pisstaker — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 23:23:43 +0000

Acer are very popular in Spain and they seem to be really good value for money. Buy the best you can afford, it's all you can do.

Don't know that you need to think of owning the same laptop in 5 years time though?Seems a long time to expect the same machine to keep current. Desktops with nothing but the original case, could hold their own with a modern machine, maybe, but laptops? I have a 4 year old Powerbook that still does great for my needs, and it was the best that Apple had on offer at the time. Even with Apple's slow pace of change it is not exactly current now, and with Intel especially, next year I would expect it to be almost obsolete as a main machine.

But in terms of value for money, if you use it every day, a laptop is very cheap.

Marcus Couch — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 22:18:02 +0000

I agree with DDosAttack, make sure it's something you can live with. I once made the mistake of buying a DELL because it was on special.. Don't make the mistake of having to spend $500 on an upgrade when it could have been another $200 at initial purchase time.

benf — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 13:36:28 +0000

Thanks for the help.

DDoSAttack — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 17:35:31 +0000

Oh and one critical thing that I forgot to mention.

BEFORE you purchase your laptop, ask yourself...
Is this the laptop that I will want 5 years from now?

That might not sound like a long time but in tech years it is a lifetime.

The reason I bring this up is that a laptop is not very upgradable beyond the HDD and RAM.
There is no upgrading the video card (usually), processor, display, etc... You are stuck with what you buy until you get rid of the laptop.

Monkeyboy — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 09:12:19 +0000

I'm not that clued up on Laptops i'm afraid but I shall dispense what little I do know.

Unfortunately it's difficult to say if a laptop (or in fact any product) is good or not, simply from the brand name. Even the best companies in the world can make shoddy products and vice verse for the lesser companies.

Primarily you need to know exactly what you want your laptop to do. If you intend it for games you'll want a good video card, films you might want to get a widescreen. Is weight important to you? Does it really need to be 5mm thinner than 'that' other one? for example.

One of the biggest issues I have with laptops at the moment is battery life. If you want to be able to watch a film on the move, you don't want the battery to die an hour and a half into it. Fortunately the advent of new technologies is increasing the life dramatically however, once again i'm afraid my knowledge is limited on this.

I would say do a bit of research about what's hot and what's not (there should be plenty of laptop buyers guides around the interweb). Next write down exactly what you wan't your laptop to do and then find a few which fit this purpose as close as you can within your budget. Once you have your shortlist, search for reviews on the internet and if possible, see if any stores near you stock the laptop (or similar) so you can actually get down and see it in real life. When you're thinking of spending that kind of money I always say research, reseach, research.

Hmmm, I think I may have digressed a little. I think what i'm trying to say is, if the Laptop does everything you want it to do, then it's a good laptop. And yes, Acer is a very good make.

One guide to start you off - laptopmag.com
A bit about Acer curtousy of Wikipedia

Anyway that's just my two cents. Hope it helps

DDoSAttack — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 00:52:56 +0000

I had one and LOVED IT!!!

The only thing that could even come close to a complaint is that after a while (with lots of picking it up one handed, traveling with it, etc...) it seemed that something may have come loose inside and it would reboot when it was picked up just right. It was strange for sure but probably my fault for man-handling it.

Anyway I sold it to a friend so that I could afford to buy a server for my home/office network. I REALLY miss it though!!!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115257
^
This is basically the same exact one that I had except mine had the following specs that were different...

17" Wide Screen
Windows XP Pro
2 GB DDR RAM
80GB 5400rpm HDD

Also that spec sheet says that the battery life is 2hrs. I consistently got 3.5+ hours out of mine unless I was doing something major intense.

But probably the 2 things that were the most noticeable that I loved was the wide layout for the keyboard and hand rest area. Man you had tons of room and I have big hands so that was awesome. Also, the touchpad had a 4 direction scroller button in between the left click and right click button. Let me tell you that was invaluable. I didn't realize just how much I missed that until I had to use another laptop that didn't have that feature. It makes scrolling a snap.

Oh and I almost forgot... While it is a bit on the heavy side (around 6 or 7lbs) it is slim.

I would highly recommend getting one. Hope that helps, and if you get one let us know what your opinion is of it.