Acer Chromebook 512

The new Chromebook 512 (C852) opened Acer’s announcement, and at first impressions, it might be the most unique Chromebook the company revealed today. That’s because the Chromebook 512 comes with a 12-inch 3:2 display rather than the standard 16:9 aspect ratio. The thinking here is that a 3:2 aspect ratio will give kids more space for text and images than a 16:9 display would.

The Chromebook, like many of the others being announced today, supports WiFi 6 and has a battery that can last for up to 12 hours, according to Acer’s testing.

Acer Chromebook 511

Standing in contrast to the Chromebook 512 is the 511 (C734/C734T), which comes with a slightly smaller, 11.6-inch display at a more familiar 16:9 aspect ratio. Outside of the display (which also has the option of a touch panel), the Chromebook 511 has a lot in common with the Chromebook 512 in that it uses Intel N-series processors, has a flare-reducing webcam with TNR, supports WiFi 6, and has a 180-degree hinge.

Even Acer’s quoted battery life is the same at up to 12 hours, along with configuration options that include up to 8GB of RAM and eMMC storage drives in either 32GB or 64GB sizes. At the end of it all, the biggest difference between the Chromebook 512 and Chromebook 511 is the aspect ratio of the display.

Acer Chromebook 314

Once again, we’re seeing a lot of similarities between the 512, 511, and the Chromebook 314, with the main difference being the display. While the 512 and 511 have 12-inch and 11.6-inch displays, respectively, the Chromebook 314 goes bigger with a 14-inch full HD display. Acer is positioning this Chromebook as a better fit for older students or teachers who may need to multitask and therefore need all the screen real estate they can get.

As you might imagine, a larger display running at a higher resolution means increased battery usage, and we’re seeing that in Acer’s quoted battery life for the 314. While the other two Chromebooks boast 12 hours of battery life, the Chromebook 314 will only last up to 10 hours. Beyond that, many of the specifications are the same, though buyers have a third 128GB storage option with the Chromebook 314.

Acer Chromebook Spin 311

While the other three Chromebooks revealed today all have a lot of similarities, the Chromebook Spin 311 manages to stand out thanks to several different specifications. As the name suggests, the Chromebook Spin 311 has a 360-degree hinge instead of a 180-degree hinge, allowing for additional usage modes. The display on this model clocks in at 11.6 inches, but unlike the other Chromebooks being announced today, this one comes with a touch panel standard.

While RAM is limited to 4GB, users still have the option of 32GB or 64GB storage drives. The biggest departure from the others comes in the fact that the Chromebook Spin 311 doesn’t use Intel H-series processors. Rather, the Spin 311 uses a MediaTek MT8183 CPU. The Spin 311 boasts the best battery life out of this entire lineup, as Acer says it can last as long as 15 hours on a full charge. Be warned, though: While the other three Chromebooks all come with microSD card readers, the Chromebook Spin 311 does not, so the internal storage is all you’re getting with this one.

Pricing and availability

The Chromebook 512 will be the first of the batch out of the gate, with Acer revealing that it releases this month at a starting price of R5359,47. The Chromebook 511 won’t be far behind the 512, as it’ll launch in February at the same price point. The Chromebook Spin 311 will be here in March with a slightly higher starting price of R6110,68, while the Chromebook 314 will be the last to launch in the second half of the year with a starting price of R6585,30.

Earlier today at CES 2019, the company has put out the Acer Swift 7 (SF714-52T) and from its nearly bezel-less screen, lightweight yet sturdy construction, and technical specs, it definitely earns its speedy status.

The bezel-less craze from smartphones has reached laptops. With a 92% screen-to-body ratio, the Acer Swift 7 is able to squeeze a 14-inch Full HD 1920×1080 IPS touch screen in a body originally meant for a 13-inch laptop. And at less than a kilo, the 890g  and 9.95 mm notebook is significantly thinner and lighter than any Swift 7 before it.

Light and thin, however, doesn’t mean fragile. Built with magnesium-lithium and magnesium-aluminum alloys, the Acer Swift 7 SF714-52T is built to last. And that touch screen? Protected by the latest Gorilla Glass 6, the same scratch-proof glass used by the latest smartphones.

A light, portable, and savvy-looking notebook won’t be of much use, however, if it’s slow as molasses when it comes to performance. Of course, as a high-end laptop, the Acer Swift 7 is anything but. Powered by an 8th gen Intel Core i7-8500Y, with support for up to 16 GB of LPDDR3 RAM and up to 512 GB of fast PCIe SSD, the Swift 7 can breeze through even intensive workloads. And with two USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports, it doesn’t have to do all of it alone, thanks to numerous peripherals to help lighten its load.

The Acer Swift 7 (SF714-52T) will be available on May 7, 2019, with a starting price of $1,699. Buyers will be able to choose from various configurations, including 8 or 16 GB of LDDR3 RAM and 256 or 512 GB of PCIe SSD storage. Whether this updated Swift 7 will reach us in SA is yet to be confirmed by the local office. We wouldn’t get our hopes up.

Samsung and LG both have their new UltraWide curved monitors, and while Acer does have a rather curious curved screen laptop, the first of its kind, it isn’t stopping there. At IFA 2016, it is unveiling three new monitors,, the Predator Z271T, Preator Z301CT, Predator XB251HQT, and Predator XB271HUT, all designed for gaming that, while varying in specs, share one thing in common. All three sport Tobii’s eye-tracking technology, promising new areas of innovation in reactivity and input for games.

To celebrate that,  judges for the CES 2017 Awards deemed Acer’s Predator Z301CT  to be the most impressive technology in the computer peripherals category and that it scored higher than all other entries.

