Opinions on Averatec laptops?

I've seen more in for repair than any other brand, espically their ultra portable.

Their build quality is not so good.

I have had a couple of friends who have had averatecs, they generally had no problems; however the build quality doesn't look too impressive either.

Think of them as Dells without the intel pigeon-hole: servicable machines, but nothing to depend your life on.

Sensible budget laptops. Not for use as primary computer due to the less-than-acceptable build quality. Mostly oriented towards budget minded users looking for a second, auxilliary machine.

I'm using a 1050 series Averatec, and I'm very impressed with it. It was either this or a Panasonic R4, and this was less then HALF the price of that... it comes with an Intergrated DVD/CD-RW (the R4 doesn't). Although its not getting the "9 hours" the R4 promises, it is getting around 5-6 hours, depending how I use it. When I am in class (university student), I tend to get about 4 straight hours of pretty decent use... If I use the laptop in a more conservitive fashion, such as taking notes (rather then watching AMVs, or Sean Kennedy videos), I can easily leave my appt with it fully charged at 9:00am and still have something like 12-15% battery left when I'm heading home at 4:00pm. Mind you, I've got it going into suspend when its left alone for three minutes, which is a bit extreme for some people... but it works for me.

I've heard about the quality issue, but in my experience, that's simply not an issue. I would, and I have, reccommended this laptop to many people, and I'm extremely happy with it. I sold my Dell I9300 gaming laptop because I couldn't use it in class. Does this laptop do the same things? Hell no! Of course not. It doesn't have a 17" Wide 1920x1200 screen. It doesn't have a top end 3d card. But it also doesn't die after something like an hour of use. It doesn't burn my legs when I use it without a desk. It doesn't weight a ton, and it doesn't break my backpack.
I don't think I'll ever buy Dell again... simple as that. I do, however, plan on supporting Averatec, so long as they keep making awesome products, like this 1050.