PDA

View Full Version : Why is this Dell $80 more than this Acer?



earthpigg
October 17th, 2010, 11:13 PM
Hi,

My friend is considering purchasing a netbook, and is asking my advice. She has narrowed it down to two options.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Dell-10.1-Inspiron-Mini-1012-Netbook-PC-with-Intel-Atom-Processor-6-Cell-Battery-and-Windows-7-Starter/14663170

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Acer-Amethyst-Purple-Aspire-One-AO532h-2254-10.1-Netbook-PC-with-Intel-Atom-N450-Processor-Windows-7-Starter-Edition/14043088#Specifications

I have no idea why that Dell is $80 more. The specs seem nearly identical, aside form the hard drive size.

Is there some huge glaring difference that I am missing?

KiwiNZ
October 17th, 2010, 11:27 PM
The HDD would influence and different manufactures have different cost structures thus different pricing.Exact comparisons can never be made down to dollar for dollar per item.

Also have to take into account variables like exchange rates when the product was shipped etc

Shining Arcanine
October 17th, 2010, 11:28 PM
It is most likely a poor choice of pricing by people at Dell. Their website charges much more for the same system, so there probably is not as much room being given to Walmart to cut the price below that.

macem29
October 17th, 2010, 11:38 PM
I'd say the biggest factor is market position....Acer is a budget product aimed at price conscious buyers, they are a no frills PC maker, Dell is positioned slightly higher on the food chain and they certainly spend a lot more on advertising than Acer...that 250 HDD vs the 160 is a very minor cost difference...I'd say there's very little difference in actual quality between the 2, I have an Acer aspire one netbook and it has been a fantastic little machine, coming on 2 years old and never had a single issue with it...there have been several different netbooks marketed with that model name however, so I can't comment on that one in the Wally World ad

superarthur
October 17th, 2010, 11:43 PM
IMHO, Dell is overpriced and of poor quality. Go for Acer instead.

earthpigg
October 17th, 2010, 11:56 PM
Thanks for the sanity check folks, I'm going to go ahead and confirm my reccomendation for the Acer.

Lucradia
October 18th, 2010, 10:29 AM
I also should point out that the Dell has an 8-cell battery, and the Acer has a 6-cell. A world of a difference there.

Edit: Nevermind, for some reason, one said 8-cell, and the other said 6-cell, my mistake. To be perfectly honest, I would never by a Notebook with a Starter Edition of Windows.

Paul820
October 18th, 2010, 12:55 PM
I like Acer's. M last laptop was an Acer Aspire 5100 or 5101, can't remember but they work really well with Ubuntu. I have an Acer Aspire 5551 now and everything works, fn keys, suspend/hibernate, broadcom, everything. Get an Acer. :P

kio_http
October 18th, 2010, 01:51 PM
ASUS EEE PC's in general get more battery life because of their Super Hybrid Engine Chip.

blueturtl
October 18th, 2010, 01:57 PM
This is all subjective of course, but I have never ever seen an Acer without some kind of hardware quality issue. Every single one that I've come to contact with has been either factory repaired or on it's way to factory repair.

This is with regular notebooks though, not netbooks.

john77eipe
October 18th, 2010, 02:21 PM
All my friends here go for Dell. It's relatively low in price compared to HP and Sony. No one uses Acer here. :confused:

Dell is known for long holding batteries. My friends have been using dell for past 3 yrs. Not a serious compliant as of now.

Paul820
October 18th, 2010, 02:25 PM
This is all subjective of course, but I have never ever seen an Acer without some kind of hardware quality issue. Every single one that I've come to contact with has been either factory repaired or on it's way to factory repair.

This is with regular notebooks though, not netbooks.

Never had a problem with my Acers.

earthpigg
October 18th, 2010, 02:36 PM
Edit: Nevermind, for some reason, one said 8-cell, and the other said 6-cell, my mistake. To be perfectly honest, I would never by a Notebook with a Starter Edition of Windows.

she's given up on windows, herself. it will be an ubuntu machine.

i'd love to find a comparably priced linux preinstalled netbook with similar specs to recommend for her, but as far as i am aware they no longer exist.

superarthur
October 18th, 2010, 05:20 PM
This is all subjective of course, but I have never ever seen an Acer without some kind of hardware quality issue. Every single one that I've come to contact with has been either factory repaired or on it's way to factory repair.

This is with regular notebooks though, not netbooks.
My Acer is working completely (even though I only had it for a few months)
maybe except for the webcam, which makes thigns incredibly dark, but a webcam is not for taking pretty pictures anyway

macem29
October 18th, 2010, 05:30 PM
when the aspire one came out about 2 years ago it was available with XP or linux, the linux box
was $100 less than the Windows one...it was a great opportunity for linux to find a nitche: netbooks,
they are predominantly internet based machines so software compatibility is not much of an issue,
I bought the XP version because I was heading to Afghanistan with it and wanted something solid
as I wasn't sure of the capabilities of fixing a messed up linux system while living in a tent...anyway,
they are no longer shipped with linux available, a huge opportunity missed by the linux community,
after trying the ubuntu NBR I can see why it failed, too bad

blueturtl
October 18th, 2010, 05:32 PM
Ok, I guess I need to elaborate what I base my opinion on (since everyone with working Acers is chiming in).

My neighbor's Acer will simply freeze when left unattended.

My grandpa's Acer developed a motherboard issue before he had a chance to use it for very long. He bought a Vaio while waiting for it to return from the factory.

A company I worked for employ dozens of traveling salespeople who they equip regularly with new hardware. All but a few Acer notebooks (in the batch) came back defective sooner than the standard three year period salespeople have until the company normally considers upgrading.

Finally my personal experience: an ALI (Acer Labs Incorporated) USB addon card. My color printer used to do fairly poor quality printing until by accident I tried printing with it hooked up to my wife's Dell notebook. The print quality improved noticeably. This is not a hoax, it is reproducible. Somehow the USB-addon card corrupts the data transmitted to the printer.

The hardware is crap! Don't buy ALI/Acer.