Gaming on a laptop is like making a electric bike but keep the pedals. A upgraded version of something that is still a laptop at its core that is terrible to game on.
I've been using laptops (since the GMA 950, almost exclusively on Intel integrated GPUs) as gaming boxes for a considerable amount of time. My first laptop had a 90MHz Pentium CPU. I've used netbooks as gaming systems. Original Dawn of War is playable on an Atom N450 - beat the single player story missions on a cheap Samsung netbook with the aforementioned CPU. You can play video games on literally any computing platform and have an enjoyable experience. It's simply a matter of managing expectations and selecting titles that don't need a lot of graphical power. Sure that means you generally play older games (unless you lay out a considerable amount of money for higher end hardware) but that also means you can buy said games at far less than their original price and get all of the publisher's patches for a less buggy experience. My current HD3000-equipped gaming laptop is going to be replaced by something considerably newer this year as I intend to pick up a cheap, refurb ex-business laptop with a copy of Win10 Pro preinstalled, but for now it's still a very capable gaming and entertainment system that will live on afterwards as a Linux box. Nothing beats kicking back on a sofa with your system parked on your lap while you do whatever to stay amused. Although, I admit that these days, I gravitate to the recliner and rock games on my phone as well since the laptop isn't as central to my gaming as it used to be.
My experience with Acer laptops has actually been really good. They are generally cheaper than the competition and in my case they've lasted for many years beyond what I intended to use them for.
Mate it's 2019, not 2009. Gaming laptops these days are pretty much on par with desktop counterparts, in terms of performance and gaming experience. Personally I'd much rather build a desktop, but for someone who needs the mobility it works pretty well.
A LAN party with a laptop is much less hassle than back in the days with a big tower and a 17" CRT. And playing Q3A it doesn't even matter when somebody brings a MacBook. Gaming on a laptop FTW.
I owned Acer laptops in the past and they were very unreliable, almost all died after a couple years or had serious issues. They seem to be producing very interesting designs but their reliability history keeps me from even considering them, is this still the case or have they improved?
Your experience seems like more of an extreme fluke though. I have only owned one Acer laptop in the past, but I don't think a major PC manufacturer will have widespread issues consistently across multiple products, else we'll be hearing about it in the news, or at least on online forums. Perhaps you just got super unlucky or something
I used to sell PCs back in the day (around 2010, for several years) and among the brands we sold (HP, Asus, Acer, some Lenovo), Acer was _by far_ the most problematic and failure-prone. Then again, I've seen some _very_ buggy designs from Asus (>50% failure rates with the same fault every time on a couple of models), and HP's consumer line back in the day was notorious for terrible build quality.
This is why I went with a ThinkPad back then, and would have to think long and hard about going for anything else even now (I have a Dell Latitude from work, and it's fine).
Consumer laptops used to be built for a ~2-year lifespan (ideally with enough niggles to trigger annual upgrades), but that's no longer a feasible business model, so most OEMs seem to have been stepping up the quality of their consumer lineups in recent years. I still wouldn't necessarily trust Acer, though.
alot of the mainstream gaming brands are incredibly problematic. some specific models were basically impossible to use if your power draw / heat went over a certain level restricting you to games that stressed cpu or gpu exclusively. the issues are rather crazy if you actually study them it make you think what the fuck. its not 100% but its high. wouldnt be surprised at >50% issues at all. and many are delt with as if they are normal. users cpu randomly throttles to 800mhz durring gaming. dell support is trained to say this is normal. not to mention the little shorts. providing a power supply that cant keep up wih components. restricing components to half their normal laptop tdp. drawing on the battery while plugged in. screens that have lines that the company explains as "wattermarks". all sold as normal working products. not to mention the short lifespan. the things barely work when you get them what do you expect 2-3 years later?
I get a lot of high end laptops like these in from students. They are a nightmare to repair or fix. Low volume and mostly untested. Parts are nearly impossible to get hold of and support next to non existent. Avoid.
I noticed that as well actually, and love Acer overall.
I had a few of their stuff that were still perfectly "fine" that just up and decided "ok, I die now" for no apparent reason.. had friends and family mention such over the years as well. not everyday often, but an odd occurrence pattern nonetheless
My last laptop was an Aspire VX. The plastic was really cheap and the screen hinge exploded shortly after a year. This does look like a more solid hinge design and overall build, and much more interesting than the previous generation Nitros.
