back to article Acer: 'We will be the last man standing in the PC industry'

Acer CEO Jason Chen this week tore through the company's international product launch presentation – on the 68th floor of New York's 4 World Trade Center – like a rock star on speed from start to finish. He even donned sunglasses at one point and there seemed every chance that he might not take them off. Acer E series laptops …

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Cloud Category?

      I noticed that earlier for the Apple Watches* review...

      *(Ha, no plurals allowed.... SCREW YOU APPLE!)

      1. Dana W

        Re: Cloud Category?

        Make it look like a Mac all you want, its still running Windows.

    2. Antonymous Coward
      IT Angle

      Re: Cloud Category?

      Fine examples of hot air and nebulous marketing puff. Shirley "cloud" if anything is?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fugly feses of sh*t

    Not with that plastic looking crap..

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Fugly feses of sh*t

      "fugly" is an ugly, and stupid, word. Stop using it!

      1. Grade%

        Re: Fugly feses of sh*t

        fYeah! fWhat fthe ffuck fman. fCan't fyou fsee fhow ffucking fannoying fit fis?

  3. Greg D

    All in 1366x768!!

    And I bet everything they make comes with a 1366x768 LCD screen.

    Sigh.

    Even the "MacBookalike" machine looks like its running that ancient, obsolete, lacking in pixels LCD resolution.

    1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

      Re: All in 1366x768!!

      Yeah, there was just one mention of a 1920 wide screen... there's no excuse for not putting an (at minimum) 1920 by whatever screen on the things these days.

      I've liked Acer in the past, cheap and cheerful and nowhere near as unreliable (to me) as their some-time reputation, so there may be possibilities. I did rather like that yellow one... though the Acer I have at present has two disc drive slots which is really rather nice.

      Having said that, I think my next option will be a tosh chromebook tweaked to run vanilla linux.

      1. Teiwaz

        Re: All in 1366x768!!

        The yellow jobby caught my eye too, reminds me of Banana disks in the late 80's. Doubt I'd buy one in that colour though, I'd feel obligated to have my ui colours matching the case.

        I've enough trouble with that on my purple Acer Aspire One netbook, which has lasted nearly five years now (although the battery could do with being replaced and I've upped the memory from 1 to 2 Gb).

      2. Mage Silver badge
        FAIL

        Re: All in 1366x768!!

        I don't care at all about 1920 if it's x 1080. THIRTEEN YEARS ago we had 1200 line / vertical pixel resolution!

        1920 is only a TV width resolution. for DOCUMENTS, you know actual WORK, the vertical pixels is what counts. If I want video, I'll watch on a decent size HD TV on the couch, not at a laptop!!!!!!!!

    2. Alistair Dabbs

      Re: All in 1366x768!!

      I thought someone would ask this but I didn't want to get bogged down with a long and boring list of all the specs. I imagine you'd also want to know what ports you get, all disk size options, etc. This stuff will trickle through when we start reviewing the real kit.

      In the meantime, let it be known that tou can get the Aspire V15 in 1920x1080 but not if you want a touchscreen. You can also get a 1920x1080 version of the Chromebook. The 17in version of the Aspire ES has a 1600x900 display. The Aspire Switch 10 has 1920x1200.

      1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

        Re: All in 1366x768!!

        Thanks Alistair.

        When you do the reviews, a couple of things which are important to me: what boot methods are available, and how many disk slots, please!

        1. Dave 126 Silver badge

          Re: All in 1366x768!!

          Bizarre:

          If you want anything other than 16:9, your new laptop choices are:

          Apple, Microsoft or Google.

          Various Macbooks: 16:10

          Surface Pro 3: 3:2 (15:10)

          Chromebook Pixel: 3:2 (15:10)

          If anyone here can add to this list, please do! :)

          Still, my old 17" 1920 x 1200 Dell keeps chugging along on its Core 2 Duo T9550. Really though, it's so heavy that it doesn't usually travel, so I could replace it with a desktop and a large 16:10 monitor (still available).

