Which laptop is better? an Acer Aspire 5101AWLMi or a Toshiba A120 Celeron M. They are both of a similar price

Question

Ive included links for both laptop specs below if you want to have a look.
acer: http://www.acernotebooks.co.uk/aspire_51...

toshiba: http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?qui...

Just to let you know, the spec does not matter much to me, as i only need it for basic duties such as office and internet. also if i required extra hard drive, then i can purchase an external one for 60 pounds or so with about 160 gb.
the above toshiba is a the most basic model, i've still heard good reviews about it. i need a laptop that is reliable with good build quality. which of the above would you recommend?

Answer 1

We have 2 Acers in our household, a 5612 dual core whic my son uses for web design and a not so fancy 3692. The 3692 is a better spec (slightly) than both machines you mention and only gets use to surf the net etc.

We bought the 3692 because we were that impressed with the first Acer we bought.

In your case I would go for the Acer purely as it has the AMD processor but don't overlok HP. They have a very nice one at about £400 at www.ebuyer.co.uk which I nearly bought. The only reason I didn't buy the HP is that I prefer the mouse and seperate scroll on the Acer.

If you going to buy on line be careful who you buy from. Some companies don't have very good feedback. Check them out and prices at www.pricerunner.co.uk

Make sure you check the specification to the model very very carefully. The Acer that I bought has 3 different levels of spec. I nearly bought mine from tesco and would have been very disappointed with only 256mb ram instead of 1gb which I have on my 3692. I notice the 5101 has different levels as well so just check first.

Answer 2

As someone who owns both an Acer and a Toshiba, I can say they function pretty much similarly. The ones you mentioned have very similar specs, so there's not much of a comparison there either. The only major difference you'll find is in the processor.....I happen to prefer the AMD processors over the Celeron. The Celeron can be slower, but if you're not going to use it for more than MS Office and basic internet, then you shouldn't have a problem. I use my computers for heavier applications like gaming and other software, so the Acer gives me better performance in that respect.

Other than that, my only comment is that you should go to a computer store and try out both, see which one you like. The two are pretty similar, but there are subtle differences for which you might prefer one over the other. For example, I like my Acer screen and keyboard better than the Toshiba one. You might like the Toshiba buttons and mousepad better. Unless you try them out, you'll miss out on these small details. Often these small things can end up making an impact on your overall user experience.

And finally, check out the support provided by both companies. I'm guessing you live in the UK (or alteast Europe) from the links you provided. I'm not sure what the support is like there. You will want to choose a company that has better customer service and warranty. You may not always need it, but I've had to use the warranties in the past (it wasn't for Acer or Toshiba....both these laptops haven't given me issues yet).

Good luck, and happy laptopping!

Answer 3

the brand's are ok,..... but laptop's this basic are to limited for the price they cost.
For adult use for basic internet, work and business use all your spec's are ok except the processor.
A celeron processor is amongst the slowest you can get, and simply not worth paying for in a computer costing hundered's. Not only that,.... in future, when you want to sell it to get something better,.. you'd be lucky to get peanut's for it.
For a basic computer, your spec's are pretty spot on, but change the processor from a celeron, to an AMD single turion or something similar.
For basic use, that will cover everything easily, whilst still keeping the cost down, and furthermore, you'll get buyer's for it,... if later you decide to offload it.

Answer 4

Acer is better in terms of overall performance while toshiba has better display due to better LCD because they r masters of it!

Also acer has AMD processor which again is a plus against celeron in toshiba!

Answer 5

i would not recommend anything will a celeron processor and the acer notebook link is expired so i could not check out that laptop.

Answer 6

THE COMPUTERS ARE PRETTY SIMALAR.WHAT YOU WANT TO CHECK IS THE PRODUCT SUPPORT.I KNOW THAT TOSHIBA USAUALLY ONLY GIVES A YEAR AND THEN IF YOU CALL THEY CHARGE YOU 35.00 TO HELP YOU WITH ANY PROBLEMS YOU HAVE.YOU CAN GET EXTENDED WARRENTIES BUT THEY ARE A LITTLE EXPENSIVE.I DONT KNOW ABOUT ACERS WARRENTIES YOU WILL HAVE TO CHECK THAT OUT.

Answer 7

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/