Products go my desk often. Some are remarkable, some are not, and maximum are in among. It's a perk, to make certain, however assessment products aren't frequently made for me. On a case-by-case basis, the goods I'm searching are regularly aimed toward one of a kind market segments than my own. That is not the case with Acer's Aspire S7.

The touchable, elegant ultrabook is focused right at the street-warrior, power-hungry, high-quality-user. The S7 is an steeply-priced gadget. The beginning rate hovers near $1400, however our Core i7 configured spec clocks in at $1650. For the rate customers do see a superlative spec sheet and a superbly designed frame. I realize what you are thinking. The S7 had higher be brilliant for that form of money. Don't fear, with some qualifiers, the Aspire S7 easily ranks most of the pinnacle Windows 8 machines. Is that sufficient to justify the value?

Hardware

Fashioned from aluminum and Gorilla Glass the S7's thin profile makes a exquisite first impression. The deck and lid are completely inflexible. There is 0 flex inside the laptops body. It's very reassuring considering how light (2.29 lb) the machine is. The lid is framed with brushed aluminum that is gentle and cool to the touch. That frame is filled with white glass that isn't almost as fingerprint prone as I predicted.

The identical goes for the (extra essential) glass on the opposite side of the lid. I suspect that Acer implemented an oleophobic coating to the glass surfaces at the machine. That oleophobic coating sparks a fashion that follows through the construction of the rest of the computer. On a pc with a touchscreen, fingerprints are guaranteed to be a pain. That coating eases the user's ache, preventing all but the greasiest of palms from greasing up the screen. Thoughtful design, and clever touches like those muddle the Aspire S7.

Acer Aspire S7 - $1,650

  • 13.three" 1920x1080 LED backlit multi-touch show
  • Intel Core i7-3517U (1.9 - 3.0GHz)
  • Intel HD Graphics 4000
  • 4GB of DDR3 RAM
  • 256GB SSD
  • SD/MMC card reader
  • 2 USB 3.zero, HDMI, audio jack
  • 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth four.0
  • 1.3-megapixel webcam
  • Chiclet keyboard
  • Multi-gesture touchpad with incorporated buttons
  • four-cellular Li-Polymer battery (4680mAh)
  • 12.73 x 8.79 x 0.forty seven inches, 2.86 pounds

Consider another steady trouble with the first wave of contact-enabled laptops: The hinges certainly aren't designed to rise up to poking and prodding. It results in awkward ergonomic situations in which the left hand is holding the display in area even as the proper is cutting fruit in Fruit Ninja. Acer's machine corrects this mistake The hinge is remarkably stiff, and becomes even greater stiff at the regular viewing perspective. This addition makes the touchscreen characteristic infinitely extra snug and realistic.

There's a change-off there although, the reinforced hinge makes the S7 a bit extra hard to open than I'd like. To compensate, everything of the lid has a moderate indentation at the rim. It's best for sliding a finger below, and whilst the computer still isn't the perfect to open, smart layout makes a awesome layout change-off less of a...Properly, alternate-off.

The S7's cooling answer is any other of my favourite design choices. Every external fan is situated on the rear of the pc. Because of this, the S7 will by no means blow warm air over your fingers. It's smart, consumer-facing design.

These characteristics, whilst combined with the S7's excellent body make a compelling argument. Beyond that, the hardware layout, in spite of a few small quibbles is the S7's best exceptional.

Hands-On

Actually the use of the S7 is greater of a blended bag. Some things, like the tiny strength supply and charging port are extremely good, other things, just like the placement of the strength button are not. The electricity button is on the left facet of the deck and may be very without difficulty pressed. More than as soon as, while moving the pc whilst in-use (the energy button is inactive while the lid is closed) my palm discovered the button and turned the system off by means of twist of fate. It appears that the energy button moved as a concession to making a smooth deck for the S7.

It wasn't a smart call, but that is the exception rather than the guideline.

Moving to the deck, the keyboard is splendid to touch. The keys are soft, responsive and have high-quality tour, and not only for an ultrabook. There is a quirk to the keyboard. There's no characteristic row. Instead, keys just like the range row grow to be with triple capability under Acer's five-row arrangement. It's not the largest loss inside the global, however keep in mind there might be a studying curve to the deeper capability of the S7's keyboard.

The Elan synthetic trackpad isn't very good. The one-button sheet of aluminum is, just like the relaxation of the computer, alluring to the touch, however it without a doubt doesn't work nicely for some tasks. Two-finger scrolling works extraordinarily properly within the Metro Start Screen, but may be jerky on web pages. Pinch-to-zoom is as wonky on Windows as it has ever been. Unfortunately, the Elan device stumbles on fundamental tasks as properly. Finger monitoring is strong, but tapping the pad to click on works about 60% of the time, a tragically low proportion. Actually clicking the trackpad works, however this is infrequently my first preference for interacting.

The touchscreen is superlative. It is responsive in each case and works precisely as you count on and need it to. Curiously, I found myself the use of it a good deal extra than I expected within the traditional computer segments of Windows eight.