This is not really a new post exactly, but since it didn't get any attention where I did have it, I figured I would reiterate here. We're (I'm) considering a Swift 3 from Acer. It is, thank goodness, available in an AMD version that blows untel out of the water. Pluses are light weight, overall performance, and battery life. Minuses are dim display, speakers on the bottom (?!), and price (600 low end and that's probably for reconditioned). Is there a way to plug in a phone and/or its sd card? Can I add a mouse as it apparently does not have one and I'm no fan of track pads? Can the speaker and display problems be remedied? Since the hard drive is essentially half a tb I can probably hold off on the external drive for now. Please, somebody, answer soon because decision day is upon us and I must figure what to do before that money gets spent on something else.
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Acer Swift 3
- Thread starter Rgarner
- Start date
plug in a phone? what do you mean? for charging? or by suing the phone as a hotspot?
the laptop should be able to use a mouse. most laptops do not come with a mouse.
what problems are we talking about with the speakers and display?
As it's got USB ports, then yes, you can plug a mouse and//or phone in if you want. As the speakers are fixed and apparently down firing out the bottom, really the only way to improve that would be to use external speakers or use headphones. Laptop built-in speakers are usually quite poor anyway. and certainly not HiFi.
Can I also plug in just the sd card with an adapter? I have that. Overall, would this computer be a good idea or should we look for something else? Are desktop machines more affordable/practical/available these days? Do laptops have any advantages over them other than portability?
if anything laptops are more limiting than desktops. with desktops you can get access to the hardware when something needs replacing. you can also expand your storage space as well on a desktop. a laptop, you can't do that.
and yes you should be able to use an sd card adapter on the laptop.
what are you planning to do on the computer? just go online? word processing? games? watching and streaming movies?
Really it is only portability. If you want large screens, easily expandable storage, raw and upgradeable power, and expansion slots, then it's a full-blown desktop rig you need.
Myself, I've only been using laptops(Macbooks) since 2006, mainly because of travel. Before that I was often building, upgrading, and using desktop PCs since 1990.
It should be mostly online stuff and maybe some wp, with games and movies also ran. I might eventually but right now I still hope to revive the old Moto G Stylus with minimal ADB Fastboot and possibly usb drivers. If nothing else I should be able to do a data scrape and get as much as possible out of the overpriced paperweight. At least I should be able to dump the sd into it. One of the main reasons I would want a computer is to have Calibre after all this time and be able to manage a bunch of ebooks. I just read an article on why ebooks suck and I agree. However, with limited money and probably space they seem to be the way to go for now. There is nothing that can compare with reading a real book or magazine (or cereal box or stop sign) but at the moment I am pretty much putting up with the ecrap. I wonder if it would help to print out some of them and read them in the real world. Anyway, what's important to me, besides price and reliability, of course, are a nice big keyboard, as huge a hard drive as possible, and expandability, most likely externally. My friend is deferring to me on this because he really doesn't know squat about it. I don't want to let him down but that probably won't be a problem because he's mostly planning to watch whatever yucktube shoves at him in that filter bubble and maybe have me help him buy online stuff. I'm sorry it's such a long answer but at least that covers most of it. These days, with the popularity of laptops, are desktops maybe cheaper?