I've personally owned one Acer laptop and it died precisely 1 month after the 12-month warranty ended.
The flip side is that of the 2 other Acer laptops I've come into contact with (owned by close friends), both hugely exceeded their design lives - one was retired without failing after 5 years and the other went on for 12 years before finally being retired, also without failing. That second one went through a RAM upgrade, an HDD upgrade and a fan replacement - not bad going for 12 years.
Don't know what you are talking about. I have Dell XPS l501x for past 7 years, working great with ssd and ram upgrade. I heavily pounded it the first couple of years when games ran on Nvidia 420M. After that used it for 5 more years as desktop replacement. Recently switched to Dell Latitude 7490 so am giving this one to my sister. FWIW I think premium products do have some quality edge and acer doesn't come close, I have seen my friends Sony Vaio's, Acers', HP's died on them after some time.
Don't know what the others are saying - the first Acer in the family has been running fine after 4 years of use. The keyboard had to be replaced and the battery is shot and the HDD crashed once but that's about it... I bought two others that came with extended warranty offers from the company itself (both AMD APU-based.) And I'm talking about like $8 per laptop for an additional 2 year warranty (3 total). If they failed that often, I doubt Acer would be able to foot the bills and turn a profit. I do admit that my Acer developed 1 (one) dead pixel within a month after purchase but after that it has been smooth sailing all along.
We’ve updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site’s updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
22 Comments
Back to Article
imaheadcase - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
Gaming on a laptop is like making a electric bike but keep the pedals. A upgraded version of something that is still a laptop at its core that is terrible to game on.PeachNCream - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
I've been using laptops (since the GMA 950, almost exclusively on Intel integrated GPUs) as gaming boxes for a considerable amount of time. My first laptop had a 90MHz Pentium CPU. I've used netbooks as gaming systems. Original Dawn of War is playable on an Atom N450 - beat the single player story missions on a cheap Samsung netbook with the aforementioned CPU. You can play video games on literally any computing platform and have an enjoyable experience. It's simply a matter of managing expectations and selecting titles that don't need a lot of graphical power. Sure that means you generally play older games (unless you lay out a considerable amount of money for higher end hardware) but that also means you can buy said games at far less than their original price and get all of the publisher's patches for a less buggy experience. My current HD3000-equipped gaming laptop is going to be replaced by something considerably newer this year as I intend to pick up a cheap, refurb ex-business laptop with a copy of Win10 Pro preinstalled, but for now it's still a very capable gaming and entertainment system that will live on afterwards as a Linux box. Nothing beats kicking back on a sofa with your system parked on your lap while you do whatever to stay amused. Although, I admit that these days, I gravitate to the recliner and rock games on my phone as well since the laptop isn't as central to my gaming as it used to be.niva - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
My experience with Acer laptops has actually been really good. They are generally cheaper than the competition and in my case they've lasted for many years beyond what I intended to use them for.PeachNCream - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
I've owned a couple of Acer laptops as well. They were both decent computers and the price was reasonable.Lord of the Bored - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
Ironically, an electric bike with pedals is a common design pattern, because it works better than a purely electric one.nathanddrews - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
^Looks like AT's call for writers can officially come to a close. We've got a winner!
Retycint - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
Mate it's 2019, not 2009. Gaming laptops these days are pretty much on par with desktop counterparts, in terms of performance and gaming experience. Personally I'd much rather build a desktop, but for someone who needs the mobility it works pretty well.hMunster - Sunday, April 14, 2019 - link
A LAN party with a laptop is much less hassle than back in the days with a big tower and a 17" CRT. And playing Q3A it doesn't even matter when somebody brings a MacBook. Gaming on a laptop FTW.Flunk - Sunday, April 14, 2019 - link
Electric bikes without pedals are illegal in many countries, are you saying that non-gaming laptops should be illegal?Spunjji - Monday, April 15, 2019 - link
Your comment betrays a fatal lack of knowledge concerning both of those topics.NICOXIS - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
I owned Acer laptops in the past and they were very unreliable, almost all died after a couple years or had serious issues. They seem to be producing very interesting designs but their reliability history keeps me from even considering them, is this still the case or have they improved?Retycint - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
Your experience seems like more of an extreme fluke though. I have only owned one Acer laptop in the past, but I don't think a major PC manufacturer will have widespread issues consistently across multiple products, else we'll be hearing about it in the news, or at least on online forums. Perhaps you just got super unlucky or somethingValantar - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
I used to sell PCs back in the day (around 2010, for several years) and among the brands we sold (HP, Asus, Acer, some Lenovo), Acer was _by far_ the most problematic and failure-prone. Then again, I've seen some _very_ buggy designs from Asus (>50% failure rates with the same fault every time on a couple of models), and HP's consumer line back in the day was notorious for terrible build quality.This is why I went with a ThinkPad back then, and would have to think long and hard about going for anything else even now (I have a Dell Latitude from work, and it's fine).