          1. Major N

            Re: All in 1366x768!!

            I think the 16:9 ratio is due to the panels being mass produced for TV use, which makes them cheap to procure

            1. Dave 126 Silver badge

              Re: All in 1366x768!!

              >I think the 16:9 ratio is due to the panels being mass produced for TV use, which makes them cheap to procure

              Maybe. I just found it odd that the only non-16:10 laptops are made by companies who also make their own OS.

  4. DJV Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Free upgrade

    "Chen said if you buy a Windows 8.1 notebook now, he'll give you a free upgrade to 10 later."

    Wow! Maybe Microsoft should do this for all Windows 7 and 8.1 users as well!!

    Oh, wait...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Free upgrade

      You'll get it for free the same way you get an STD :)

    2. Alistair Dabbs

      Re: Free upgrade

      Yes, I could have rephrased that better. The point was that Acer says it will upgrade you, rather than you necessarily doing it yourself via a Microsoft store. How this will work in practice, I have no idea.

      1. Sarah Balfour
        Pirate

        Re: Free upgrade

        Acer'll upgrade me…?! Could use an update, definitely need more RAM, and a new CPU wouldn't go amiss, either.

        I'm old. In less than 3 weeks' time, I'll be another year closer to ancient.

        The only living being that gives a shit is the cat from number 40 - and that's only coz I made the fatal mistake of giving him some chicken once.

        Cats. They're mercenary little shits, but… actually, but nothing, they're just mercenary little shits.

        1. DropBear
          Joke

          Re: Free upgrade

          Hold on... you gave it some chicken once and it still gives a shit about you? That must be a seriously one-of-a-kind cat... all the ones I know only do that as long as I'm holding the food.

  5. Banksy
    Paris Hilton

    Generous

    Chen sounds like a generous bloke. Giving something away for free that is going to be free anyway.

  6. dogged

    ew Acer.

    Always shoddy, always breaking, always poorly finished, always loaded down with shitware.

    No thanks.

    I'll take a Thinkpad or an Asus Zenbook instead, if that's okay.

    1. kwhitefoot
      WTF?

      Re: ew Acer.

      My two Acer netbooks are doing quite nicely thank you (Aspire One ZG5 from 2008 and Aspire One 725 from 2012).

      On the other hand I've had Thinkpads fail (especially fans), IBM desktop machines with dodgy power supplies. And have you tried using the trackpad and trackpoint on the Lenovo thinkpad W540?

    2. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: ew Acer.

      >always loaded down with shitware... ...I'll take a Thinkpad

      Um.... Okay. I can only assume that in the wake of their shiotware scandal, Lenovo have re-thought their policy.

      Still, Lenovo, like Toshiba and Macbooks tend to score well in the independent measures of reliability that I can find on-line.

      1. dogged

        Re: ew Acer.

        Thinkpads were never shitwared anyway - that was the consumer-end cheapbooks.

    3. Alistair Dabbs

      Re: ew Acer.

      >> Always shoddy, always breaking, always poorly finished, always loaded down with shitware

      Yes but apart from that, what have the Romans done for us?

  7. M7S

    Little Willie

    That Predator PC looks unnervingly like it has a caterpillar track around the outside, in the style either of a throwback to a century or so ago, or something out of the Imperium.

    Now that could be an interesting case mod, especially if your opponents can activate it mid-game. It would bring a new meaning to "keep your enemies close".

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: Little Willie

      Catapillar tracks, PC mod?

      Star Wars Sand Crawler PC:

      http://www.bit-tech.net/modding/mod-of-the-month/2010/06/07/mod-of-the-month-may-2010/7

      If you like sculpture, or sci-fi film props in your house, then buy sculptures or props. Not my scene, I guess.

      That said, I've pinned a Gravis Ultrasound card to my corkboard.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What a pity Acer isn't an anagram of crap.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      A.C.E.R

      A Crap Excrement Receptacle

      Glad to be of service

      1. Major N

        Re: A.C.E.R

        Where do you put the /good/ excrement, an iMac mini?

