Acer Netbook

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Give something from the ASUS eee PC 1xxx line a look. I've been quite happy with my 1005PE. Small, super portable, and a good keyboard.

The 13 hour quoted battery life is more like 11 in my experience, and that was before I put in a SSD. It does vary by model, some googling should get you some real world numbers quick.

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...9/Default.aspx

[OilKiller]

Yup, that is the one I have found in my searches as being the best in battery life. How do you find it for speed? The Acer was pretty snappy.

And of course they have some in Calgary, but are out of stock here in Edmonton...damn.

[REDVAN]

I bought a laptop a month ago, and I practically taught the guys selling it to me what was up and what was down. Not that I am a computer genius by any means, but moreso because I can actually read and can find information.

That sucks you didn't get what you wanted first time. I am a desktop guy who wanted some portability so I got a laptop- not sure I could I could have gone down to a netbook, too small for me. But, that said, what made you go for that?

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

I don't even know if I believe H&L about his Acer fetish, simply because anyone with even a modicum of knowledge in PC land would choose a slightly higher quality machine such as an ASUS. It just sounds implausible that anyone with any interest in computers chooses Acer at all.


The only way I can see this is if H&L is buying on price with the very strict understanding that an Acer netbook is disposable, something that might, MIGHT last two years before physically falling apart or the battery failing completely, at which point he will buy another disposable machine.

Acer is what suckers get from Best Buy, go home, and end up disappointed one way or another, just like OP. Miserable machines bought from miserable stores, that never ever hope to meet or exceed expectations.

I assure you that I am quite earnest in that regard. Acer is perfectly fine and I have never had a bad experience with them and they last more than 2 years if you take care of them properly. That applies to just about everything. I have an Asus Netbook too but that hardly gets any use (maybe because it's running Linux).

If you have a decent knowledge of computers and electronics, that also includes the ability to get the biggest bang for your buck, the ability to fix problems when they come up, or to look for bargains. I have bought many broken blackberries and dead videocards off ebay only to reflow in my toaster to make into perfectly good working electronics. I enjoy doing that. I was raised by my parents to be the biggest penny pincher and patcher-upper you have ever seen. I've even considered turning my bathroom into a clean room to try to dissect a harddrive but that's probably a few years away. Besides, not everyone's time or income is as valuable as yours

Acers have always met my expectations and have exceeded them on one or two occasions. I don't see anything inherently wrong with them. Maybe Joe Blow consumer will run into some issues but I know how to use and take care of hardware properly and I take pride in saving money and never spending for the biggest shiniest thing that everybody has. If I can't get it cheap enough here, I'd rather build it myself (as I have from barebones Compal notebook chassis I got from Taiwan).

If an Acer really failed me in a big way, I'll be the first one to post back in here. So far, so good.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by OilKiller

Well, I turned it on this morning, and with a full charge, it only shows 3 1/2 hours remaining. So their 4 hours sounds about right (with no usage and screen dimmed). Not enough for me. It's going back. I will look for a unit with a 6 cell battery so I can get at least 6 good hours to 8 out of it.

As ken0042 said, you can always buy another battery for it online. It would mean you are stuck with a extra 3 cell battery that wouldn't be worth it to resell though.

In my quest for cheapness, I've dabbled with various Chinese batteries for my EeePC off dealextreme and they've actually had amazing life, just I don't know how long that will continue over the course of a year or two. I'm going to China in a few days to the hub of where everything from real Apples to knockoffs are manufactured and going to see if I can score a cheap Android tablet which would suit all my needs and be a good coffee table thing as well.

[OilKiller]

Originally Posted by REDVAN

That sucks you didn't get what you wanted first time. I am a desktop guy who wanted some portability so I got a laptop- not sure I could I could have gone down to a netbook, too small for me. But, that said, what made you go for that?

I was looking for something fairly inexpensive. If I had a few more hundred bucks to play with, I would buy a regular laptop, but alas...

I went back, returned it and got the next step up Acer netbook. Has a 250 GB HD instead of 160, still the same dual core processor and 1 GB or RAM. But, it has a 6 cell battery, so we should be good now. Cost $60 more so all in all, not bad at all.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally Posted by OilKiller

Yup, that is the one I have found in my searches as being the best in battery life. How do you find it for speed? The Acer was pretty snappy.

It's great - handles mail, surfing and MS Office just fine. Love taking it travelling as it's incredibly small - I would have killed for something like this back in University. I loaded it up with some extra ram I had around but the best thing you can do is nuke the OEM install and get a clean install on there. The ASUS OEM has a bit of bloat wear that I found slowed things down. That and it came with W7 Starter, and I put home premium on there. And that was before the SSD which has helped out with speed and battery life noticeably.


For the Acer haters here, I'm not sure that they understand the semi disposable role of these units. For the record, I do have an Acer Pentium Dual Core notebook that's still soldiering on after 4 years. Yes it's construction is no where as good as a Thinkpad or Apple. But Acers are usually cheaper. I didn't pay a lot for this laptop and I'm perfectly happy to toss it and get something newer and better. Think of it as the Ikea of computing.

