Is Acer the Forgotten Brand?
So I needed to get a new laptop for work. Unfortunately work for now is best with sigh Windows 11.
So I might as well get a new laptop to dedicate to work purposes. My previous work gave me a laptop (thankyou!), and while that is also possible here, it’s ill-advised due to the obvious lockdowns they’ll place on it.
Obviously my work still is ICT with an element of development and so I want to stay in charge of the laptop and I am fussy…
I was hunting down mix of features and I was actually seeking a “unicorn” in 2026.
There are very few laptops in store in Australia, or it seems manufacturers, that combined touch, small and Ethernet.
I could find some options but mostly on the high-end build-to-order business SKUs, which leaves you to fight the lucky dip of various Outlet stores.
I ended up on a mass eBay search.
In this journey I re-discovered Acer that had dropped off my radar. Turns out they seem to have a stake in the education market and there is a refurbished seller with almost too many models to choose from.
After quite a process over the Australia Day long weekend, and now thanks to a rare smooth Express Post experience, I now have a near-new 2024 Acer TravelMate P4 Spin 14.
I am super-impressed with the seller, a shout-out here is deserved to Computer Remakers.
The laptop was delivered in perfect unopened condition with a free bag (Everki brand) in the original Acer boxes.
Windows 11 Pro Education as promised was pre-activated and installed. Being somewhat wary I immediately did a Reset this PC which was incredibly smooth and then logged in with a local account.
The CPU, here a Core Ultra 5 125, is unfortunately not that great, but it’ll do. All of the features I wanted are present and accounted for. Especially nice is the touch and the stowed-away stylus. It also has an excellent 1920x1200 screen which is very crisp at 14 inches. The default scaling is again 150% which I dropped back to 100% for a bit more breathing room.
For extra cool factor points it has Windows Hello via both fingerprint and face and it was quite reliable. Amusingly Hello encourages me to sit further back from the laptop and helps with my posture?
So far I am very happy with this purchase. It works with the guest Wifi at work, and I was able to Miracast to my projector/smart board (not to past self - we really missed a trick not making use of these before).
There were some compromises. I could have gone more portable, back down to 12 inches but that model had auch weaker CPU and less expansion options. There is no dedicated GPU - but as this is for work and I’m not up to local AI yet, this isn’t a concern. The keyboard having a number pad would have been nice but bumps me to 16 inches. I will buy a Bluetooth number pad and/or Presenter remote to solve that. And with the Thunderbolt port I am still sneakily looking at eGPUs…
The main reason I switched away from my very good Chromebook was because I was having trouble with some of the work apps (Horizon) and the keyboard layout is different arbitrarily (borrowing the wrong ideas from Apple there Google!)… and while it pairs very nicely with my Pixel 7, the battery life does seem to be suffering of late. Perhaps all of that Plus AI is taking its toll.
I would be remiss not to mention the excellent “Lifecycle Guide” which is there on the Acer Support page. It’s disassembly and parts information would make iFixIt very proud.
There is a newer TravelMate model I might keep my eye on but this will definitely last me this placement, the moral being don’t just think of the major brands…
🥰