Acer or Dell?

Rev

I'm buying a laptop, mostly for college work, wireless surfing, nothing to stressful, I've been looking for months and every time I think I've made my mind up something dissuades me. To be honest I'm lost in a sea of what seems like fifty million laptops.

So basically I like these two

Dell Inspiron 1501 (Down to £388 after selecting the 90 day warranty, or £404 with the 9 cell battery).

and

Acer Aspire 5051AWXMi

The specs seems fine for what I'll be using it for. The acer has great reviews and I hear a lot of good things on here about Dell. So I just can't make up my mind which to go for. I can't afford to spend over £400, obviously I'd like to spend less if I can.

So I thought I'd ask the experts, see if anyone has any opinions on build quality and such.

Thanks.

imho

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=333519&highlight=tesco+laptop
This one seems to be a good buy.

imho

Why dont you have a look on" Dell outlet " you get 1 year warranty there,even on a refurbished/over ordered one,and it will be cheaper than the price you quoted. and you can pick all your spec. And if your lucky you will get a postage free day.that will save you another £50.

steve_r123

Out of those two I would go for the Dell, if you can put up with the awful foreign call centre if it goes wrong.

We have a few of those Inspirons at work and they have all worked perfectly. I'd stretch to 1Gb of RAM though if you can afford it

imho

steve_r123.I would go for a Dell as well. But i would want more than 3 months warranty !

Zeitgeist

You still get 1 year's warranty, it's just after 90 days you have to pay carriage yourself.

oigoi_2

I've used Acer and Dell laptops. Dells batteries can conk out but other that that are reliable. My Acer had the disk drive fail. Ultimately choose one from a supplier that can deal with any breakdowns quickly and effectively. Recommendations anyone?
A desktop PC is much easier to get repaired, if you can manage without the portability.

Splend

Either would do the job. Out of the two, I'd probably go for the Dell. Mind you, there's plenty of other manufacturers out there (some even British). I've had excellent service from an Evesham laptop I bought a few months ago. https://www.evesham.com will show them.

If you're determined to go either Acer or Dell...I'd probably go for the Dell myself.

Rev

imho wrote:

Why dont you have a look on" Dell outlet " you get 1 year warranty there,even on a refurbished/over ordered one,and it will be cheaper than the price you quoted. and you can pick all your spec. And if your lucky you will get a postage free day.that will save you another £50.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I saw a great core duo laptop on the dell outlet site a few nights back priced at £356, only turned out once they added everything on (vat and delivery and whatever else they decided) it was £475, way over my budget, so that's kind of put me off, the prices are misleading.

Is there any way to find out when the free delivery days are? £50+ Delivery is stupidly expensive.

Rev

Splend wrote:

Either would do the job. Out of the two, I'd probably go for the Dell. Mind you, there's plenty of other manufacturers out there (some even British). I've had excellent service from an Evesham laptop I bought a few months ago. https://www.evesham.com will show them.

If you're determined to go either Acer or Dell...I'd probably go for the Dell myself.

I'll check them out thanks. I'm not set on and acer or a dell, it's just that they're the two I've narrowed it down two, as I said, there's so many to choose from I'm lost. I've looked at so many laptops in the past few months I'm starting to look like one.

Beckety

Sorry to hijack your thread, but we're looking for a laptop that'll be good for gaming and internet. What sort of spec would we need and would the Dell one the OP mentioned be any good? Thanks in advance