check and even replaced a damaged part I hadn't noticed.

 

[holmslaw]

I've had both. Was not impressed by the dell, the main problem was the height and sharpness of the sguare corners, gets very uncomfortable.
The acer has smooth low corners that avoid the above.
Also the dell cost £1500 and the acer £300, no contest as far as I'm concerned - acer evry time.

 

[chainsaw_masochist]

I've had both. Was not impressed by the dell, the main problem was the height and sharpness of the sguare corners, gets very uncomfortable.
The acer has smooth low corners that avoid the above.
Also the dell cost £1500 and the acer £300, no contest as far as I'm concerned - acer evry time.

I have had a Dell (8600) for three and a half years and I have never noticed the corners issue. Also, I cannot believe that the Acer model or the Dell are in anyway equivalent, given the price difference. Laptops have dropped in price immeasurably the last couple of years, so are you sure you are not referring to a recently purchased Acer model?

Acer's are made in China and I have heard mixed reviews. The Ferrari models are their flagship laptops and seem highly spec'd, but they run at about £1,200 - £1,500. My Dell (8600) has been a very reliable piece of kit and I would be unlikely to change when it is due for replacement. Unless the reviews say otherwise, of course.

Have a look at these CNET general reviews .

The current PC World is doing a test of a dozen models, though I think these are with 17 inch screens. Might be worth getting hold of a copy. Good luck.

 

[bron]

Is that because they are used to having faulty kit.

Heh. Well the client in question has about 600 of one unit in the field and we have on average 1 HDD failure per week. It's the only thing that has ever died on us in those Dells and that's due to the manner they are being used.

 

[roboughton]

Dell all the way for me. We buy them in work and always put the 3 yr warranty on them, had a few Mother Boards and a couple of faulty hinges on laptops, all of which are replaced within 24 hours normally.

 

[Deluks]

I've no idea what Acer support is like, but I seem to remember something about them having service centres across the globe, so if you are living abroad you can get it fixed without having to ship it, er, abroad or back to where you got it from.

 

[jaysta]

i'm an ict technician in schools and this is my finding so far

Acer - their laptops aren't as robust as Dells and i find that their warranty procedure is awful. why on earth would you have to buy the laptop with an extended warranty and then have to ring up or go online to register the warranty. also you have to send the laptop away and they send it back and their courier service is a bit finnicky

Dell - their laptops are robust and whenever they do go faulty it'll be for a very good reason. their tech support and warranty service is second to none. as for india call centres i've never had a problem with them and... it's not always an india call centre; i get india, england, scotland and ireland (boy it's brilliant when i hear an irish lass on the phone telling me about server updates)

another thing with Dell is that if there is a known issue with certain model of PC or laptop and a part is to be replaced to fix the issue then they will of course replace the part even if it's out of warranty... bonus!

Toshiba - their laptops are very up and coming and seem to be better built and more reliable than Acer; however their warranty service is like Acer's again but it seems to be the favourite amongst schools nowadays because of their low cost, performance, style and build

so take from this what you will; it's just what i've experienced and i'm thinking about purchasing a Dell Precision laptop soon

 

[stuartinlancashire]

I have an Acer Aspire 3050 and have had no issues with it.

I know of people who have had Dell PC's and don't have a good word to say about them, however I understand the quality of Dells laptops is quite good.