After all, who really wants to use a 7 year old computer, regardless of manufacturer?

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

I assure you that I am quite earnest in that regard. Acer is perfectly fine and I have never had a bad experience with them and they last more than 2 years if you take care of them properly. That applies to just about everything. I have an Asus Netbook too but that hardly gets any use (maybe because it's running Linux).

If you have a decent knowledge of computers and electronics, that also includes the ability to get the biggest bang for your buck, the ability to fix problems when they come up, or to look for bargains. I have bought many broken blackberries and dead videocards off ebay only to reflow in my toaster to make into perfectly good working electronics. I enjoy doing that. I was raised by my parents to be the biggest penny pincher and patcher-upper you have ever seen. I've even considered turning my bathroom into a clean room to try to dissect a harddrive but that's probably a few years away. Besides, not everyone's time or income is as valuable as yours

Acers have always met my expectations and have exceeded them on one or two occasions. I don't see anything inherently wrong with them. Maybe Joe Blow consumer will run into some issues but I know how to use and take care of hardware properly and I take pride in saving money and never spending for the biggest shiniest thing that everybody has. If I can't get it cheap enough here, I'd rather build it myself (as I have from barebones Compal notebook chassis I got from Taiwan).

If an Acer really failed me in a big way, I'll be the first one to post back in here. So far, so good.

So you are used to repairing marginal equipment and performing extensive maintenance to keep your Acer's running, and you consider that perfectly fine. That's great, and I admire the DYI spirit, but its not consistent with the experiences of many people, nor consistent with the expectations of reliability of the average person. For $50 more in the netbook space, you can move from an Acer to an Asus. I think, if you asked around, you'd be very, very hard pressed to find any professional in the business who wouldn't make that recommendation.

You can tease me about my ideas of time wasted as a hidden cost to everyday life, but for ordinary users (which neither you nor me are), its myopic to think that saving money by trading off increased maintenance or care requirements is a good, cost effective solution for casual users. It takes a certain kind of person (you!) to extract not only value, but pleasure, from caring for marginal hardware

[theonlywhiteout]

i wonder if fanin80 ever gets exhausted roaming CP to defend apples honour? i mean cmon man, i love my iphone too but its just a company.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

For the Acer haters here, I'm not sure that they understand the semi disposable role of these units.
....
After all, who really wants to use a 7 year old computer, regardless of manufacturer?

Yeah, netbooks blur the line on disposability for sure.

How many years, do you think, you should reasonably expect a $350 netbook to last, assuming reasonable care? I'm thinking a $350 machine should last maybe 1.5 years, anything beyond that is bonus.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Yeah, netbooks blur the line on disposability for sure.

How many years, do you think, you should reasonably expect a $350 netbook to last, assuming reasonable care? I'm thinking a $350 machine should last maybe 1.5 years, anything beyond that is bonus.

Then buy an Acer by that logic

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Then buy an Acer by that logic

Hahaha...touche

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by theonlywhiteout

i wonder if fanin80 ever gets exhausted roaming CP to defend apples honour? i mean cmon man, i love my iphone too but its just a company.

Oh for the love of... Did you even read anything?

I didn't say a bloody word about Apple. The Acer fanboy did.

[sclitheroe]

I'm going to reflow this thread in my toaster

[FanIn80]

Yeah... I'm going to re-schmozzelize this thread in my waffle iron...

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Yeah, netbooks blur the line on disposability for sure.

How many years, do you think, you should reasonably expect a $350 netbook to last, assuming reasonable care? I'm thinking a $350 machine should last maybe 1.5 years, anything beyond that is bonus.

I'd say it's higher than 1.5 years. For any non upgradable item like a Netbook, Notebook, or Tablet - my expectations are to get me through to the next "big" product cycle - 3-4 years.

My cheap-o Acer notebook is a great example of this. I think I paid $350-400 (some RFD sale) for it. A Dell Inspiron would have been 550-600 and a Latitude $700ish. Macbook $1200ish.

I have no doubt anything of the above would be in better shape than my creaky Acer but frankly at 3-4, I'd rather heave it and get something new. Reliability is good. Don't want problems during that 3-4 period. But I could care less about durability as long as I get to the 3-4 year mark.

That depends of course on your usage. As a roving consultant I used to live and die 18 hours a day on my trusty T series Thinkpad. No way do I use an Acer for that role.

Just a classic case of the right horse for the right course.

[OilKiller]

Well, regardless of the Acer haters in this thread, I'm happy with my purchase. I haven't tested the battery life yet, but will today when the game is on. I loaded all my stuff on it last night, loaded FF and a few other things, cleaned off all the crap that comes pre-installed and it seems to be running smooth and is quite fast for a netbook IMO.

If I get between 6 - 8 hours battery life with full usage, I'll be happy.