ASUS Laptops
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Northampton UK
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Over the last year or so I have bought and configured four Acer Aspire 1360 laptops for friends and family.
Found them to be good value laptops for the price, with lots of power, large keyboards and clear bright screens (the wide screen ones are particularly nice). They come preloaded and configured, the wireless ones work well with a standard wireless router (eg NetGear / Belkin).
These are not the most compact laptops and so if you will be carrying them around you may want to look at something smaller / lighter. The folk that I have bought them for are using them as home PCs and so portability isn't an issue.
Unfortunately one of the four laptops was delivered with a faulty DVD-RW drive. When I sent it back, it took Acer almost 4 weeks to return the laptop it as there had been a bad batch of DVD drives and so they had a backlog to source from their suppliers and reissue to customers.
RC
Found them to be good value laptops for the price, with lots of power, large keyboards and clear bright screens (the wide screen ones are particularly nice). They come preloaded and configured, the wireless ones work well with a standard wireless router (eg NetGear / Belkin).
These are not the most compact laptops and so if you will be carrying them around you may want to look at something smaller / lighter. The folk that I have bought them for are using them as home PCs and so portability isn't an issue.
Unfortunately one of the four laptops was delivered with a faulty DVD-RW drive. When I sent it back, it took Acer almost 4 weeks to return the laptop it as there had been a bad batch of DVD drives and so they had a backlog to source from their suppliers and reissue to customers.
RC
TheVillagePhotographer.co.uk
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Cotswolds UK
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I will go for Acer, though I do think you need to know what you are after. Acer themselves describe the Aspire 1671LMI (Yup, I bought that one) as a "Desktop replacement" This is marketing speak for lousy battery life. Around 40 mins in fact. Not a prob for me as I wanted a V8 under the bonnet, but with a P4 3Gig, the first job after booting, is to turn off the domestic heating system - you can see where that battery life goes. I remember seeing all those British Leyland strikers in the 70s standing around a brazier on a winters day. It is rather reminiscent of that.
The Acer 1671LMI is great - but if you need a real mobile capability, then aim for something with a "mobile" processor and avoid the P4 or Athlon 64 chips. The Pentium M class processors willl give a good two or even three hours away from base.
The other tip? Distrust any sales person. Written or brochure info is good, in that if it makes any claims, then you have a benchmark. With some spotty, white socked, commission driven sales droid, all you might get, is a shrug.
I would certainly have another - but I did my homework first.
Conan
The Acer 1671LMI is great - but if you need a real mobile capability, then aim for something with a "mobile" processor and avoid the P4 or Athlon 64 chips. The Pentium M class processors willl give a good two or even three hours away from base.
The other tip? Distrust any sales person. Written or brochure info is good, in that if it makes any claims, then you have a benchmark. With some spotty, white socked, commission driven sales droid, all you might get, is a shrug.
I would certainly have another - but I did my homework first.
Conan
Join Date: Nov 2000
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Acer gets my vote. Have a 2 year old 800 series Travelmate excellent machine battery life still over 3 hours under general use (not playing DVDs).
On my wish list is the latest variant an 8106
On my wish list is the latest variant an 8106
TheVillagePhotographer.co.uk
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Just another thought with the more power hungry Laptops. When it comes to mobile power, my own requires 120Watts and I have not been able to find a sleek and sexy car charger capable of handling it yet. I have to use an inverter, which means fishing out the power supply and lead, then plugging the whole shebang into the 13 amp socket on the inverter.
It all means increased weight and as a consequence, real life portability will suffer to some extent.
Conan
It all means increased weight and as a consequence, real life portability will suffer to some extent.
Conan
Join Date: Jul 2002
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Thanks for the replies, but I was interested in an ASUS laptop.
RC
Last edited by rotorcraig; 11th Sep 2005 at 21:34.
