Acer is currently one of the biggest laptop brands on the market. A lot of people like Acer thanks to its enormous selection of laptop models. They have budget laptops for the starving college student as well as expensive premium laptops for people who want to show off their wealth. Acer.
But is this all that there’s to it? Value and selection alone won’t make a good brand. So what exactly makes Acer laptop an amazing brand? Well we’re here to find out. So let’s start with figuring out where Acer computers come from.
Who Makes Acer Computers?
Acer laptops computers are made by Acer incorporated. A multinational electronics and IT company.The company was founded by Stan Shih along with his wife and friends and they called it Multitech then.
Multitech wasn’t into the business or creating computers but instead it focused on creating semiconductors and other electronic parts. Eventually the company grew big enough to be able to create its own PC and renamed itself Acer in 1987.
Acer incorporated is now one of the biggest brands in computer hardware and electronics. They’re also one of the biggest laptop brands known for their cheap and affordable laptop computers.
Is Acer Good for Gaming?
Yes and No. It’s a no if you use Acer’s budget and mid-range laptops. These laptops often have decent hardware but it isn’t good enough to run most high-end games. Acer’s gaming laptops on the other hand, is a different story.
Acer is known for its monstrous gaming laptops that have amazing specs. It also has a name that matches its cool looking design, “The Acer Predator”. The beasts of a machine run games smoothly and allow for overclocking if you want that extra boost in performance. It’s also designed for immersion as well, with its extra large screens and vibrant resolutions as well as speakers that fill your ears with sounds from another world.
So it’s a yes, if you have an Acer Predator.
Is Acer a good laptop brand – Acer 2023 Brand Rating
Acer’s Key Strengths
- Amazing Value and Selection. Acer laptops range from cheap affordable laptops to expensive premium ones. They also have laptops designed for specific use like convertible art laptops, portable business laptops, and high-spec gaming laptops.
- Parts can easily be replaced (mostly). This doesn’t apply much to premium laptops but Acer’s laptops are usually cheap and affordable. Some of the budget laptops aren’t very durable but thankfully their parts are replaceable since Acer has tons of backup parts in storage.
- Amazing gaming laptops. Acer9 is known for its Predator gaming laptops that eat away at its competition. These laptops have monstrous specs allowing its users to play high-end games competitively.
- Delivers amazing innovations with their new models. Acer knows that innovation is what makes their product stand out which is why a lot of their premium laptops have little innovations here and there that makes things more convenient for its users.
Acer’s Key Weaknesses
- Budget laptops aren’t durable. You get what you pay for and cheap laptops aren’t usually built with durability in mind. They may be easily replaceable but it’s still a hassle for most of its users.
- Inconsistent review scores. Having a large value and selection can backfire a bit. Quantity doesn’t necessarily mean quantity which goes to show that not all Acer laptops are exceptional. If you’re planning to buy an Acer laptop, you should research carefully to make sure that you don’t end up buying a substandard laptop.
Top Rated Acer Laptops
- Acer Aspire 5 Slim Laptop – Best Laptop Under $500
- Acer Spin 3 Convertible Laptop – Best for artists
- Acer Predator Helios 300 Gaming Laptop – Best High-End Gaming Laptop
What people’s reviews say
A lot of users give high scores to Acer laptops. Reviews often mention how people love their affordability and their warranty. They also mention that their customer service is amazing most of the time. A good example of the Acer Chromebook 11 C740-C4PE, a fine gadget that costs about $129.99.
Customers who buy Acer’s gaming laptops have a lot of good things to say. Gamers express the joy in their gaming laptops since they have amazing specs as well as a mean-looking design that means business. People also say that the majority of their premium gaming laptops are durable like the Acer Aspire VX 15, allowing them to last for a long time.
Acer is definitely a highly rated laptop brand but it could do better. Its success stems from its value and selection but sadly its enormous variety is sometimes a crutch for it from getting a high score. A lot of users like Acer’s premium laptops as well as their affordable budget laptops.
The majority of Acer’s laptops are good if not exceptional. However, some of Acer’s laptops are outright horrible and they bring the brand down. Acer is stretching themselves too thin with the number of laptop models they create. They should stop and focus on improving the ones that are truly loved by their user base.
Design (22/30)
Acer is a mixed bag when it comes to design. This comes from their mixed model quality since most of their lower end laptops look like plastic toys which doesn’t give them a good score on their design.
On the other hand, their premium laptops have world class designs that make them look slick, cool, and professional. A good example of this is the Acer Swift 5, a high-end business laptop that focuses on keeping its user productivity throughout the day. The laptop is best known for its ultra-thin and lightweight design making it very portable and easy to carry around. It only weighs 2.20 pounds despite having a 15.6 inch screen.
Acer’s gaming laptops are no joke either. They have this aesthetically unique design that makes them look like armor ready for battle. You can see it from the Acer Nitro 5’s design with its red and black color scheme and its slightly slanted edges. It suits the name “Predator”.