Consumer laptops used to be built for a ~2-year lifespan (ideally with enough niggles to trigger annual upgrades), but that's no longer a feasible business model, so most OEMs seem to have been stepping up the quality of their consumer lineups in recent years. I still wouldn't necessarily trust Acer, though.
Opencg - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
alot of the mainstream gaming brands are incredibly problematic. some specific models were basically impossible to use if your power draw / heat went over a certain level restricting you to games that stressed cpu or gpu exclusively. the issues are rather crazy if you actually study them it make you think what the fuck. its not 100% but its high. wouldnt be surprised at >50% issues at all. and many are delt with as if they are normal. users cpu randomly throttles to 800mhz durring gaming. dell support is trained to say this is normal. not to mention the little shorts. providing a power supply that cant keep up wih components. restricing components to half their normal laptop tdp. drawing on the battery while plugged in. screens that have lines that the company explains as "wattermarks". all sold as normal working products. not to mention the short lifespan. the things barely work when you get them what do you expect 2-3 years later?jabber - Saturday, April 13, 2019 - link
I get a lot of high end laptops like these in from students. They are a nightmare to repair or fix. Low volume and mostly untested. Parts are nearly impossible to get hold of and support next to non existent. Avoid.Dragonstongue - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
I noticed that as well actually, and love Acer overall.I had a few of their stuff that were still perfectly "fine" that just up and decided "ok, I die now" for no apparent reason.. had friends and family mention such over the years as well. not everyday often, but an odd occurrence pattern nonetheless
Rookierookie - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
My last laptop was an Aspire VX. The plastic was really cheap and the screen hinge exploded shortly after a year.This does look like a more solid hinge design and overall build, and much more interesting than the previous generation Nitros.
Spunjji - Monday, April 15, 2019 - link
I've personally owned one Acer laptop and it died precisely 1 month after the 12-month warranty ended.The flip side is that of the 2 other Acer laptops I've come into contact with (owned by close friends), both hugely exceeded their design lives - one was retired without failing after 5 years and the other went on for 12 years before finally being retired, also without failing. That second one went through a RAM upgrade, an HDD upgrade and a fan replacement - not bad going for 12 years.
not_anton - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
Discrete graphics - “select SKUs only”Does it mean we gonna see a 144Hz Intel graphics gaming monster?
BPB - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
GTX only graphics?patel21 - Friday, April 12, 2019 - link
Don't know what you are talking about. I have Dell XPS l501x for past 7 years, working great with ssd and ram upgrade. I heavily pounded it the first couple of years when games ran on Nvidia 420M. After that used it for 5 more years as desktop replacement. Recently switched to Dell Latitude 7490 so am giving this one to my sister. FWIW I think premium products do have some quality edge and acer doesn't come close, I have seen my friends Sony Vaio's, Acers', HP's died on them after some time.ads295 - Saturday, April 13, 2019 - link
Don't know what the others are saying - the first Acer in the family has been running fine after 4 years of use. The keyboard had to be replaced and the battery is shot and the HDD crashed once but that's about it...I bought two others that came with extended warranty offers from the company itself (both AMD APU-based.) And I'm talking about like $8 per laptop for an additional 2 year warranty (3 total). If they failed that often, I doubt Acer would be able to foot the bills and turn a profit. I do admit that my Acer developed 1 (one) dead pixel within a month after purchase but after that it has been smooth sailing all along.
I guess it all boils down to lottery stakes.