6 ms·

In college I sold a lot of laptops for best buy. Acer often had great specs, seemingly solid looking hardware that was clearly influenced by good designs (Apple

by xnyan 5y ago

In college I sold a lot of laptops for best buy. Acer often had great specs, seemingly solid looking hardware that was clearly influenced by good designs (Apple) and a great price for the specs and features. All laptops have problems, but Acer was by far the worst - More often then not, the problems stemmed from bad heat management (the most common killer of laptops IME) and quality control that was seemingly laser focused on avoiding problems for exactly as long as the warranty lasted. PSA: Lenovo has tons of problems w/r/t how they operate as a company, but the thinkpad is far and away the best overall non-mac laptop brand you can readily buy anywhere in the world.

MattGaiser 5y ago
I just use the Best Buy warranty. I always buy it and haven't paid for a laptop since the one I went to university with. I just buy the warranty again. On my fourth laptop now.
- indigodaddy 5y ago
  Interesting way to work the system of crappy hardware. They just keep breaking and you just keep getting replacements eh?
  - MattGaiser 5y ago
    Pretty much. They have lasted between 1 and 2.5 years. I can usually negotiate something slightly better each time as well. Hardware works fine until something goes wrong and I drop it off a Geek Squad, use one of my other computers for a week, and then go select a replacement. It also covers charger replacements and accidental damage, so if your charger frays, they replace it (a big issue with Acer and Asus). I grant that the Geek Squad people aren't great at fixing things, but replacing? Excellent.
alasdair_ 5y ago
The dell xps 13 is a fantastic alternative to the thinkpad. It can come with Ubuntu preloaded and fully configured, something that was a major plus for me.
- xnyan 5y ago
  Agree on the XPS line, they have been largely very good for me. The reason I recommend Lenovo over Dell is because Lenovo has been more consistent for me over the years, but that’s mostly anecdotal of course.
  - eecc 5y ago
    Frankly - and please don't punish me for what I'm about to write - I'm shocked by the endless litany of absurd issues with this Lenovo Thinkpad T14s I just bought. For some reason the W10 kernel chokes when handling network streams, huge load on the CPU0 core and barely nothing on the other. I'm also constantly thrown off by the inconsistent and sometimes roughly cut UI. Booting into Linux is a litany of horrors: desktop fractional scaling is blurry, Gnome 40 won't properly handle the alternatives to NetworkManager or PulseAudio which I had to install when WiFi or audio suddenly stopped working for unknown reasons. KDE is cute, but will crash spectacularly taking down the whole session. Tried Ubuntu and Fedora, Same. I'm a software developer so I can deal with quite a fair amount of tinkering and tuning but frankly I don't have time to learn and debug multiple implementations of entire OS subsystems in order to pick the less unstable one and meticulously integrate it with the rest. I regret straying off the Apple path, and counting the days the new "M2" (or whatever it will be called) is announced. Sigh.
- pxc 5y ago
  I have an XPS 13 for work and I mostly like it, but I don't think that after having used it for a while, I'd buy one as a personal laptop. Like the new MacBooks, it's a donglebook and it has basically no ventilation. I'd much rather get a T-series or a non-X1 X-series at this point. I don't think Dell currently offers any Linux laptops with that form factor, but I"d be willing to try them
  - senkora 5y ago
    Thanks for the term “donglebook”. I have an XPS 13 and I will definitely use that in the future. It’s not a big deal for me since I just share the same dock between it and my work macbook, but I do wish it had more than two ports, for redundancy’s sake.
arp242 5y ago