Acer gets a passing score of 22/30 for its design. It has tons of quality designs for its laptops, sadly a lot of their other laptops bring the overall score down.
Support and Warranty (26/30)
Acer is known for its fast and reliable customer support team. The company has been focusing more and more on their phone customer system in order to answer the hundreds of queries that they receive throughout the day.
Most of their customer support staff are friendly and professional. They can answer most basic and intermediate queries without a problem which is really good. However their customer support team aren’t that adept at solving major issues and they’ll have to pass it down to their tech experts.
Acer has tons of replaceable parts to spare especially because most of these parts are for their low to mid-end laptops that won’t last very long. Thankfully the parts are very cheap and they’re mostly available from the get-go.
Sadly most of these problems are caused by the software of Acer itself since most of their low-end laptops contain bloatware which severely cripples its OS as time goes on.Thankfully most Acer laptops come with a one year warranty and you can extend this warranty up to three years provided that you pay an additional fee.
Overall, Acer has a good support team that knows what they’re doing and are very professional and courteous when it comes to their job. They also have a very solid warranty that can last for years. Acer gets a decent score of 26/30 when it comes to customer support and warranties.
Innovation (8/10)
Acer has been making a lot of strides in innovating their gaming laptops lately with new and convenient features. Like the Predator Triton 900 with its 2X Aeroblade 3D Fans allowing for an advanced and more efficient method of cooling down the laptop.
Speaking of cooling, Acer puts into practice its first fanless 2 in 1 laptop, the Acer Switch 7 Black Edition. The laptop uses an advanced cooling method called LiquidLoop. It is a futuristic cooling method that doesn’t require cooling fans. Instead, it uses the condensation and evaporation of the liquid present in the loop to dramatically cool down the laptop. With this technology in mind, you can say goodbye to noisy laptop fans and dust accumulation.
One of the biggest complaints about gaming laptops, in general, is the noisy fans. If Acer is able to implement LiquidLoop on their future gaming laptops, then they will be at the top of their game.
With all of this in mind, Acer gets a 8/10 score for its innovations.
Value and Selection (30/30)
Acer probably has one of the best selections out of all the brands. They have cheap laptops that do moderately well to high-end gaming laptops like its Acer Predator Helios 300 which are suited for hardcore gamers. Acer simply has a good value and selection of laptops.
What’s truly great about Acer is the price. Even poor people and college students in debt can buy Acer laptops with ease. One of their cheapest yet highly rated products is the Acer C720-2844 being sold at just $159.99, this laptop is worth taking a look at. It has 4 GB of RAM with a fairly decent Intel Celeron 2955U Dual-Core 1.4GHz processor. The only problem is its storage which is only as big as 16GB. But with a price of $159.99, this laptop is a bargain for students who desperately need to work on their schoolwork.
Acer also has mid-range laptops like the Acer Aspire 5 Slim Laptop, it’s a lightweight and portable laptop weighing about 3.97 pounds. The Acer Aspire 5 Slim has a premium look to it despite being only sold at $349.99. Other features include a backlit keyboard, a powerful AMD Ryzen 3 3200u, and a 15.6 screen that maximizes its display, making it good for watching movies and series in general. It’s definitely one of the best Acer laptops under $500.
Asides from the Acer Aspire 5 Slim, you might want to consider looking at the Acer TravelMate P6. It’s a more business-oriented laptop with a higher price but better specs than the Acer Aspire 5 Slim. Being very slim and easy to carry, the Travelmate P6 is a good business laptop to carry around when traveling all around the world. It was built with durability in mind, enabling it to withstand shocks, rain, and being dropped. Lastly, it has a powerful battery life of up to 12 hours making sure that you can work for the day even without a socket nearby.
Acer has even delved into convertible laptops. One of the more prominent convertibles that Acer has is the Acer Spin 3. 14 inches of pure power and convenience. It’s a premium laptop costing about $799.99 but the price is worth its specs. Powered by an 8th Generation Intel Core i7 8565U Processor and a 16GB DDR4 Memory, this convertible laptop will allow you to run most high-end software smoothly. It comes with a rechargeable stylus allowing it to be perfect for creative artists. And with a 12-hour battery life, you can draw all day long with this convertible laptop in hand.
Last but not least, Acer is known for their premium gaming laptops. As mentioned before, the Acer Predator Helios 300 is a beast of a gaming laptop suited for hardcore gamers. The laptops are powered by a 9th Generation Intel Core i7-9750H 6-Core Processor and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Graphics with 6GB of virtual RAM. Say no more to lagging or stuttering as you play games because the Acer Predator Helios 300 will allow you to play competitively and to the best of your ability.
In summary, Acer has almost every type of laptop out there. From convertibles to business laptops and from cheap budget laptops to premium gaming laptops. It gets a perfect 30/30 score.
