Upside
There are already plenty of LCD television brands crowding your local electrical store's shelves, but Acer's hoping to make an impact with its own offerings based on their affordability and features. The 32" AT3201W is the largest of the three being launched on 1 August (there's also a 26" and 20" model), and with a RRP of AU$2199 it certainly has the affordability bit down pat.
The set itself looks decent but not outstanding, sporting the same silver body as most other televisions out there. The screen, however, is bordered by a shiny black frame, and with the silver speakers at either end detachable, could look quite stylish in a home entertainment set-up. The AT3201W isn't too bulky, weighing in at 20.7kgs with dimensions of 1018x616x210mm (WxDxH)
The AT3201W boasts a screen resolution of 1366x768 pixels, which means it's fully compatible with high definition signals. It has decent brightness of 550 cd/m2, a contrast ratio of 800:1 and a 12ms response time (meaning fast action scenes should be no problem). As per Acer's plans for releasing an affordable yet well specced out unit, the AT3201W features decent connectors, including a DVI input for an all digital video connection. Other inputs include three components and four S-Video/Composite. Sadly, there's no HDMI, but that's not surprising considering the price of this particular unit.
Acer's also making a big deal about the Empowering Key -- a dedicated button on the remote control which contains preset video and audio levels depending on what's being viewed (such as movies, games, sports and concerts).
Downside
The AT3201W has decent specs for its price, and from the brief view CNET.com.au had of the set at it Sydney launch it seemed to perform well. But as a brand new player in the LCD television space, Acer has no track record in terms of quality or performance that we can point to. It's been quite a success in the IT field, with it PC and monitor products being consistently above average, but we'll have to wait until we have an extended hands-on play with one of the new sets before any judgements can be made.
Outlook
The price is right, and on paper the specs are also quite attractive. If it can manage to stand out from the LCD TV crowd, then Acer may have a hit with its AT3201W.
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Siva2008
05/12/2008, 07:14 AM
rating
3/10
Worked really well for almost 3 years. Then it suddenly stopped working. When turned on, the Acer Insignia comes on and then the screen goes blank. It has become a Tele"sound" instead of being a Tele"vision!" No display, but the sound comes on. Called Customer Service, who came on the phone within 2-3 minutes, only to say "you are not under warranty, so we can't provide support. Take it to a TV repair shop." When said I never had any electronic product die on me within 3 years, he says "sometimes it happens. I didn't know if you unplug and replug (reboot) it might work. I'm going to try and if it doesn't, then chuck it out.
Pros: Good picture (when it worked), good features.
Cons: Terrible sound quality -- you have to crank up the volume to almost 80% to her the conversations sometime. No remote code for using the Cable Box remote with the TV. The TV's remote is not good - you have to directly point it to the sensor and press hard.
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Cicely Watts
25/11/2008, 10:34 AM
rating
1/10
We paid for A 5 yr 5 star extended warranty. When I rang up I was 42 in the queue and when i eventually got on I coulnt not hear the very soft voice and was told turn the machine off leave 5 mins and turn back on.no luck. try web yes I did but only computers etc no TV
Rating
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Tones
08/11/2008, 04:24 AM
rating
8/10
Seems to be a really good tv apart from the reliability issue..ours died about 3 times...
I suspected it might have been because of power surges so I bought a surge protector and haven't had any problems since....
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Dead AT3201W
07/11/2008, 08:41 AM
rating
1/10
I bought mine two years ago and initially loved it. In the last 3 months, it crapped out. The left side of the screen is a pixellated mess. component inputs place the image 2" down and to the right. Acer support referred me to a service centre in Vancouver that no longer exists.
The original design had a fan. I suspect that later units, like mine, did not have a fan and simply ran too hot.
Pros: None.
Cons: A two year lifespan with no hope of repair.
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pd154
31/08/2008, 09:15 AM
rating
1/10
Worst piece of any electronics I have ever owned, but only after 1 year when the warrenty expired. Was OK before that.
Pros: lighter than conventional TV to carry back and forth to repair.
Cons: needs unplugging ( sort of reboots it)every 6 hours or so of watching.
