The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt

MickKnipfler

How does the tesco spec compare with the insperion 1300?

steady__eddie

Not sure what the problem with Comet would be, I bought a laptop from them last year and had no issues whatsoever.

Go to the consumer Vent board and do a search for Comet. There is plenty there to keep you occupied.

Kilty_2

MickKnipfler wrote:

How does the tesco spec compare with the insperion 1300?

Looks very similar apart from the battery life.

Inspiron can be upgraded to the 4 hour battery for £11, this Acer cannot, then there is the issue of build quality that I mentioned before.

nej

Basic Acer Tesco spec is:

15.4" widescreen.
1.6Ghz Celeron
256MB Ram (easily self-upgradable)
40Gb HDD
DVD-Writer
Built-in Wireless
2-hour battery life (claimed.... not tested it yet!)

Build quality is not that bad. I've got a Dell Latitude at work and frankly there isn't much difference really. Again, you pays your money, you takes your choice. It's good enough for me, it may not be good enough for other people.

Kilty_2

Press the back of the lid when its turned on and watch that screen ripple

Doesnt give it much hope if you drop it.

nej wrote:

you pays your money, you takes your choice..

Amen.

nej

Kilty wrote:

Press the back of the lid when its turned on and watch that screen ripple

My Dell Latitude does that as well (though perhaps not quite so bad) so not just the cheapie ones... plus the keys are raised a bit, so if there's any pressure on it when it's closed it puts a nice mark on the screen. That was a bit of clever design! At least the Acer keys are flush with the body.

Kilty_2

nej wrote:

My Dell Latitude does that as well (though perhaps not quite so bad) so not just the cheapie ones... plus the keys are raised a bit, so if there's any pressure on it when it's closed it puts a nice mark on the screen. That was a bit of clever design! At least the Acer keys are flush with the body.

:eek:

I thought Latitudes had the magnesium alloy casing.

My cheap Inspiron doesnt do that! :cool:

Holeypockets

I just picked up 2 of the £299 acers at the local Tesco - they will be for the kids Christmas. Having been an Acer user of laptops for 2 years I have no complaints. I set up expensive Dells and HP's at work all day long and still firmly believe Acer are good value for money. Mine did have to go back for repair once after a HD problem, but as the Acer repair centre is just up the road from me I walked it in. They replaced the 60GB HD for an 80GB in a one day turnaround.

nej

Kilty wrote:

:eek:

I thought Latitudes had the magnesium alloy casing.

My cheap Inspiron doesnt do that! :cool:

It's about 3 years old, maybe the newer ones are better.

Joe_Millionaire

Does anyone have the link to the Acer Laptop that is in Tesco????