Acer Vs. Gateway

[Raj]

Hello !

I'm a desktop owner who's buying his first first laptop for college. I've zeroed down upon two laptops with pretty much the same config. and was wondering which one company or laptop would you recommend.

Gateway 6520 GZ: ($875) (6.3 lbs)
Centrino 735 1.7GHz
512 DDR PC2700 333Mhz, 64 MB Video
15.4" screen, DVD +/- RW,
4 USB 2.0, 802.11 g networking

Acer Aspire 1961: ($1000) (6.6 lbs)
Centrino 725 1.6 Ghz,
512 PC4200 533 Mhz, GMA 900 Video 64 MB,
15.4" screen, DVD +/- RW,
3 2.0 USB, 802.11 b/g networking

My specific questions are:
1. Given the 125$ difff. which one would you recommend ?
2. Will my Univ.'s 802.11b network fine with my 802.11g network card in gateway and if it won't what do I need to get additionally ?

Thanks in advance

[Charles P. Jefferies]

1. Given the 125$ difff. which one would you recommend ?
2. Will my Univ.'s 802.11b network fine with my 802.11g network card in gateway and if it won't what do I need to get additionally ?

1. Well, Gateway doesn't have the best quality or support, but in this case I'd say get the gateway because you get more bang for your buck.

2. Yes, it will work fine. G is backwards compatible with b and vice versa.

[LuckMC11]

i would deff. go with the gateway as well...even with the slower ram...u could use that extra $125 to add more ram to it

[Raj]

1. Well, Gateway doesn't have the best quality or support, but in this case I'd say get the gateway because you get more bang for your buck.

2. Yes, it will work fine. G is backwards compatible with b and vice versa.

How shoddy is Gateway's Tech Support? I'm buying my laptop in US and then takking it to Toronto, Canada. So product relaibility is kindda high on my list since otherwise I'd have to dispose the lappy at the first signs of repai :decision:
I also just found out that all of Gateway's one-on-one tech support is paid while Acer's is free. Should this be of any importance or should the local computer stores be able to solve most problems ?

[Charles P. Jefferies]

Well, here's a survery - customer satisfaction. Got it off notebook review's front page.
http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,1874,1626131,00.asp

[Raj]

i would deff. go with the gateway as well...even with the slower ram...u could use that extra $125 to add more ram to it

Sorry to bug you guys again but apparently Gateway's notebook got hiked to a $950 price. Also I just saw the HP dv4000, ze2000t and Compaq V4000 series laptops with the same price and config. I've read the survey and am doing my homework but still in general how good would you say is HP's tech support or reliability compared to that of Acer.

Thanks again.

[joecooper1027]

ok acer is good but there will be alot of buts here but read i have some good stuff. they dont fix there stuff if you have trouble they will give you trouble and the cost is like buying a new laptop. so i went and bought a gateway it is a good laptop but but a company named tag in fort lauderdale florida does there support some of the employees there cant even read or are on work release from prison. they will in most cases try to sell you more stuff or tell you to reformat they have 20min call times. so in short if you cannot do you own trouble shooting go with something other than acer and gateway they are good laptops but support is no good. one more thing if you dont belive what i have said the name of gateway's support is the answer group they are on south gate in fortlauderdale they also do support for at&t and hughs and geeksquad sprint and some more but you get the idea.

[spookoman]

wow, joe, while it isn't illegal to resurrect a mundane 2 year old post, the concept of the forum is to post to somewhat timely threads.