Acer is definitely a choice people consider when they go for average/low priced laptops. The exact word to describe this brand is Chinese laptop with a Brand name.
The feature set is good and you will get a price tag which is more attractive than any other brand(even Indian brands) and yes they offer what they claim to have....but the catch is that the components are of average performance and durability of the casing is totally hopeless. I sold the laptop after I saw the plastic breaking off (PCMCIA slot door) after 2 years. I had an HP and a DELL system which had far durable casings. Laptop carry bag given was good though they do not have option to discard it :-( (its cost was given as 2000 rs and is mandatory with the package)
The performance was average with the battery dying off in 5-10 minutes in a year(in the beginning it used to give me 1-2 hrs) . (My HP laptop has battery which lasts longer even after all these years) The graphics card was SiS and the performance was horrible in 3D games requiring 3D hardware acceleration unless it uses Direct3D which is rare in latest games. Processor performance is good but I added more RAM to beef up the performance and that gave satisfactory performance on normal applications. DVD ROM provided was a combo from MATSHITA (OEM of Panasonic) and its performace and durability was OK. Screen was good with no major defects till the end.
The customer care dials to somewhere in north India and they refuse to even give a proper advice(like an answer for : can I install windows 98 on this machine?) if your warranty is expired. which I beleive is the same case for Chinese stuff, I tried far and near in Bangalore to buy a new battery and no one even the authorized service centers had the battery needed for this model so the only option was to sell if off. If you are considering to buy a laptop with good featureset but is not considerate of its durability after sales service and the quality of build and ESPECIALLY BATTERY BACKUP AFTER A YEAR) go for this one as the price tag will be the best unless you can assemble it yourself :-)