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: A.C.E.R

        @ dewix - that's an acronym, not an anagram.

        E.G. the life sciences spin out from HP - Agilent = Genital

  9. Filippo Silver badge

    Do the laptops still start overheating easily after a couple of years, due to dust accumulating in places where it's damn near impossible getting it out?

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      My Dell does that... and it takes about a dozen small screws to get the panel off to de-fluff it. An easy to pop-out fluff catcher - like that found on tumble dryers or vacuum cleaners - would be handy!

      Still, in a few years a good number of laptops will be fanless and thus without vents.

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        Solution number 3: Shoot the cat.

        I just added that to be completist. The other options are better on balance.

    2. DanceMan

      "overheating easily"

      My TM6592 (ex-Olympics) survived 5 years, mostly on 24/7, in a very dusty environment. I prefer business class, and this one did fine.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Dust accumulating

      Rather than buy one of those expensive bottles of gas from an IT supplier, I have discovered that the control valve of an old sodastream coupled to a cylinder makes a very easy to use CO2 blower. Just turn the computer off first, and use a pin or other small rod to stop the fan spinning while you blow out the dust.

      I'm looking at a 6 year old Travelmate, now with SSD and 8G of RAM, that goes fast and doesn't get hot.

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        Re: Dust accumulating

        >use a pin or other small rod to stop the fan spinning

        That is an important step to take - I've buggered the fan bearings on a desktop by making it spin too quickly with a vacuum cleaner.

        Is there any truth to the idea that fast flowing air can cause enough static to fry components?

        1. Jan 0 Silver badge

          Re: Dust accumulating

          > Is there any truth to the idea that fast flowing air can cause enough static to fry components?

          Maybe. I used to have a powerful LG vacuum cleaner. When I held the steel suction tube and hoovered the polypropylene carpet, I could shoot half inch sparks from my knuckles to the radiators. (Ouch). However, it's replacement (an aluminium tube Dyson) never did the same. Perhaps there's an earth path in the Dyson. I know that just walking over synthetic carpets, with the wrong shoes, can have a similar effect, but I've never seen sparks that big without an LG in my hand.

    4. Alistair Dabbs

      >> Do the laptops still start overheating easily after a couple of years

      I'll let you know in 2017.

  10. SVV

    "like a rock star on speed from start to finish".

    Having misbehaved backstage at several large festivals in my 20s, and having too many blurred memories of post-gig excess,I can assure you that comparing a presentation from the CEO of a large multinational IT company with the sort of shenanigans that I have wiitnessed / taken part in is akin to comparing the awful political campaign we are currently being subjected to to Keith Moon driving a Rolls Royce into a swimming pool.

    You are a manufacturer of commodity products competimg on the basis of lowest price. You are about as rock'n'roll as James Blunt.

    I have played in bands and had a brilliant and irresponsible time. I have also worked in IT for 20 years and had a brilliant and very responsible time. That means the band things were "cool", and the IT things weren't. But I could never have done the former without the latter.

    Moral : don't try and be "cool" when tallking about IT stuff.

  11. Richard Boyce
    Thumb Down

    Touchpad

    My current laptop has a non-centred touchpad, like many of these models. I have found that to be an ergonomic nightmare. Never again.

    1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

      Re: Touchpad

      I detest touch pads and use them only in extremis. A mouse is for me a far superior interface.

      An important question when purchasing a laptop is whether the damn thing can be turned off.

  12. JustWondering

    Really?

    If we get to a point where Acer is the last man standing, then I guess I won't bother with one.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How about Acer's gaming rigs...

    Any views good or bad?

    1. Alistair Dabbs

      Re: How about Acer's gaming rigs...

      There were none available to test, and I wouldn't be the right person to test them anyway. Hopefully The Reg will get some Predator hardware to try out after the summer.

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