If you click on links in this article, we may earn a commission, at no additional cost to you.

Skip to our Top Picks

Both Acer and Lenovo are big named brands that hold significant portions of the PC market share worldwide. Anyone who has looked on the market for laptops, desktops, or PC peripherals will run into these brands during their search, and for good reason.

Both Acer and Lenovo are big multinational companies with large product bases and good reputations. But is one of these companies better than the other? 

We are here to give a complete breakdown of Acer and Lenovo in order to ensure that you have the best information available next time you need to buy a new laptop. From the warranty information to the overall appearance, every aspect of these two brands will be covered in detail so there are no more questions regarding these two stalwart brands.

Acer vs Lenovo – Overview

Every company sells a product and every product is made up of a series of attributes, components, and options that determine whether or not it is worthwhile. This is our comprehensive list of all of the most important facets and features that each brand has.

PRICE

One of the very first things people look at while shopping for anything, much less something as important as a laptop, is the price. No one wants to get ripped off and no one wants to miss out on a deal.

Naturally, both of these brands have a large catalog of items that run from just a couple of hundred dollars into the thousands. The price itself isn’t a great marker of a deal unless you compare it to what kind of return on your money you are getting. 

Generally, Acer products are slightly cheaper than Lenovo products when it comes to standard laptops. However, Lenovo machines are generally of slightly higher quality and longevity than their Acer counterpart.

Both companies offer a stunning array of different computers at mid-ranged prices so it all comes down to whether you want a great deal in terms of raw price or if you want a great deal in terms of functionality.

In any case, neither company is vastly better on price than the other and in this category, both are similar enough that you could make either work for your budget if needed.

BRAND RECOGNITION

Lenovo has a significant edge when it comes to brand recognition. According to consumer data, Lenovo owns a whopping 25.7% of the PC market share. In comparison, Acer only has about 7% of the PC market share. That gives Lenovo a large edge in terms of units sold. 

Acer makes up for this massive deficit in other ways. Acer has a big offering of PC accessories including monitors and other peripherals that are widely available in the United States. Lenovo also has a diverse portfolio of products including smartphones and televisions but those products are not widely available in North America. 

If you are looking for a brand with the largest global presence and best brand recognition, Lenovo is the easy choice.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Both Acer and Lenovo have decent, if not great, customer service. If you have an issue with your product they are generally available by phone or via the web with little hassle. In terms of overall customer service experience, Lenovo rated slightly higher than Acer but both garnered similar marks. 

When it comes to warranty, Lenovo has a much stronger plan than Acer. Both companies offer a standard warranty for their products. Acer’s warranty covers a year of protection for physical hardware and 90 days for software.

In comparison, Lenovo offers a four-year warranty that kicks in from the date of purchase. Lenovo’s warranty covers normal use wear and tear for four full years which is remarkable, especially in today’s age of designed obsolescence.

If you are curious about the exact terms of each standard warranty you can view them both here. 

Acer’s Standard Warranty

Lenovo’s Standard Warranty

APPEARANCE

When it comes to the overall appearance, neither of these companies are looking to rock the boat or break the mold. Each company has a very utilitarian design philosophy that they largely stick to. 

Acer goes for a sleeker, more modern look with their machines. They opt for smooth textures, rounded corners, and cool silvers. None of these design choices are going to really stand out from the crowd but they are functional and contemporary. 

Lenovo often goes for a more classic look. Their machines have sharper corners, are often black instead of silver, and have a more boxy traditional laptop appearance.

In the vast majority of their offerings, neither company features many bright colors or unique design decisions that some other companies have tried to incorporate.

COMPONENTS

In terms of standard components, both companies use a large overlapping network of brands. Both Acer and Lenovo prominently feature Intel as their leading chipmaker and graphics card provider. Intel is a great brand that manufactures excellent computer parts worldwide.

Both Acer and Lenovo also feature limited AMD options as well if you prefer one over the other. Neither company has a special or exclusive brand for its most important components. 

When it comes to other parts such as casing, screen, and keyboard, Lenovo tends to score better in terms of overall quality and longevity. That is perhaps best seen in the difference in their warranties. 

Since they both use the same chipmakers for the key internal parts, Lenovo wins out in the overall components section for offering generally higher quality materials than Acer in their average laptop.

OPTIONS

Acer and Lenovo are both massive international companies that sell a wide range of products to consumers all over the world. In that way, both of these companies have extensive catalogs and subsidiaries that flesh out their options to absurd degrees. But if we narrow it down to available laptops for a North American audience, Acer has a slight edge over Lenovo.

Acer has a more diverse slate of laptops available on a daily basis. They have branched out into a wide range of products than Lenovo. But only just slightly.

Both Lenovo and Acer have convertible laptops, two-in-ones, Chromebooks, business laptops, and gaming laptops but within each of these categories, Acer has just a few more options than Lenovo. In terms of overall diversity, both companies are very similar when it comes to their products but Acer just offers a few more than Lenovo.

