I recall that Acer laptops had a reputation of being unreliable over 10 years ago already, I'm surprised it had not improved since then.
this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2024
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Acer are middle of the pack with hp at the bottom, dell and Lenovo are probably the best. Golden rule, never ever ever buy anything made by hp, problems after problems especially their printers.
I prefer Lenovo to be honest but dell are good as well.
I have been repairing computers for 20 years.
Also re: Dell if you don't like the look of RGB gamer laptops, they put the same hardware in their XPS line which is more designed around MacBook looks (aluminum, minimal).
I had an old T60p - yeah, Core 2 Duo baybeeeee. Iirc that was one of the last models that were made under IBM before Lenovo bought the Thinkpad brand. Since then, my primary personal laptop has ALWAYS been a thinkpad, simply because the keyboard IS that good. Seriously, I really do not think that any other laptop line offers a better keyboard, or is so consistently at the top of the pack.
Note: I’m talking specifically about Thinkpads, and particularly the X and T lines. Non-thinkpads are much more of a roll of the dice.
All of the consumer lines are pretty bad these days. Acer has a reputation for being unreliable (backed by some data from SquareTrade ~10 years ago). HP is just as bad, in mostly the same ways, but has avoided the reputation.
Reliable laptops are the enterprise lines - Dell Latitude/Precision, HP Elite Book, and Lenovo Thinkpad. But they are significantly more expensive when buying new.
Among the business ones
Dell: No Vostro
Lenovo: No ThinkPad E series
I've been extremely impressed with the longevity and all around toughness of my Dell Precision. I think it's gotta be 12 years old now, it weighs a ton, been dropped multiple times, and while I replaced its disk and memory at some point it has never suffered a hardware failure. The thing is a tank, I love it.
I have a Dell XPS and have had zero issues with it. Does what I need - which is minimal, I admit, but it's great.
I tried to do this research years ago and my impression was that acer was near bottom of the barrel in reliability these days unfortunately.
That said, it also seems in general that laptop quality and reliability are a total crap shoot, even within the same company.
So your best bet imo is to just find a model that has the specs you like and research the hell out of it before buying.
The lenovo legion series gaming laptops have been good in my experience. They also have fully AMD ones nowadays too i think. (If you are on linux that is a plus)
The whole shipping, returns, and reliability experience for Lenovo was rather bad for me (Lenovo Canada). My Legion shipped with a faulty motherboard and faulty power supply. Bought in Canada, but I work in China. International warranty didn't cover China so I paid for replacement power supply out of pocket. Then multiple usb keys were fried before I figured out it was my laptop. Back in Canada they fixed it, but jerked me around on the turnaround time. Overall bad customer service, shipped a lemon. It was cheap for the specs though.
Oof that sounds rough. Maybe the EU custumer service is run different. I never had any major issues with all the lenovos i used or set up for other people. Thinkpads and legions alike. But when i did have a family member break something, it was repaired (not replaced) in a matter of a few weeks without any warranty hassle.
But generally the quality of all things lenovo has definitely gone done in recent years for sure. I would recommend framework but those are not cheap and not really for gaming.
Agreed that it likely depends on the region it was bought in. For most businesses and government services I have found the quality of customer service has dropped through the floor in North America as compared to 20 years ago. I worked in customer service for years and it's always been a horrible job. But it can be made better or worse by how the department is managed.
Lenovo Canada's customer service, shipping, and possibly quality control teams appear to be overworked because the result is slipshod work, ignoring the customer, and general incompetence. Again, I worked in the field and don't blame the individuals.
They are trading on their good name, and eroding it at the same time. Glad to hear it's better in Europe.
My mom had one go to shit in like 3-6 months, have avoided them ever since (granted that was like, 15 years ago)
My Acer laptop has seen 10 years of daily use. The battery is obviously fucked and the w key had to be changed (no clue why) but it's still chugging along just fine.
Did you use your laptop on a bed at any point?
I swear by my Acer Nitro 5. Been running nearly 5 years without a single problem. Great laptops.
I have two Asus gaming laptops. My G74SX from 2011 is still trucking along great. It's not much for games anymore but great for Stardew Valley, browsing, and movies. My Zephyrus M16 is good overall with some complaints. I will throw out that for the same price of a gaming laptop, you can build a PC that is more powerful. You can even get a pre-build that will last you longer than a laptop. If you're dead set on the laptop though, I'd recommend an Asus. The hardware is great but the software fights you a bit