I have had 3 HP's in a row and have been happy with them, without any issues. I usually switch them out every 3 years as the battery gets bad and technology progresses and am really lazy about backing it up and don't have to be studious about backing it up all of the time. It is really used as a desktop 96% of the time, that stays on 24/7 and I travel with it about twice a year. I only use it for business software like quickbooks and surfing the internet and emails. No gaming or anything like that.
How is Acer as far as general quality and longevity go? Office Depot has an ACer with great specs going on sale on the 7th with a FHD screen and I think 1 TB hard drive and 8GB ram +16 GB of some other ram I'm not familiar with and I5 for around $529. The comparably priced HP has similar specs with 12 GB ram but only a HD screen. The comparably priced Dell is 8.75lbs so that is out of the picture. Lenovo also has one in that price range but I've heard somewhere that their quality is garbage. I want new, not refurbished.
I don't think any Lenovo model is "garbage" compared to Acer. I'd buy almost any HP, Dell or Lenovo laptop before I would consider an Acer. To me, they're one of the lower tier manufacturers.
Posts: 4090 | Location: NC | Registered: December 20, 2004
Last week, while browsing Lenovo's site, there was an offer for a $100 coupon with an email signup. After about a week, the email arrived and said it was good off of any system, including sale prices.
I think it would be worth your time to sign up for this coupon. I believe Lenovo will reply with a unique code for you to use. I hope it helps you.
Acer is a lower tier brand I personally would avoid. Lenovo is good if you get one that says ThinkPad on it. I am using our Lenovo E520 right now and it is still going strong after 5 years of age though I did replace battery. Found new Lenovo battery for $35.
I looked at 3 today at Office Depot. The Acer was what I was leaning towards, but their was a Lenovo that has a 2in1 that I liked as well (but have zero use for the 2in1 but that's just what Office Depot had. Both had FHD screens and the screen was noticeably better than the just HD screen of any of the HP's including the one I was interested in. Scratch the Acer off the list, here are the 2 I've narrowed it down to, but really want the FHD on the Lenovo:
You could maybe get a Dell Latitude 3590 in that range. Probably close to top of your price range.
We order them pretty regularly, with 4GB RAM, Intel i5 & platter HDD. We add a stick of RAM & an SSD (cheaper than ordering that config from the start, faster delivery too).
Fairly light as well, cheapish plastics, but a durable machine.
I’ve had Acer before with zero issues. Have two Lenovo machines now. Had to replace a display on one. Not thrilled. I compare features and go for the best bang for the buck.
Posts: 4354 | Location: Peoples Republic of Berkeley | Registered: June 12, 2008
Thanks guys. I ended up remember that Costco sold laptops and doubled the warranty to 2 years warranty and so forth, and I think the Costco visa card doubles the warranty again. I ended up going with this Lenovo for $599 because it has a FHD screen with 2 GB NVIDIA GeForce MX130 video card, 256gb SSD hard drive and 8 gigs of 2400 MHz ram...….
