Various criteria will have to be considered when purchasing a notebook computer. Here with a look at five criteria to be considered purchasing an Acer notebook computer in Cape Town South Africa.

Price

To buy the most inexpensive notebook computer available on the market today may not inevitably meet person performance / connectivity / mobility / warranty necessaries over the necessary lifetime of the product. Purchasing a notebook is a severe decision and will have to be done after proper needs analysis and research. Notebook pricing in general range from R4 500 to R25 000 and it’s not to say your choice will have to be at the uttermost ends of this pricing continuum. A notebook must be acquired to fulfill a specific personal / business requirement and a three year ownership amount of time ought to be envisioned to provide the required Return On Investment.

Recommendation: The Acer notebooks in the R5 500- R7 500 range will be a solid investment for the severe student and / or Microsoft office user. Backed with the general one year warranty or extended three year on-site Acer Advantage Fetch, Repair and Return warranty these merchandise will want to “work” for you long past your every day bedtime.

Performance

Notebooks today are as powerful as most desktop models and will provide an magnificent mobile and integrated platform for an array of high intensity Central Processing Unit (CPU), graphic and memory applications. Acer notebooks will either be setup in an Intel Celeron or Intel Centrino solution. The Celeron CPU product is for entry-level and value users, whereas the Centrino solution will provide for higher level CPU and graphic applications.

Recommendation: Acer notebooks setup with the Celeron CPU is an splendid choice for students and Microsoft Office users. The Centrino-based TravelMates will provide superior performance with a choice of optional graphic / rendering possibilities. Be prepared to pay a premium for high-end graphic / gaming functionality. In most instances the Celeron-based notebooks will be the intellectual choice for students and Microsoft Office users.

Connectivity

Today most notebooks are setup with state of the art connectivity options. It is primary that your notebook is setup with your current and future necessaries in check. Standard on all Acer notebooks will be Wireless Networking / LAN / Modem / USB ports. Other choices to consider will be Bluetooth and built in 3G HSDPA. Recommendation: To buy as much technology as you perchance may – stretch your budget a little for this. Bluetooth will have to be a severe contemplation as it allows for magnificent synchronization with most cellular phones. For 3G HSDPA your Cellular Service Provider will either provide an Express card or USB modem. It will work on all Acer Extensa and TravelMate notebooks.

Mobility

This is one of the main reasons for purchasing a notebook. Generally the Acer notebooks will vary from regarding 2.5 – 3.5 Kg. In notebook terms the latter is heavy. Decide on your normal day at the office / work. How often times do you need to carry the computer amid meetings / clients / home and office? The lighter notebooks are not inevitably the most inexpensive as they have littler technologies embedded to keep the weight down. Recommendation: Buying a notebook with a larger LCD screen than 15.4″ will make the notebook not just heavier but will likewise drain the battery much faster. 15.4″ is more than adequate and presently the main stream standard. Consider a 12″ or 14″ for ultra-portability.

Warranty: All Acer notebooks come usual with a 1-year warranty which for R995-00 may be upgraded to a 3-year on web site warranty. Recommendation: Seriously consider the 3-year warranty if you may afford it. Notebook elements may be very pricey to replace once the product is out of the original warranty.

Acer Computer Notebooks Pic

Acer Computer Notebooks Image

Acer Computer Notebooks Image

Acer Computer Notebooks Picture

Most helpful client reviews

18 of 18 humans found the following review helpful.
Acer AS5253
By FarvaSCW
Great laptop, battery life is regarding 5 hours for normal use. Easy to type on and the number pad is a big plus. The AMD E350 apu is still good for a great deal of gaming I may play left 4 dead 2 and fallout new vegas with no lag. Defiantly not a high end laptop but for only 400 it is a outstanding deal, nevertheless I do commend getting another 2gig stick of ram as it runs a lot better on 4gig.

15 of 17 humans found the following review helpful.
Acer as5253
By zaneil777
This computer is a steal at it is price it came well packaged but had alot of programs preloaded on to it.A lil for less construction but well made very quiet even playing games like dragon age 2 very good graphics rate them 4-5 had it on high settings too good wireless good sound all in all way worth the price for what ever you want to use it for.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
Great value for light (ie non-gaming) use
By Mojoman
I was looking for a laptop/notebook to connect to my 60″ flat-screen television. A reasonable amount of exploration led me to choose this unit as it was low-priced (~350), offered solid graphics performance in the dual-core AMD E-350 APU, integrated HDMI output connection, decent-sized hard drive and running Windows 7 (64-bit). Only minor negative related with this unit is it only has 2Gb memory installed. However, that 2Gb is on one stick and unit has a second slot available.

I purchased a stick of Crucial CT25664BC1067 2GB 204-PIN PC3-8500 SODIMM DDR3 Memory Module for ~20 bucks to address this shortcoming. Installing it was a breeze. Just remove the two screws securing the hard drive/memory access panel and insert a flat blade screwdriver at the indentation of door and work it around the panel. The panel is kept by a collection of little tabs spaced in regards to an inch or so apart around the perimeter of the panel. Just work the flat blade screwdriver around the panel, twisting the screwdriver as you come to each tab to cause it to disengage from the body of the laptop. Open memory slot will be on the bottom right underneath a clear film sheet. Lift the sheet, align the second memory stick in the open slot, insert it and then press down on the stick till the metal clips engage the stick to retain it in position. Reinstall the panel and the two screws to finish the job. Takes 5-10 minutes and you are good to go.

I did not choose to upgrade it, but replacing the hard drive would be reasonably easy to accomplish as well.

Keyboard is island-style keys with open space amidst them. Easy to type on, but I don’t commend eating while using as the open keys are conducive to getting crumbs and such in amid them.

Screen is clear, bright and sharp. Weight is a bit heavy to be a each and everyday carry unit, but that is not what I use it for. I have a light-weight 14″ laptop for that job.

Upon firstborn start-up you will have to manufacture restore discs or a driver disc if you plan on doing a clean Windows 7 install. Then commence removing the standard crap-ware you get on any pre-built unit. This unit was not exceptionally better or worse than I have came upon before on other laptops. You may manually delete those programs you don’t want, or just download and run “PC Decrapifier” if you aren’t familiar/comfortable with removing undesirable software or want to speed the routine up. I chose to manually remove the items I did not want.

After removing the items I did not want, I downloaded and installed the latest version of Microsoft Security Essentials (free anti-virus), ran Windows Update, and downloaded and installed the latest version of Catalyst Control Center and driver. Finally installed a couple of other apps and updates to finish the job. All total, it took a couple of hours to finish all the hardware/software tasks to get the unit just the way I wanted it.

Since then I have employed it for outputting Hulu/Netflix/etc… to my flat-screen television thru the HDMI port, web browsing, and office type applications. It performs all these flawlessly. I have not tried to run/play any games on the unit as I have a solid desktop scheme for that use and this unit in all likelihood will not run any severe game very well. Flash-based net games and older games ought to not be a problem.

I have not run the unit on battery power for any extended amount of time so I can’t speak to battery performance/duration.

After a couple weeks use, I have not experienced any issues with the unit and am very satisfied with the price/performance.

If you are looking for a solid laptop/notebook for home use (web browsing, e-mail, office apps, etc…), you must unquestionably give this unit consideration. Very good value for the price.

See all 11 client reviews…