expiredfolsom posted Apr 11, 2023 06:27 AM
Item 1 of 5
Item 1 of 5
expiredfolsom posted Apr 11, 2023 06:27 AM
Costco Acer Aspire Vero 14" Laptop - 12th Gen Intel Core i5-1235U - 1080p - Windows 11 Laptop For $450
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35% offCostco Wholesale
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Personally, I'd get a Ryzen instead, as AMD has far better integrated GPU than Intel.
Also, just a note on Acer, I have one for my wife and I'm very disappointed in the support offering. Basically, Acer won't even talk to you once you're out of warranty, unless you pay. You have to get troubleshooting help from the "Community" and that's about it. Seems ridiculous to me for a machine that's only 1.5 years old (half a year out of warranty). I have HP laptops that are still running and I can stil get troubleshooting help for... and they're 4+ years old (and still running). Not a fan of Acer at the moment...
I tried that, and didn't get a solution... so I contacted Acer to see what they'd charge to take a look at it. They want $470 UPFRONT to repair (ie: replace) the laptop I bought for $499 a year and a half ago.
I have never had support this awful from any other brand of laptop. Most other companies will at least talk to you and maybe provide a "look into it" service for some lower cost, but this is ridiculous. Hell, I'm fine with self repair but they provide no real documentation to troubleshoot or repair the machines. In contrast, I can still contact HP about my 4+ year old machines and they'll at least help me with troubleshooting at no cost... so this is truly awful.
That said, I would never recommend another Acer again. They clearly don't stand behind their products at all. For that matter, I recall my mother in law had an Acer at one point, and while it lasted more than 2 years till she replaced it, even that one had a Wifi card that died... so we replaced it with a USB one in the interim. In contrast I've had HP laptops for many years that are older and continue to work without any issues (except one which was an x360 which had hinge problems, which they are known for, but even there HP will replace the hinges for less than $470 upfront!)
Anyway, enough of the rant... bottom line, even with the extra 1-year warranty from Costco, I can't recommend any Acer anymore. My computer customers will hear this same info (I work on computers for many customers as a side business for the past 10+ years).
EDIT: Also, their website sucks for various reasons I won't bore anyone with, but most recently, I can't even find my repair request at all, even though they emailed me with the $470 price tag! And there's no way to respond to their reply. Now THAT'S customer service!
I tried that, and didn't get a solution... so I contacted Acer to see what they'd charge to take a look at it. They want $470 UPFRONT to repair (ie: replace) the laptop I bought for $499 a year and a half ago.
I have never had support this awful from any other brand of laptop. Most other companies will at least talk to you and maybe provide a "look into it" service for some lower cost, but this is ridiculous. Hell, I'm fine with self repair but they provide no real documentation to troubleshoot or repair the machines. In contrast, I can still contact HP about my 4+ year old machines and they'll at least help me with troubleshooting at no cost... so this is truly awful.
That said, I would never recommend another Acer again. They clearly don't stand behind their products at all. For that matter, I recall my mother in law had an Acer at one point, and while it lasted more than 2 years till she replaced it, even that one had a Wifi card that died... so we replaced it with a USB one in the interim. In contrast I've had HP laptops for many years that are older and continue to work without any issues (except one which was an x360 which had hinge problems, which they are known for, but even there HP will replace the hinges for less than $470 upfront!)
Anyway, enough of the rant... bottom line, even with the extra 1-year warranty from Costco, I can't recommend any Acer anymore. My computer customers will hear this same info (I work on computers for many customers as a side business for the past 10+ years).
EDIT: Also, their website sucks for various reasons I won't bore anyone with, but most recently, I can't even find my repair request at all, even though they emailed me with the $470 price tag! And there's no way to respond to their reply. Now THAT'S customer service!
why buy when there are reputable brands for the same $$$$
why buy when there are reputable brands for the same $$$$
It's too bad, too, because some of their machines have good specs - they even have machines with metal frames and reasonable prices, which is how I came across them in the first place. So disappointing to see how awful they are...
I would like this laptop if it were AMD Ryzen powered, but it seems like AMD laptops are rare for true Zen 3 (even numbered second digit 5000 CPU series) and beyond for some reason in this price range. It seems like AMD sells most of their chips to server clients, and the consumer market is left to a select few for its latest Zen 3/4 chips. Chromebooks are using an older Ryzen fab process.
The refurb Swift 3 that uses Intel I5-1240P CPU sells for the same price on Acer's eBay store. Rumors swirl about it containing a second NVME slot underneath a flat cable that joins two boards together, so the Swift 3 can have 2 NVME drives. (Unconfirmed since I don't own one). I don't like the dual cooling fan setup as Intel is pretty much screwed in the mid-high mobile end range unless you like portable oven heaters.
This laptop is a dual core with some low-powered scrambling engineering e-cores from Intel, and it only uses one bigger fan vs. two small fans. I would prefer high powered P cores or the Ryzen way, but this might be an acceptable compromise. VRMs are covered in the heatsink.
I don't like how both of these setups do not have a SD Card slot, which used to be a standard feature (even though they performed at low transfer rates).
11th gen intel was problematic with high failure rates. https://www.pugetsystem
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Intel® Wi-Fi 6E (2x2/160) Gig+ and Bluetooth® 5.2
-14" Widescreen IPS LED-Backlit FHD (1920 x 1080) Display
-Backlit Keyboard, FingerPrint Reader and WebCam
-1x Thunderbolt™ 4 USB Type-C
Decent processor and setup for the money and you can't find a better warranty and return policy than Costco.
https://www.costco.com/acer-aspir...55208.h
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