Key Points
- Lenovo and Acer both offer a wide range of laptop options for different use cases and budgets.
- Lenovo laptops have a simple and professional design, while Acer laptops have clean and functional designs.
- Acer laptops generally offer better performance and specs for the price compared to Lenovo laptops.
- Lenovo laptops tend to have better build quality and materials than Acer laptops.
- Both Lenovo and Acer offer decent battery life and customer support, but Lenovo has more service centers and better warranties.
Which laptop brand wins between Lenovo vs. Acer? Shopping for a laptop can be a fairly daunting task, especially when considering all the different use cases. If you’re in the market for a laptop it can be difficult to determine what is the best for your needs.
Lenovo has long been associated with making affordable and durable business laptops. However, it offers up a slew of different products. You’ve got your bases covered if looking for affordable Chromebooks, high-speed gaming laptops, and everything in between.
Acer has been seen as a budget brand for laptops for years. However, much like Lenovo, there is a rich product portfolio at work. You’ve got options for gaming, business, and any other use case you might imagine.
So, which of these two brands is the best for you? That is what this guide is setting out to accomplish.
Lenovo vs. Acer: Side-by-Side Comparison
| Lenovo | Acer | |
|---|---|---|
| Build Quality | Great | Greatly varies depending on which model you’re choosing |
| Pricing | Options for low to high-end laptops | Budget laptops with high-end performance options as well |
| Performance | Decent; the Legion series of laptops offer good specs for the pricing | Decent; there is a wide range of options available |
| Display Quality | Offers various resolutions with up to 4K supported on select laptops | Various resolutions, 1080p and 4K support available for select models |
| Battery Life | Average battery life, some models can offer over 12 hours | Excellent, some models can get well above 12 hours |
| Design | Simple and professional designs | Sleek and modern design work, very understated |
| Customer Support | Decent, customer service centers are available in over 60 countries | Average support, customers can experience long wait times for resolving issues |
| Warranty | Comes with a comprehensive warranty for most products | Standard warranties, there are options for extended warranties |
As you can imagine, these manufacturers do occupy different price brackets. That said, there are quite a few striking similarities you can draw when directly comparing certain models.
Lenovo vs. Acer: What’s the Difference?
Design
- Intel Evo Laptop Core i7-1185G7 vPro Processor
- 16GB RAM
- 512GB PCIe SSD
- 14-inch WUXGA 16:10 Screen
Lenovo has been known for the ThinkPad line of laptops, which feature a very understated and professional design. Laptops like the ThinkPad X1 Carbon are simplistic in appearance but are brimming with great features.
Sure, Lenovo laptops aren’t as flashy as something like an Apple MacBook, but the design works for most purposes.
- 15.6" FHD laptop
- Ryzen 3 3350U Quad-Core mobile processor
- 16GB RAM
- 512GB SSD
Acer is a big fan of clean lines, which can come off as rather plain. However, if you’re looking for an affordable laptop, options like the Acer Aspire 5 are fantastic. The design of the laptop itself is functional, but it is a modern and capable device through and through.
As such, it’s about even between Lenovo and Acer when looking at the overall design. They aren’t bespoke or flashy, but rather functional designs. You get access to features like backlit keyboards on some models.
Performance
- 17.3" display
- 16GB DDR4 RAM with 512GB PCIe SSD storage
- Ryzen 5 processor handles videos with ease
Performance is going to greatly differ depending on which models you’re looking at between both manufacturers. So, just as an example, let’s take a closer look at the gaming models.
Lenovo has the Legion series of laptops, with the Legion 5 operating as a great entry point. You get access to a Ryzen 7 processor, 1080p display, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and an RTX 3050 Ti. In practice, this is a highly capable laptop that is suited for gaming and a whole slew of demanding work.
