ACER’S WINDOWS 8 LAPTOP ASPIRES TO HIGH DESIGN
Versatile machine offers lots of options, not all good
By now you
NEW YORK know what a departure the tile-based Windows 8 operating system is from the many versions of Windows that preceded it. You may also be aware of some of the unconventional hardware that PC makers have come out with to exploit its flexible nature. Windows 8 was designed for traditional keyboard-oriented computing chores as well as for multitouch-tablet duty. But bouncing from one environment to the other is a key reason the new Windows has received such a tepid reception, and why Microsoft is readying a major update code-named Blue.
Which brings me to one of the more unusual designs to hit the market, the Acer Aspire R7.
The R7 is a handsome, albeit (at nearly 5.3 pounds) heavy, multitouch convertible Windows 8 laptop, available for a grand at Best Buy. It’s fairly thick, too, especially for a computer with no optical drive.
Pluses: It sports a splendid 15.6-inch wide-angle full highdefinition display. The keyboard is backlit, the innards fairly high-end. The unibody aluminum chassis has a top-notch feel. Along the sides are the typical buttons, ports and connectors, including 3 USB ports (two of the USB 3.0 variety), card reader and an HDMI port. Inside there’s 6 gigabytes of memory, a 500- GB hard drive and a 20- GB solid-state drive. The four-speaker sound system, backed by Dolby Home Theater technology, is excellent. An HD webcam is standard.
So far I might be describing any reasonably equipped state-of-the-art laptop. But what makes the Aspire unusual — and in my view appealing to some, but mostly a challenging sell — is its radical design.
The touch-screen is mounted on what Acer refers to as an “Ezel Hinge.” This sturdy, clever hinge permits nearly as many moves as an Olympic gymnast. The screen can be flipped or reversed. You can position it so it floats over the keyboard at various angles. You can lay it flat. The hinge keeps the display in place, especially critical if you’re pressing your finger against the screen.
Such gyrations bring to mind another versatile Windows 8 laptop/ tablet combination I previously reviewed, the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13.
As with the Lenovo, Acer tries hard to be all things to all possible users. As with the Lenovo, the design doesn’t quite work in all cases.
There are four main positions on the Aspire. In notebook mode, the display is pushed back behind the keyboard, a more or less conventional pose. I like the way you can move the screen in or out a bit even as you try out different angles. But Acer took an unusual step here. The keyboard and the not-as-smooth-asit-could-be touch-pad swap places compared with where they’re normally situated. Acer’s stated motivation in moving the keyboard to the front of the chassis closer to the user’s body and positioning the touch-pad above it was to make typing more comfortable and fluid. The company says that by having keys fall naturally under the fingers, you eliminate the need to hold the arms out and over the palm rest and touch-pad when trying to type. I reckon Acer is also betting that you won’t use the touch-pad as much as you used to, since you can touch the screen directly. Maybe.
But the design didn’t cut it with me. I’m willing to admit a lot of it has to do with how I’ve been conditioned to type on laptops all these years.
A second Ezel mode has you pulling the screen toward you so it almost floats above the keyboard. This lets you use the touch-screen and the onscreen touch keyboard without the physical keyboard getting in the way. You can position the elevated screen so that it lies flat — think of a tabletop secured by a pedestal.
A third mode lets you flip the screen over. The computer is now propped up for watching a movie, admiring photos or sharing a presentation. I have no quibbles here.
I can’t say the same for Pad mode. You pull down the touch-screen and lay it flat over the physical keyboard to use the machine as a slate. Well, almost flat. There’s an odd angled gap between the screen and the rest of the computer. The good news is that you can prop up the screen at a slight angle to better see the machine if it’s on your lap. But handing off the computer to another person is awkward — seemingly an accident waiting to happen — and the whole thing looks as if the designers took the day off.
I had other qualms. On separate occasions, the computer didn’t respond at all when I typed on the physical keyboard, and on the onscreen touch keyboard. I had to turn off the computer and start over. Other times when I manipulated the display to change poses, the screen itself was slow to respond.
Though not specific to the Aspire, there are other things to keep in mind before buying any Windows notebook. It makes sense to wait to see what Blue turns out to be, and to wait for machines that incorporate the new set of chips from Intel that are due out soon that promise to dramatically bolster battery life.
In my harsh battery test on the Aspire — turning off power-saving measures, cranking the screen to full brightness, streaming a movie over Wi-Fi — it delivered a little short of five hours, suggesting better performance under less-taxing conditions.
Give Acer its props for thinking outside the box; only the company strayed a bit too far.