I worked at a repair tech at a local computer shop, already over 10 years ago. Certainly all the tech people were secretly a little bit embarrassed we were selling Acer laptops. I did some sales too, when it was busy and people were needed, and always tried to steer people away from Acer. For some of their models we had over 50% return rates. Far from all models mind you, but still: it was ridiculous. Many came back after warranty as well with hardware issues related to the casings and hinges. Their warranty service took forever and often we had to send back the machines again because they didn't actually fix the issue (we weren't allowed to repair them ourselves too, we had to use their repair centres; other vendors tended to be more flexible about this, especially if we had a long relationship with them). But they were cheap. So we sold many. We didn't usually sell ThinkPads, but we did on special demand. One customer returned theirs for whatever reason (T400 IIRC). We put it in the showroom, and it was there for well over year before we managed to sell it, at quite a loss I might add. We actually had a lot of business customers as we also did office management etc., but people just don't want a €1,000 laptop. Another aspect is that ThinkPads just don't look good to most people when put next to flashy Asus or Acer laptops. The keyboard is more "wonky" instead of the neat rectangular square; it's clearly better designed instead of the cramped 1cm Shift keys and such, but it doesn't look as good. The more matte display is better for loads of people, but it looks kinda crappy next to a bright Acer in demo mode showing off cool pictures. And the "black box" design doesn't seem to appeal to many people's tastes (although personally, I always felt it looked quite handsome; I miss the blue Enter keys btw, I always thought they added something). Oh, and gosh, don't get me started on the Acer "laptop" they put out with a desktop Pentium CPU, regular DIMMs, and 3.5" HDD. That was truly an abomination.
- slim 5y ago
  I suspect the blue enter key is trademarked by ibm and was not part of the deal
  - arp242 5y ago
    Yeah, I had similar thoughts; it is Big Blue after all. Although the 25-year anniversary they put out a few years ago had the blue enter, but perhaps that was a special one-time deal they managed to strike with IBM (good advertising for IBM too, after all).
criddell 5y ago
I just bought a Thinkpad (my 3rd in a decade) and there's one big problem with it - the fan runs while the computer is asleep. From what I could find this is due to Windows' modern sleep (or connected sleep) which means the computer is still basically on, just in a lower power mode. Super annoying to hear the shhhhhhhhhh coming from the machine 24-7. To get rid of it, you basically have to turn off the fast boot option and power completely down rather than put the machine to sleep. It's surprising that the thermal design can't passively cool the CPU while in this sleep mode. It feels like a design flaw.
- kart23 5y ago
  Yes, thinkpads fan control suuuucks. My fan would run 100% of the time, even when just doing light browsing. Had to do a bunch of messing with windows power settings to get it manageable. I've never had the fans actually run while sleeping though, thats really bad.
  - solnyshok 5y ago
    this is very emotional. really depends on cpu. Newer ones (like i7-8XXXu in my X1 Carbon 7th gen) are quiet.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
- pomian 5y ago
  I have been using hibernate for the last few years for all the laptops. With 'faster' start times this seems to be a better option than sleep. Plus, less risk of inadvertent awakening.
- theonlybutlet 5y ago
  For my personal laptop, I still use a 1st Gen Thinkpad X1 from 2011, running Linux and it's going strong. Think the fan power management is the only downfall for these devices, mine either runs way too hot or at full blast (which was a turbo mode) back when there was still support for the drivers (some old windows version think 7).