- Blistering fast display, and extreme gaming performance
- Flexible enough to seamlessly multitask
- State-of-the-art cooling technology
- Latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 with DirectX 12 support
- Up to16GB DDR4 memory and 512GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD
Acer has the Predator series of laptops, with the Predator Helios 3 being a massively power laptop for the price point. You get access to an Intel i7 processor, RTX 3060 GPU, and 16GB of DDR4 RAM. It also has a 1080p IPS panel.
You’re getting better specs with the Acer, especially when looking at the price points. This is a fairly typical trend, especially since Acer is seen as a budget brand. The Lenovo is certainly capable, but Acer offers more powerful components in the same price range.
Build Quality
- 11.6" HD display
- 4GB of RAM
- 64GB of storage
- 32GB USB card for additional storage
It can be tough to ascertain build quality when looking at product lines with such a wide variety of price points. On average, you’ll find Lenovo uses more robust materials than Acer. For this example, let’s take a closer look at low-cost Chromebooks.
Now, lower-cost laptops aren’t generally known for their overall build quality. However, when looking at the Lenovo Flex 3 you get a far better built laptop than the comparable Chromebook from Acer.
- Intel Celeron N Processor
- 4GB of RAM
- 64GB SSD storage
- Full size keyboard with numpad
The Acer 15-inch Chromebook uses recycled plastic as part of the construction. Now, this is a perfectly fine material to manufacture a laptop’s housing. However, plastic for lower-cost laptops isn’t renowned for its durability. As such, you might notice more physical marring with the Acer line.
Moving into the higher brackets you’ll see materials like carbon fiber in use by Lenovo. Metals and the like are used by Acer when moving to higher price brackets. However, on average, you’ll find the actual materials used by Lenovo to be superior to what is on offer from Acer.
Battery Life
Battery life is going to greatly vary depending on which model of laptop you’re looking at from any manufacturer. Lenovo and Acer are roughly equal in this regard. Higher-end business models are going to have superb battery life.
The inverse of this is gaming laptops, which aren’t really known for being power-efficient. Laptops like the Yoga Slim from Lenovo offer up to 14 hours of battery life. Acer also has an equivalent model in the Swift 3x. Despite their reputation, it is roughly equal for both manufacturers.
Customer Support
Customer support is one of those categories that is sorely overlooked when discussing brands. After all, your shiny new laptop might have a manufacturing defect or component failure.
Lenovo on average offers better customer service across the board. It has hundreds of service centers around the world, so getting repair work done shouldn’t be difficult. However, you might find your wait times to get a human on the line are a little longer.
Acer isn’t really renowned for its customer service. Users on average have reported issues with less than satisfactory work when dealing with support staff.
Lenovo also offers better warranties across the board. You get comprehensive coverage for your laptop purchase. Acer has fairly standard warranty offerings, which is fine. You can purchase extended warranties for your device if needed.
Lenovo vs. Acer: 6 Must-Know Facts
- Lenovo generally offers better build quality, with more premium materials in use.
- Lenovo laptops are more prone to using NVIDIA GPUs for high-end gaming laptops.
- Lenovo ThinkPads are a great choice for business laptops.
- Acer is generally thought of as a budget brand, thanks to the lower build quality.
- Acer gaming laptops are more prone to using lower-quality AMD GPUs, though there are some NVIDIA GPUs in use as well.
- You generally get more for your money when purchasing an Acer laptop.
Lenovo vs. Acer: Which One Is Better? Which One Should You Choose?
So, which of these laptop brands is the best? It really is going to come down to preference. Lenovo isn’t a premium brand like Apple, Dell, or HP, but offers affordable and durable laptops at a variety of price points.
Acer is generally seen as a budget brand, with all the positives and negatives associated with that sort of labeling. You get more for your money in terms of overall performance, but aspects like the build quality do suffer.
As such, it really comes down to what you value more. Users looking for dependable and durable laptops might be well served by a Lenovo. However, if you’re looking for the best price-to-performance ratio, Acer is the way to go.
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