GAMING

Both Acer and Lenovo make dedicated gaming laptops. Acer’s are produced under the Predator banner while Lenovo’s are called Legion computers.

In this department, Acer has made great strides in the market, and Predator is generally regarded as a better gaming outfit than Legion at this time. 

Both companies have long histories of marketing to gamers but in terms of dedicated gaming laptops, Acer is better. They have managed to cram all of the latest and greatest technology into their Predator machines without compromising overall quality and without blowing the lid off of the budget.

MANUFACTURING

Acer and Lenovo are both Chinese brands based in Asia. Acer has its headquarters in Taipei while Lenovo’s headquarters are in Beijing. Obviously, this means that both Acer and Lenovo do a great deal of their manufacturing in Asia with a large number of their machines and components being manufactured in China. 

Lenovo is a much larger company in terms of global reach and they also have factories worldwide in places such as Brazil, India, and Mexico. While both companies have a large presence in the United States, neither does any measurable amount of manufacturing work here. 

Here are our picks for the ten best Acer and Lenovo laptops available for consideration today. This selection features a mix of traditional, gaming and contemporary laptop styles to fit your needs.

Price Legend (estimates): $ = under $500 | $$ = $500-$1000 | $$$ = $1000-$1500 | $$$$ = over $1500

With so many options available from Acer and Lenovo, it was hard to narrow down to just four top picks from these two outstanding brands. It would be really easy to get lost in the weeds dredging up each Chromebook or a unique tablet-laptop combination but we have decided to keep it simple. Here are our four top picks for the best, standard, laptops from Acer and Lenovo available today. 

Best Day-to-Day Acer Laptop:
Acer Aspire 5

The Acer Aspire 5 is a fantastic computer for the average user who is simply looking for a good price on a machine perfect for working from home and surfing the web. This laptop has great specs, a large high-resolution screen, and a great overall design. 

With 8GB of RAM and 256GB of solid-state storage, this laptop has enough memory to sustain average use for many years. The screen is a large 15.6” with super high-resolution sharpness that is perfect for streaming.

The latest generation i5 processor is powerful enough to handle all day-to-day requests. In addition to being a solid standard laptop, the Acer Aspire 5 also features some nice quality of life upgrades that you will appreciate at this price.

It features a sensitive fingerprint reader which can be used to quickly unlock your computer or to keep it secure from snoopers. 

It also features speedy WiFi connections, multiple input jacks for HDMI, USB-C, and USB 3.1 that will keep you connected to all of your devices without any problems. 

The Acer Aspire 5 also has a comfortable backlit keyboard that is a pleasure to use for hours at a time. It is responsive, easy to see, and does not cramp your fingers over extended usage. 

For a laptop geared towards average usage, you don’t get much better in terms of performance, features, and values. The only thing holding this PC back from true greatness is the weak graphics chipset included which does not push the excellent screen to its limits. 

KEY FEATURES
● Intel Core i5-1035G1 Processor
● Intel UHD Graphics
● 15.6” (1920×1080) Full HD IPS Display

Best Day-to-Day Lenovo Laptop:
Lenovo IdeaPad 3

Lenovo excels at making business focused laptops for average people and that is made very clear with the Lenovo IdeaPad 3. The IdeaPad 3 has beefy specs, a large touch screen, a solid battery, and is available at a great price. 

Lenovo knows that modern programs are only getting more and more memory intensive which is why they packed in 12GB of DDR4 RAM into this laptop. That extra bit of RAM will ensure that your computer will not drag while running your conference calls, presentations, and web browser all at once. 

The thing that stands out about the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 is the inclusion of a snappy touchscreen. Other similar machines do not come with a touchscreen included. This is included at the expense of screen resolution which only tops out at 1366×768 pixels but the utility of being able to use touch to bolster the trackpad is a welcome addition. 

The Lenovo IdeaPad 3 also boasts a full sized keyboard including a full number pad. This is a great add-on that many laptops just don’t have. The inclusion of the full business style keyboard ensures that keying everything from emails to expense reports is a breeze. 

The downsides to this laptop are a subpar graphics card and a lower screen resolution than expected. Otherwise, this is a fantastic all around laptop aimed at the average consumer looking for a great work machine.

KEY FEATURES
● Intel i5-1035G1 Processor
● Intel UHD Graphics
● 15.6” (1366×768) TruBrite technology Touch Screen HD Display

Best Top Of The Line Acer Laptop:
Acer Predator Triton 500

If you want to experience the pinnacle of what Acer’s Predator line can do, the Predator Triton 500 is a phenomenal machine. This is a gaming focused laptop that packs in the best that laptops have to offer into a blazingly fast computer. With 16GB of RAM and a powerful RTX 2070 graphics card, the Predator Triton 500 will be able to play the latest and greatest computer games without breaking a sweat.