neelc 5y ago
I get two Lenovo ThinkPads from work, and have two personal HP Spectres, along with one Gateway (2020, not Acer) and ThinkPad (both low end). I love the 2020 HP Spectre hardware-wise (better than my work ThinkPads), but sometimes forced NVMe RAID gets annoying with FreeBSD when Lenovo and Asus let you disable it. At least it's not Acer with forced Secure Boot. Yes, I'll take a Mac over an Acer, and I work at Microsoft (but not Windows). One of the work ThinkPads I get has a locked BIOS, the other (that I normally use for work) doesn't. But I won't use a ThinkPad as my main personal laptop unless FreeBSD only works on one and nothing else.
Svperstar 5y ago
I have a 2016 Acer Predator I use for work. I replaced the thermal compound with liquid metal. Dropped the temps 25c and I have had no issue with it, it is on generation behind being able to run Windows 11 but still.
xtracto 5y ago
I remember repairing Acer computers back around 1994 when I was in High School (like these https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mChPlLDjtqg/WVJVkMm33rI/AAAAAAAAAU4/u3PV-PI8oa4ekfWhblx6l24YbmfCk6TdQCLcBGAs/s1600/20170627_120358.jpg https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mChPlLDjtqg/WVJVkMm33rI/AAAAAAAAA... ) They were So bad... I remember they had "clips" instead of screws to remove the case.
LinAGKar 5y ago
My current laptop is is an Acer Aspire 3 a315-41, and I've had some significant issues with it. Firstly, there are nice access hatches for the 2.5" slot and the DIMMs, but not for some reason for the M.2 slot. Minor nitpicking, but why make nice access hatches for two items out of three? Secondly, it does not support NVMe, only SATA drives. Not a huge deal, they are of course not required to support NVMe, but why? It seems to me like they're only saving some wiring going to the CPU. And the firmware menu contains references to NVMe, which led me to believe it did support it. Third, there were some some issues with Linux on it. Half the time you booted into Linux, the trackpad wouldn't work, and you needed to reboot to get it working. A bigger issue though was that sometimes when you suspended the laptop, it would instead just hang and hard reboot. It took like a year before these issues went away I think. These can be excused I suppose, it's designed for Windows, so it can't be expected to work flawlessly with Linux right away, but it does mean I won't consider Acer for a Linux laptop in the future. Recently, AMDGPU sometimes hangs when it resumes from suspend, forcing you to reboot. Though this is probably not an Acer issue. It also seems like the battery stops reporting charge level until you reboot it. I think this happens under Windows too. At least this happens very rarely, but it's one more thing. But by far the biggest issue though, and the thing that means I will never get another Acer computer, regardless of OS, was when they released a Firmware update for it that caused it to bootloop if you started it without the charger connected (https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/599232/a315-41g-1-17-bios-bootloop https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/599232/a315-41g-1-1...). As in, you started it, and after a few seconds it would hard reboot, over and over. You could start it with the charger connected and then disconnect it, and it would work fine (until you suspended and resumed, at which point it would hard reboot after a few seconds). And this wasn't a Linux issue, it happened regardless of OS, and even in the Firmware menu. And there was zero official communication from Acer on this, all we got was some "Acer Community Expert" idiot telling people to uninstall some Windows driver, even though Windows had nothing to do with it, and someone telling you to modify the updater tool to downgrade the Firmware. And it somehow took them literally months to release a fix for this. So fuck Acer.

