Lenovo vs Acer

[Jackyc]

Here are the two systems that I'm deciding on

Lenovo-
i5 2410
ATI 6370 1GB
8gb ram


Acer-
i5-2410
GT 520 1GB
2gb ram

Similar prices, but one has better video card, but less ram and vice versa.
Which one should I go with?

 

[Pardus]

Had nothing but bad experiences with acer in the past 6 months. There tech support and repair center in TX is a absolute joke.

 

[killster1]

ya i hear of people getting sent back items that are still broken with acer but i have had good luck with that brand and know nothing about lenovo.. i would buy acer and upgrade the ram.. if u can upgrade the gpu on both laptop ur self then see how good the other brand is i guess....

 

[Brainonska511]

Totally depends on which Lenovo. The consumer grade stuff from Lenovo (IdeaPads) is okay; Thinkpads (business-grade) are great.

 

[slugg]

Totally depends on which Lenovo. The consumer grade stuff from Lenovo (IdeaPads) is okay; Thinkpads (business-grade) are great.

Totally depends on which Thinkpad. The consumer grade stuff (Edge) is okay; real Thinkpads (business grade... T, X, W series) are great.


OP: I've never, ever, in my entire life, had a good experience with Acer. Furthermore, none of my friends have, either. Now sprinkle a little salt on that and let it marinade...

edit: I should add that my only experience with Lenovo has been with Thinkpads... so I can't really comment on the IdeaPads. They're two totally different machines.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Lenovo > Acer IMO as well.

 

[webyguy]

I had a acer machine totally for browsing and WordPress themes/plugins testing (apache server running). I used it for almost 2 years. One day I forgot to unplug it during heavy rain/lighting season and its now not working. When I bought this I upgraded the RAM. No complaints so far other than my foolishness to unplug it! I recommend acer!

 

[corkyg]

I don't like generalities, but, generally speaking, Acer=cheap quality. It's close to the bottom of the laptop food chain. Lenovo is generally a higher quality product
What Slugg says above.
OTOH, your earlier note (http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2215411) states that the Lenovo is a Y570. That is not a Thinkpad, but an Ideapad. Sort of a couple of rungs down Lenovo's food chain. But, still a good machine with good ratings.

 

[zCypher]

I've known plenty of people first hand that bought cheap Acers and they lasted several years without trouble. However I could never recommend an Acer over a Lenovo especially if the prices are similar and the Lenovo has more ram (!!!). Are you buying this laptop to play games?

IMO don't even consider any laptop that has less than 4GB of RAM.

 

[jrocks84]

I've known plenty of people first hand that bought cheap Acers and they lasted several years without trouble. However I could never recommend an Acer over a Lenovo especially if the prices are similar and the Lenovo has more ram (!!!). Are you buying this laptop to play games?

IMO don't even consider any laptop that has less than 4GB of RAM.

IMO you can consider laptops with less than 4GB of RAM because it's so cheap that you can just buy it after and stick it in for around $20.

 

[rsutoratosu]

i had a lot of acer ferrari laptops at work, poorly build, docks not connecting correctly.
we pretty much gave those pos away. Lenovo are pretty good but all the fans eventually fail after 4-5 years. Thats a long time though. a few drops of oil and they're good as new

 

[zCypher]

IMO you can consider laptops with less than 4GB of RAM because it's so cheap that you can just buy it after and stick it in for around $20.

lol, that is a fair point. I bought my lenovo with only 2GB specifically so I could get more ram for less money on my own. I just kind of assumed that most people would not want to mess with upgrading their laptop, which may have been a stupid assumption on my part.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

They've made upgrading RAM (and even hard drives, surprisingly) very easy on laptops these days. Quick access doors on the bottom. Takes less than 5 minutes.

 

[zCypher]

They've made upgrading RAM (and even hard drives, surprisingly) very easy on laptops these days. Quick access doors on the bottom. Takes less than 5 minutes.

I didn't know this had become the norm with laptops, very good to know!

 

[ctk1981]

Well......not all have quick access doors on the bottom. My thinkpad T410 has a dimm slot in a quick access panel and the other is under the keyboard. Overall wasn't really bad to do, but not exactly quick access either. I've had it for over a year now, very impressed with the quality of the machine.