Just wanted to hear some thoughts, comments or testimonials on Averatec laptops.

Any input would be great.

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.