Even if you aren’t looking for a gaming computer necessarily but are just looking for a computer that will last a long time and be able to handle programs such as design or rendering software, the Predator Triton 500 is a great choice.

The drawbacks to the Predator Triton 500 are the weight and the tendency for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER to run hot when in constant use. This is a common problem for all high end laptops but this one suffers from it as well. 

Overall, this is one of the best laptops Acer has ever designed and if you have the budget for it it will not disappoint as a gaming laptop, a high end day-to-day laptop, or as a rendering machine.

KEY FEATURES
● Intel i7-10750H Processor
● NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER Graphics
● 15.6” (1920×1080) FHD IPS Display with NVIDIA G-SYNC Technology

Best Top of The Line Lenovo Laptop: Lenovo ThinkPad E15

ThinkPad is a globally recognized brand known for its durability, functionality, and fair price. The Lenovo ThinkPad E15 is one of the best ThinkPads ever designed taking the brand to new heights with its great specs and performance. 

It has a blazing fast processor using Intel’s latest generation i7 core. Paired with a stunning 16GB of RAM and this computer runs like a jackrabbit. If you do a lot of work on your laptop and need a powerful machine that can also easily travel with you, the ThinkPad E15 is the best there is.

This computer is perfect for an in-home office, coffeeshop companion, or a traveling computer for long business trips. No matter what you need it to do, this computer can handle the load with ease.

The only real disappointment is that Lenovo failed to upgrade the standard graphics card from Intel integrated hardware to something just a little better. That is the only thing holding this computer back from a perfect score. 

Overall, for a high end business laptop, the ThinkPad E15 is second to none. It is functional, carries Lenovo’s excellent warranty, can handle any daily task with ease, and will last you for many years. The only thing you may eventually need is an external hard drive because this computer will be in use for many years to come.

KEY FEATURES
● Intel i7-10510U Processor
● Intel UHD Graphics 620 
● 15.6” (1920×1080) FHD IPS Display

Is Lenovo or Acer better on a budget?

If you are constrained by a serious budget, as many people are, you are going to want to choose a company with more flexibility in terms of price and options. In that arena, Acer has the edge over Lenovo. Not everyone can fudge their budget to eke out a few extra dollars to get the next best model. 

Acer has a larger number of products that come in at the lower end of the budget. Everything from business laptops to two-in-one laptops can be bought from Acer at reasonable prices.

Granted, not all of these diverse options can match the quality of Lenovo across the board but if you really need to get a laptop on a budget, you are going to have more options with Acer than you would with Lenovo.

Does Lenovo or Acer specialize in anything in particular?

Yes, both companies have a strong niche which they are known for. Acer is rising in popularity and renown for its Predator line of gaming laptops. Ever since they spun off their own gaming division in 2008 to compete with the largest gaming brands on the market, they have been gaining steam in the market as a premier brand for gaming machines.

On the other end of the spectrum, Lenovo is known worldwide for its business laptops. ThinkPad is widely regarded as one of the most versatile and solid business laptop brands on the market today. ThinkPad laptops are functional, sleek, and offer a wide range of options for the stay at home worker to the traveling business person. 

These specialized brands might sway you in one direction or another so keep them in mind when you are looking to make your purchase.

Is Lenovo or Acer better for serious gaming?

Computer gaming is on the rise worldwide as a serious hobby. What was once a niche activity for only the tech-savvy youth of the world is now a daily pastime for millions of adults. Not all gaming computers are created equal and if you are looking to do some serious gaming in your future and are torn between Acer and Lenovo, one company has the advantage other the other. 

Acer is a better brand for serious gaming. This advantage comes from Acer’s Predator lineup of dedicated gaming laptops. Similar to Dell’s Alienware, Predator is a subsidiary of Acer which focuses solely on building laptops specifically designed for computer gaming. 

Lenovo has its own line of gaming laptops called Legion and their high-end ThinkPad machines are also capable. Those would be great options if you want to do some gaming but are not an all-in gamer. If you want a laptop specifically for gaming, Acer has the edge and you are going to want to look at the Predator line of computers.

After much deliberating on the issue of Acer versus Lenovo, the decision is clear. Lenovo is the better brand in 2021 for laptops. Acer puts up a good fight, especially considering their smaller size but Lenovo is just better overall. 

There is a place for Acer computers and components in the market. I am writing this on an Acer monitor as we speak, however, in terms of overall value, performance, and quality, Lenovo takes the cake. 

If you are looking for a solid brand that will give you a great daily computer to do work on at a fair price that won’t fail after just a few months of use, Lenovo is a brand you are going to want to consider. They are third in overall PC market share for a reason. The combination of a stellar warranty, solid design, and excellent performance simply overpowers Acer’s best attempts to keep pace. 

If you are not interested in either Acer or Lenovo, check out our Laptop Finder and take a deep dive into the best available laptops in the market today such as our list of best gaming laptops under $500.

Happy Laptop Shopping!

---