It hinges on the Ezel

A hybrid notebook computer with good performance, Acer Aspire R7 boasts a slim alloy body that just spells elegance. 

Its best point, though, is the innovative Ezel hinge and stand that attaches the lid to the base and allows you to use the notebook with the display in almost any position.

The Ezel design allows the display to be positioned in the same way as a portable all-in-one desktop computer. You can lift up the screen and bring it closer to your eyes. Or you can flip the monitor back so the people opposite you to see what is being displayed. When the screen is flipped, the top part of the monitor is repositioned automatically.

Or you can rotate and flip the screen so it’s positioned like a tablet computer. The curved stand on which the screen rests prevents it from lying totally flat on top of the keyboard.

The R7 features 15.6-inch Full-HD ultra-slim IPS anti-glare touch panel with sharp resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. The screen looks with LED technology and the touch-screen was responsive during the test.

Because you can use the touch screen to interact with the computer as well as navigate through menus and app tiles of Windows 8 operating system, you rarely need to use the touchpad. For that reason, Acer has designed the touchpad so it’s above the keyboard away from your hand.

R7 comes with a large backlit Chiclet style keyboard, which is easy to type on and has a good feedback feel.

The R7 model tested here is powered by Intel Core i5-333U 1.8 GHz , is equipped with 8 GB DDR3 memory and comes with 1,000 GB hard drive.

It has Wi-Fi 802.11 a/g/h and Bluetooth 4.0 adapters and the Acer Crystal Eye HD webcam. It uses a 4-cell Li-Polymer batter that can last about six hours.

Its multimedia horsepower comes from nVidia GeForce GT750M with 2 GB dedicated video memory, which is powerful for handling 3D graphics extensive games. To save the battery while on the go, the system switches to the integrated Intel adapter, which is less powerful.

The R7 comes with all necessary ports – one USB 2.0, two USB 3.0s, an HDMI and a display port as well as a 5-in-1 memory card reader.

In our test, the R7 took about 16 seconds to start up to the log-on screen of Windows 8 and shut down in less than two seconds. It played games fast and the applications were responsive. Its built-in speakers also played music with good quality and the games’ sounds were pleasingly powerful.

Measured with Windows 8’s internal benchmark tool, the R7 scored good points.

On the scale of 1.0 to 9.9, the R7 got 6.9 points for its processor’s performance of calculations per second.

It got 7.4 points for the performance of memory operations per second and 5.9 points for the performance of disk data transfer rate.

It got 5.6 points for desktop graphics performance and got 6.6 points for 3D business and gaming graphics performance.

Acer Aspire R7 has a starting price of Bt44,900 (VAT included).

 

      Key specs

_ Operating system: Windows 8 64-bit

_ Processor: Intel Core i5-3337U dual-core processor 1.8 GHz.

_ RAM: 8 GB DDR3 memory

_ Display: 15.6-inch Full HD LED-backlit touch panel with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution

_ Graphic adapter: nVidia GeForce GT 750M with 2GB memory switchable with Intel HD4000

_ Hard drive: 1,000 GB

_ Optical drive: none

_ Connectivity: 802.11 a/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0

_ Ports: 1 HDMI, 1 USB 2.0, 2 USB 3.0, 1 DisplayPort

_ Battery: 4-cell Lithium Polymer 3,560 mAh

_ Dimension: 28.5 x 376.8 x 254.5mm

_ Weight: 2.40 kg