by xnyan 5y ago

MattGaiser 5y ago

I just use the Best Buy warranty. I always buy it and haven't paid for a laptop since the one I went to university with. I just buy the warranty again. On my fourth laptop now.

indigodaddy 5y ago
Interesting way to work the system of crappy hardware. They just keep breaking and you just keep getting replacements eh?
- MattGaiser 5y ago
  Pretty much. They have lasted between 1 and 2.5 years. I can usually negotiate something slightly better each time as well. Hardware works fine until something goes wrong and I drop it off a Geek Squad, use one of my other computers for a week, and then go select a replacement. It also covers charger replacements and accidental damage, so if your charger frays, they replace it (a big issue with Acer and Asus). I grant that the Geek Squad people aren't great at fixing things, but replacing? Excellent.

alasdair_ 5y ago

The dell xps 13 is a fantastic alternative to the thinkpad. It can come with Ubuntu preloaded and fully configured, something that was a major plus for me.

xnyan 5y ago
Agree on the XPS line, they have been largely very good for me. The reason I recommend Lenovo over Dell is because Lenovo has been more consistent for me over the years, but that’s mostly anecdotal of course.
- eecc 5y ago
  Frankly - and please don't punish me for what I'm about to write - I'm shocked by the endless litany of absurd issues with this Lenovo Thinkpad T14s I just bought. For some reason the W10 kernel chokes when handling network streams, huge load on the CPU0 core and barely nothing on the other. I'm also constantly thrown off by the inconsistent and sometimes roughly cut UI. Booting into Linux is a litany of horrors: desktop fractional scaling is blurry, Gnome 40 won't properly handle the alternatives to NetworkManager or PulseAudio which I had to install when WiFi or audio suddenly stopped working for unknown reasons. KDE is cute, but will crash spectacularly taking down the whole session. Tried Ubuntu and Fedora, Same. I'm a software developer so I can deal with quite a fair amount of tinkering and tuning but frankly I don't have time to learn and debug multiple implementations of entire OS subsystems in order to pick the less unstable one and meticulously integrate it with the rest. I regret straying off the Apple path, and counting the days the new "M2" (or whatever it will be called) is announced. Sigh.
pxc 5y ago
I have an XPS 13 for work and I mostly like it, but I don't think that after having used it for a while, I'd buy one as a personal laptop. Like the new MacBooks, it's a donglebook and it has basically no ventilation. I'd much rather get a T-series or a non-X1 X-series at this point. I don't think Dell currently offers any Linux laptops with that form factor, but I"d be willing to try them
- senkora 5y ago
  Thanks for the term “donglebook”. I have an XPS 13 and I will definitely use that in the future. It’s not a big deal for me since I just share the same dock between it and my work macbook, but I do wish it had more than two ports, for redundancy’s sake.

arp242 5y ago

I worked at a repair tech at a local computer shop, already over 10 years ago. Certainly all the tech people were secretly a little bit embarrassed we were selling Acer laptops. I did some sales too, when it was busy and people were needed, and always tried to steer people away from Acer. For some of their models we had over 50% return rates. Far from all models mind you, but still: it was ridiculous. Many came back after warranty as well with hardware issues related to the casings and hinges. Their warranty service took forever and often we had to send back the machines again because they didn't actually fix the issue (we weren't allowed to repair them ourselves too, we had to use their repair centres; other vendors tended to be more flexible about this, especially if we had a long relationship with them). But they were cheap. So we sold many. We didn't usually sell ThinkPads, but we did on special demand. One customer returned theirs for whatever reason (T400 IIRC). We put it in the showroom, and it was there for well over year before we managed to sell it, at quite a loss I might add. We actually had a lot of business customers as we also did office management etc., but people just don't want a €1,000 laptop. Another aspect is that ThinkPads just don't look good to most people when put next to flashy Asus or Acer laptops. The keyboard is more "wonky" instead of the neat rectangular square; it's clearly better designed instead of the cramped 1cm Shift keys and such, but it doesn't look as good. The more matte display is better for loads of people, but it looks kinda crappy next to a bright Acer in demo mode showing off cool pictures. And the "black box" design doesn't seem to appeal to many people's tastes (although personally, I always felt it looked quite handsome; I miss the blue Enter keys btw, I always thought they added something). Oh, and gosh, don't get me started on the Acer "laptop" they put out with a desktop Pentium CPU, regular DIMMs, and 3.5" HDD. That was truly an abomination.

slim 5y ago
I suspect the blue enter key is trademarked by ibm and was not part of the deal
- arp242 5y ago
  Yeah, I had similar thoughts; it is Big Blue after all. Although the 25-year anniversary they put out a few years ago had the blue enter, but perhaps that was a special one-time deal they managed to strike with IBM (good advertising for IBM too, after all).

criddell 5y ago

I just bought a Thinkpad (my 3rd in a decade) and there's one big problem with it - the fan runs while the computer is asleep. From what I could find this is due to Windows' modern sleep (or connected sleep) which means the computer is still basically on, just in a lower power mode. Super annoying to hear the shhhhhhhhhh coming from the machine 24-7. To get rid of it, you basically have to turn off the fast boot option and power completely down rather than put the machine to sleep. It's surprising that the thermal design can't passively cool the CPU while in this sleep mode. It feels like a design flaw.