Overall Verdict (86/100)
By tallying all of these scores together, Acer has a total score of 86 out of a 100. If this was a school Acer would get a letter grade of B. It’s an amazing laptop brand with tons of value selection and innovative technologies. Sadly, the brand still has some issues, especially from its lower-end laptops, that aren’t really that great.
I am 76 years old. I bought an Acer laptop from AO loast year during the lockdown. It is a 17 inch one. I paid £479 for it. It has been nothing but trouble. I rang AO about it but they had no more in. I was told they woul;d rinmg me when they got some more. They did not. The biggest porblem is the cursar. It does nothing when you try to open something. I have to close it down anmd start again. It just seems to be getting worse. For what I paid it shou;d be right??
Acer has the worst after sale service for a big brand name, I’ve bought more than 5 laptops for my company and 3 out of 5 have issues. My own personal laptop which I bought for 900 dollars keep on restarting less than a month use, Even under warranty they asked me to reformat laptop but for data back up still need to pay 30 dollars and no guarantee that the data will be there. I live in Malaysia andbtheir aftersale service is just shitty
Acer’s general reviews on Trustpilot: 1,7/5. 74% rate the brand as bad. And yet you’re saying that “a lot of users give high scores to Acer laptops”. Do you even research your subjects before posting articles? Sorry, but this is not serious.
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/acer.co.uk
HI, I bought an Acer Aspire v5, the i7 version! It cost me around £900 in 2018, which was a lot of money at that time (it still is!). Right from the start it was SSSLLLOOOOOWWW. My current i5 desktop is prob about 2X quicker! There was nothing exceptional about the specs, which were exactly the same as all the rest in the range, the differences were: the 1) The higher spec processor. 2) Larger hard disc drive 3) The touch screen. 4) Er… thats about it. Conversely, the slow speed, is incredibly frustrating, 8 gig of ram is not enough. The battery life is about 1.25 Hours. Useless, absolutely USELESS!
I suppose my main question is this: Why make a high spec laptop, as this should have been, & then DELIBERATLY hobble it in so many ways? What’s the point? this could have been such a great laptop, so useful in so many ways! I have seen so many complaints on the Acer site, on exactly the same things I have mentioned here! I know Acer is known for its cheap & cheerful Pc’s, but £900 is not exactly a cheap computer! I have not bought Acer since & even if one was offered to me, I prob would not take it. I also have NO plans, either now & especially in the future, to buy any other Acer PC’s. Why should I, they are absolutely rubbish, & prob always will be!! I have also advised a number of friends & family not to buy Acer computers, because my experiences with the brand!
My daughter bought an 800 dollar laptop lasted 2 months. The only thing worse than their products is their customer service. They made some stupid excuse to not replace a 2-month-old laptop under warranty! DON’T BUY ACER!!!!!
I spent $800.00 Australian for an Acer Aspire laptop. I wanted a machine that I could use in the field and run Linux. Research indicted that Acer was a good brand for Linux compatibility. After a few months the unit would not charge. I called Acer and was told that the machine could not be supported as I had installed Linux on it. I took it back to the shop I purchased it from and they sent it away for service. After several weeks the machine came back, happy and working. Several months later the unit would not charge again. I took it back to the shop I had purchased it from. This time I was told the power supply was faulty. Conveniently the shop had one in stock that would work. I purchased one. The machine then sat around for several months unused. I then needing it for field work again. Oh surprise it would not charge. Back to the shop with it. It was sent off to the Acer repair shop, several weeks later it came back. Much to my horror Linux had been removed and Windows installed. That was quickly resolved, well after several hours. I started using it again for work. After several weeks it would not charge. Back to the shop I purchased it from again. This time with no positive result. I decided to take it to a local PC repair business. They did a few electrical tests on it and concluded the system board would need replacing. The cost of this would exceed the purchase price of the machine. The machine is now being used for training students about repairing lap tops. I did remove the SSD. I would suggest people thinking about purchasing an Acer unit, think very carefully.
I would not even consider another and the support service is very poor.
I brought my first Acer laptop 3 years ago and it was Predator Helios 300.
It takes an hours to copy 1GB from C:\ to external USB 3.0 hard drive. Supporters reinstall Windows 10, but the problem persists.
Just after the warranty period, the hinge on the right hand side is broken. The battery is dead, it always shows 100%, but shuts down immediately after unplugging the power cord.
ACER Aspire 3 MATERIAL IS SO WEAK. LCD cover hinges cracks easily…
I purchased Acer Aspire 3 together with my 4 workmates. We bought same unit as it was the only available unit that we can afford during the pandemic for our online class. We only use it for online classes yet Months before warranty ends, 4 out of the 5 acer aspire 3 units got the same problem -broken LCD… I also read same complaints from other users. This means the plastic material they use was really brittle.
ACER is inconsistent in implementing their warranty policy… we got same problem and we brought it in the service center, one has enjoyed the warranty while the others been declined.