A whole new hinge: Acer’s Aspire R7 reviewed

With all of these form-factors packed into the Acer Aspire R7, there is certainly a lot of flexibility on offer, and Acer’s Ezel hinge certainly feels strong enough to withstand most of the form-factor changes you’ll be throwing at it.

Regardless of which mode we pushed our R7 into, the hinge was tight, with less undesired movement than we see in most machines that pass our reviews desk.

Some of the modes can be hard to push the display into, and you might find that the switch from hybrid tablet into clamshell takes a few more seconds longer than you expect, which we’re attributing to the overly tight hinge, which is both a curse and a blessing.

Partnered with this strong hinge is an equally strong case made from a block of aluminium. The bottom is rubberised making it easier to grip, but the laptop weighs around 2.3 kilograms, making it one of the heaviest 15 inch machines we’ve seen in recent years.

With that sort of weight, you probably won’t want to cart it around from place to place, which is good because the battery certainly doesn’t have the performance to make this a machine you can depend on when you’re out and about.

We weren’t even pushing this thing to its limits when the battery gave out around three and a bit hours.

For a 15 inch computer, that’s nothing, and if you’re taking it with you, that is literally a little over three hours for writing, working, checking emails, surfing the web, and listening to music.

With a weak battery, you hope that the power brick isn’t clunky to carry around with you, but sadly, it is.

In fact, it’s pretty much the same basic chunky rectangular box we’re used to seeing in big PC laptops, and more or less highlights just why exactly we call these power charging units “bricks.”

It’s surprising, too, as Acer has supplied so much attention to detail in this laptop, but skipped out on one of the areas that completes the package.

It begs the question: why finish the touchscreen off with a solid and well designed stylus, but forget about a redesign of the classic brick?

We’re confused by this, and we bet people who love the design of the R7 will be too, as the weak battery life will mean they have no choice but to carry this clunker of a power supply with them in their hand luggage.

There’s also an issue of price, and Australians will have to pony up just over two thousand dollars for this machine, with a recommended retail price of $2099.

That’s a lot of money for something that feels like it still needs some time in the labs, especially since there will likely be a fourth-generation Intel version appearing within the next couple of months, possibly with a higher grade screen.

It's the one computer that can be pushed out to look like Star Trek's Enterprise from the side.

Conclusion

Acer’s Aspire R7 is indeed an interesting experiment, and one that we can see some promise in, but it doesn’t really match or exceed our expectations just yet.

The Ezel hinge is indeed a cool concept, but since the 15 inch body brings with it so much weight and so little battery life, it’s hard to see this as anything more than a computer that will stay on your desk.

That makes it a neat desktop replacement that you can carry around the house with you, or even to work, but it’s not really a tablet laptop hybrid you’ll want to keep in your backpack for a long period of time.

Still, we’re intrigued, and would like to see Acer refine this concept, even going so far as to using it in a smaller device, as tablets seem to work better when they’re between the 10 and 13 inch space, but not the 15 inch spot, and certainly not with a battery that has troubles reaching beyond a few hours.

 

Overall
Features
Value for money
Performance
Ease of Use
Design
Reader Rating0 Votes
Unique concept; Hinge is better built than you expect; Solid; Included stylus is designed well and very balanced; Big and bright touchscreen;
Battery life isn't good at all; Power brick needs a better design; Expensive; Nowhere to store your stylus;
3.4