kart23 5y ago
Yes, thinkpads fan control suuuucks. My fan would run 100% of the time, even when just doing light browsing. Had to do a bunch of messing with windows power settings to get it manageable. I've never had the fans actually run while sleeping though, thats really bad.
- solnyshok 5y ago
  this is very emotional. really depends on cpu. Newer ones (like i7-8XXXu in my X1 Carbon 7th gen) are quiet.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
pomian 5y ago
I have been using hibernate for the last few years for all the laptops. With 'faster' start times this seems to be a better option than sleep. Plus, less risk of inadvertent awakening.
theonlybutlet 5y ago
For my personal laptop, I still use a 1st Gen Thinkpad X1 from 2011, running Linux and it's going strong. Think the fan power management is the only downfall for these devices, mine either runs way too hot or at full blast (which was a turbo mode) back when there was still support for the drivers (some old windows version think 7).

neelc 5y ago

I get two Lenovo ThinkPads from work, and have two personal HP Spectres, along with one Gateway (2020, not Acer) and ThinkPad (both low end). I love the 2020 HP Spectre hardware-wise (better than my work ThinkPads), but sometimes forced NVMe RAID gets annoying with FreeBSD when Lenovo and Asus let you disable it. At least it's not Acer with forced Secure Boot. Yes, I'll take a Mac over an Acer, and I work at Microsoft (but not Windows). One of the work ThinkPads I get has a locked BIOS, the other (that I normally use for work) doesn't. But I won't use a ThinkPad as my main personal laptop unless FreeBSD only works on one and nothing else.

Svperstar 5y ago

I have a 2016 Acer Predator I use for work. I replaced the thermal compound with liquid metal. Dropped the temps 25c and I have had no issue with it, it is on generation behind being able to run Windows 11 but still.

xtracto 5y ago

I remember repairing Acer computers back around 1994 when I was in High School (like these https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mChPlLDjtqg/WVJVkMm33rI/AAAAAAAAAU4/u3PV-PI8oa4ekfWhblx6l24YbmfCk6TdQCLcBGAs/s1600/20170627_120358.jpg https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mChPlLDjtqg/WVJVkMm33rI/AAAAAAAAA... ) They were So bad... I remember they had "clips" instead of screws to remove the case.

LinAGKar 5y ago

My current laptop is is an Acer Aspire 3 a315-41, and I've had some significant issues with it. Firstly, there are nice access hatches for the 2.5" slot and the DIMMs, but not for some reason for the M.2 slot. Minor nitpicking, but why make nice access hatches for two items out of three? Secondly, it does not support NVMe, only SATA drives. Not a huge deal, they are of course not required to support NVMe, but why? It seems to me like they're only saving some wiring going to the CPU. And the firmware menu contains references to NVMe, which led me to believe it did support it. Third, there were some some issues with Linux on it. Half the time you booted into Linux, the trackpad wouldn't work, and you needed to reboot to get it working. A bigger issue though was that sometimes when you suspended the laptop, it would instead just hang and hard reboot. It took like a year before these issues went away I think. These can be excused I suppose, it's designed for Windows, so it can't be expected to work flawlessly with Linux right away, but it does mean I won't consider Acer for a Linux laptop in the future. Recently, AMDGPU sometimes hangs when it resumes from suspend, forcing you to reboot. Though this is probably not an Acer issue. It also seems like the battery stops reporting charge level until you reboot it. I think this happens under Windows too. At least this happens very rarely, but it's one more thing. But by far the biggest issue though, and the thing that means I will never get another Acer computer, regardless of OS, was when they released a Firmware update for it that caused it to bootloop if you started it without the charger connected (https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/599232/a315-41g-1-17-bios-bootloop https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/599232/a315-41g-1-1...). As in, you started it, and after a few seconds it would hard reboot, over and over. You could start it with the charger connected and then disconnect it, and it would work fine (until you suspended and resumed, at which point it would hard reboot after a few seconds). And this wasn't a Linux issue, it happened regardless of OS, and even in the Firmware menu. And there was zero official communication from Acer on this, all we got was some "Acer Community Expert" idiot telling people to uninstall some Windows driver, even though Windows had nothing to do with it, and someone telling you to modify the updater tool to downgrade the Firmware. And it somehow took them literally months to release a fix for this. So fuck Acer.