Only one Acer repair outlet in each Canadian province. Cannot be fixed as parts cannot be found. Acer customer "service" says it may be due to a "parts lockdown"
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pd154
31/08/2008, 06:38 AM
rating
10/10
Paid $1100 for this unit, gave to to my mother as a birthday present. Looked good, first couple of days. Then my mother had a techie come in to program her remotes as I could not find the remote code. It turns out Acer does not give out or even plan to give out a code. Of course it took $90.00 to find this out. That in itself is unbelievable!
Pros: It is lighter than a conventional TV to carry back and forth to the repairman.
Cons: 1) Acer "customer service" not having a remote code. Must use multiple remotes when it occasionally works.
2) Phoned Acer "customer Support" when it stopped working first time, Of course out off warrentee, but must have been awfull close to the one year as it was just after my mothers next birthday. Paid repairman come out to fix, for the next year it just needed uplugging as a sort of reboot more and more frequently. Reboot now no longer works, repairman came again, he said he could probably fix it but he cannot get Acer parts. Found this difficult to believe so I today called Acer" support" to ask about fixing. I live in Vancouver , Canada and there is only one Acer repair centre in each province, and she said to call first as they may not be able to get the parts, possibly because of something called a "Parts Lockdown" ? I was too annoyed to ask what this even meant. I guess unless you live in Japan, or more likely China you are not likely to be able to find parts.
3) Just some supporting nonsense, I went to www.Acersupport.com and unless I want to download and install a new flash program on my computer, there is absolutely nothing else. The support I eventually got through to told me "well it's a free program". Even if I wanted to install more software, I was on a computer I had no admin privilidges on and could not install!
I found another acer site www.fixmyAcer.com and it says my serial # is invalid even though every time I read it out to the "support " person it comes up.
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devon
30/08/2008, 01:21 AM
rating
2/10
When it works, its actually quite good, and was quite cheap. There ends the joy. May luck be with you if you buy this unit.
Pros: Price for the features. Thats about it. Oh, you're gonna need that 3 year warranty. So I guess a 3 year pickup warranty is a pro. I guess.
Cons: Reliability.
I bought 2 units. My bad.
First unit display failed (went all out of sync). Sent it back. You may not believe this, but it is the truth, it sat in WA in repair for 4 months!!! Even with pressure!! Got a dictionary of excuses from repair centre and Acer support. Eventually I demanded a refund. Acer sent me out a 37" as replacement. That has been working fine since.
Second unit failed shortly after that -- same way as the first! Took about 6 weeks to get repaired.
Second unit just failed for the second time. Same problem!! Been in repair for 4 weeks.
Silence has been deafening from Acer support. Each time I call they seem bewildered at the situation. Gee, really?
Wondering when the next failure will be. Wondering if I can get my warranty extended because it's spent more time in repair than it has been switched on.
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stan
10/07/2008, 04:56 PM
rating
2/10
about to return for the third time..i hate this t.v. i don t want it back in my house
Pros: can t think of 1
Cons: not enough room here to write them in
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bigd
25/06/2008, 12:39 AM
rating
3/10
Very cheap purchase from Sydney store! I bought a unit, and immediately had a fault where the image became distorted. Took Acer service centre (outsourced to ServiceWest) 4 months to repair, numerous courier issues. Eventually they admitted all sorts of mistakes and blamed someone who was sacked. Acer sent me a 3720 as replacement. That has worked flawlessly - I recommend a much better unit. I was apeased and buy *another* unit. 2 months later almost the same fault occurred as the original other unit. Acer service repaired within 2 weeks. However the problem has just returned again, and in process of return. Considerable downtime and risk with this item!
Pros: Good value! Technically a good performing display. Good input selections.
Cons: Quaility of electronics??
Service turnaround within Perth, before they sacked their Couriers and started collecting themselves.
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jak
30/04/2008, 12:43 PM
rating
2/10
TV has been returned for service twice in 10 months. Each time has taken 4 weeks due to inefficiency in pick up and delivery. The repairer "lost" the TV for 2 weeks last time. I Really regret this purchase. I will not purchase anything with return to base service again.
Pros: Price
Cons: Poor reliability. Downtime 20% so far.
Customer service won't respond even though they have 4 hour email reply policy.
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