My HP laptop has gone to meet its maker and so I need a replacement, which will preferably not break the bank (baby imminent!) for a decent mid-range spec.

For what I want, I've seen an Acer Aspire laptop that looks good value, a good bit cheaper than the comparable HP or Dell offerings. Any notorious issues I should be aware of?

Got 2 of them for my kids to use when they are away at school, had them for over a year now, one without problems, on the other one the screen died. Apparently it is a known problem with the wide-screen Acer's, that if you are not careful opening the screen, you can kill it, if you pull it open from a corner the LCD screen does not like it and dies. A quick internet search found an excellent company who supplied a replacement a day or two later, an hour later the thing was restored to working order. The moral of the story is, open the screen from the middle and not the corner, otherwise no problems and would probably buy one again.

I'd go with a Thinkpad or something from Sony personally. The new Thinkpad X100 Edge is a mega thing for the money, much nicer than a netbook, but at a cheap price.

Acer should be good, but you'll get a better quality product from HP, Apple, Sony or Lenevo in my experience.

Neil @ Fawkes

i thought thinkpads were ibm

wii post

I have a acer 5739G£500 from simply acer website very pleased with it, good screen, feels solid and to date no problems and for the money the spec is very good

Mine was good for the price. Showing its age now but it's around 5 years old.

Acer here as well, it's been a great computer and way better specced than others at the same price.
Mines about a year old now.

My old work Acer managed 4 years of abuse, they seem ok.

And my sons has managed 14 months of teenage (ab)use…

I'd buy another.

I've got one, the screen went then the charger, other than that I just don't really like it but the wife loves it.
I'll be buying sony next time, as the previous ones ive had have been great.

The little Acer Netbooks look good

Acer Aspire 5735 form 'Simply Acer'.

Very good and would buy another, which is the test really.

All the best.

Thanks all, thats encouraging.

Am reading this on an Acer Aspire 3000. Was bargain basement model over 3 years ago and still going fine, despite some less than delicate handling.
The battery isn't great, lost its life pretty quickly. Non OEM batteries cause the laptop to crash on startup, a phenomenon that baffled the local PC shop until they saw a number of Acers all doing the same thing!
Would happily buy again.

Rob

Thinkpads used to be IBM 'till it was split off – but the build quality's been kept pretty decent AFAIA.
Toshiba does pretty well on reliability/customer service ratings too.

Used to manage a computer shop – wouldn't buy/sell or recommend an ACER.

Sony or Toshiba or maybe an HP

I got an Extensa 4220 free from BT a couple of years ago, still going strong – it has had a new screen but acer collected, repaired, and returned in 3 days. The battery is just starting to go but it's lasted as well as my previous £1.5k Vaio's did.
I'd buy another

Acer make laptops for a host of other names but spec of theirs seems better… I,m going to type quietly now just in case my old Acer 1800 hears me…. and decides to kick up a fuss…

They do seem very tough… and this one never seems to slow for basic work and family usage… and has 17" screen and windows media set up so gets used for everything… it often gets stored on its end next to the sofa… 😳

I would buy again… 😀

Daffy – Mine is considerably more reliable than the Toshiba, Sony, Dell and IBM/Lenovo laptops I've had over the last 8-10 years.

BTW, if you're one of those laptop users where it sits on a desk most of the time, pull the battery out when you have it on the mains power and sitting on your desk. My acer battery life is quite decent because of doing this (probably down 20% on new).

My parent's bought an Acer and the spec is great for the money. Whenever I've used it, I've been quite impressed with it.

They don't use it a great deal though (perhaps 3-4 times/week of web browsing & basic photo editing), so I can't really comment on reliability.

My brother in law just got a great deal on an HP laptop with widescreen & full number keyboard. I think it was £399 & it's quite a high spec – don't know where from though, sorry.

I used my first one for about 4-5 hours a day, lasted for 5 years before the screen went. Bought another a years ago for £350, no complaints whatsoever. As long as you never, ever have to call their 'help'line. But the laptops themselves are great.

mine's 6 years old (I think) and going strong, other than the battery and the power pack needed replaced. Otherwise its grand.

EDIT: And I use it almost every day. Certainly the past 2 years I've used it every day…

Been using the 5920g since April – several hours a day every day and it's not done anything wrong yet. If/when it eventually dies I'd happily get another 🙂

Might try the battery removal hint mentioned above as it's usually plugged in

I have an Acer Aspire one netbook. Had it (gussing) about 18 months/2 years. I use it for multiple hours every day. It really gets hammered. Very pleased with it. Will certainly look at buying an Acer again when it needs replacing. A friend bought an identical one and has been very happy with it too.

With other laptop brands, I have found Toshiba very reliable, as well as Acer.

I have bought 2 longer life batteries for my Acer (not Acer own brand) of 6 hour and 9 hour battery life and both have worked fine, so the problem mentioned above with some not accepting non OEM batteries can't apply to all Acer units.

Acer 5210 so far so good, still going strong after 2 years and I would buy another Acer, my son has an Asus wich is also a very good laptop, infact better than mine 😕