We’re no strangers to eye-tracking technology, or to Tobii’s name for that matter. The company has been at the forefront of this niche market, trying to incorporate its tech into computer peripherals, with an eye (no pun intended) towards gaming and even biometric security. And now it is trying to bring it to the mainstream by incorporating it into Acer’s monitors.

Despite that, eye-tracking for PCs remain a relatively niche market, mostly utilized by professional e-sports players and trainers to monitor and gauge player reactions and timing. In these new consumer monitors, Acer is advertising ways to utilize the sensor as additional input, especially for first person shooting games, where your gaze can make you take cover or take aim.

[title type=”h2″ class=””]Hardware[/title]

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It’s not an easy feat to make a tablet that looks or feels different from those hundreds of slabs that have come before, yet the Nextbook is indeed quite distinctive on both fronts. It’s genuinely hard to differentiate our visual impressions from our tactile ones, if you know what I mean.

The exterior of the book is a cool, matte surface that looks dark and feels quite strong and durable. It’s constructed using Microsoft’s Vapor Mg process, which relies on vapor deposition to create this distinctive tactility, which we found ourselves quite drawn to. The material feels amazing in the hand and here it’s used to create a structure that is quite complex, flat on the front and back of course with the sides straightened outward.

This straightened edges makes for a very reassuring feel when walking around carrying this tablet under one arm, and also gives room for a display that is slightly larger than your average 7- or 9-inch slates. In fact, its display clocks in at 10.1 inches, with its resolution far lower, at just 1,366 x 768. As we saw when we got to go behind the scenes of the device’s design and development at launch, that 16:9 display and size were custom-crafted to make the most of Windows’s ideal orientation and, as I’ll detail in the next section, the quality of this panel mostly makes up for its relative lack of resolution.

That rim around the edge is perforated in many places, much more than your average tablet, including two new proprietary magnetic connectors. The first, and biggest, is on the bottom of the tablet. It has fvie contacts, providing power and data connectivity for its own keyboard and, hopefully, more peripherals down the road. On the lower-right is another, similar but incompatible magnetic connector, this one with only one pin. It’s here that the device’s AC adapter plugs in, that custom plug meaning you’ll have to bring it with you whenever you hit the road, but this does at least mean it pushes more juice through than your average USB connector and therefore charges faster. We do, though, wish that connector was a bit more grabby. With MagSafe it seems like if you get the plug anywhere near the connector the two pull themselves together. Microsoft’s option requires a good bit more precision and doesn’t hold nearly as tightly.

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Following up the right edge the next port you’ll find is a micro USB 2.0 connector that’s ready and waiting for thumb drives, keyboards, hubs, mice and anything else you can throw at it. – through its full size adapter. We can’t help but be slightly disappointed it isn’t USB 3.0, but having this port is incredibly useful — as is the micro-HDMI connector that sits above. Then comes the right speaker, with its mate to be found over on the other side. Up top you’ll find a pair of microphones along with the power button, which can be found toward the right edge. On the left side is the 3.5mm headphone jack positioned just above a volume rocker. Finally, tucked at the bottom on the side is a microSDXC port, which means near-infinitely expandable storage is just one tiny little chip away.

Fitting all those ports means this book is on the large side, and not just because of the display. Full dimensions are 10.81 x 6.77 x 0.37 inches (275 x 172 x 9.4mm). And when it’s time to reach out and get this thing online, as it is, of course, of limited use when disconnected, you have WiFi and… that’s it. Microsoft is not offering a 3G- or LTE-equipped model, at least not yet, but you do get a comprehensive suite of 802.11 interconnects: a/b/g/n with 2×2 MIMO sending and receiving. There’s Bluetooth 4.0, too.

[title type=”h2″ class=””]Performance and Batter life[/title]

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Under the hood, the Nextbook purrs along on 1GB of RAM and an Intel Quad Core chip, the same SoC powering other Windows RT tablets, like the ASUS VivoTab. Since we’re not yet aware of any benchmarks tailored to this operating system, we’ll stand on this: Intel’s Quad Core is more than capable of handling Windows’ Live Tiles and Modern UI. The tablet cold-boots in just under 25 seconds and launches apps briskly. It responds smoothly to taps and swipes, and we also found that the tablet is quick to respond if you open an app, change your mind and hit the home button before the app is finished loading. I love this.

That said, I did notice some occasional pauses when quickly swiping the left side of the screen to toggle between open apps. To be clear, it didn’t matter how many apps we had open: in fact, we frequently lost count of how many were running. We rarely bothered to manually close any and the machine never seemed to suffer for it. In short, the performance has a few limitations, but overall, Nextbook is fast, responsive and stable

[title type=”h2″ class=””]Cameras[/title]

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The Nextbook has dual 720p cameras, but unless you’re in the mood for video chatting, you probably won’t be using them much. Even by tablet standards, the image quality here is pretty poor. Our full-res, 1,280 x 720 shots look awfully pixelated, even in brightly lit environments that shouldn’t have yielded any noise. You’ll also notice a good deal of color saturation. As for the Surface’s 720p video recording, we noticed some motion blur, but we were pleasantly surprised by how gentle the audio rendering was. Too often, our clips taken with tablets have a buzzing, distorted quality. In this case, the tablet didn’t pick up any stray gusts of wind that might have otherwise spoiled our recording.

[title type=”h2″ class=””]In Closing[/title]

The Microsoft Nextbook with Windows 8’s R2599 (current pricing at Makro) starting RRP means those thinking about making the investment here will be carefully cross-shopping against same-priced offerings from Samsun, Acer ASUS and others. Where does this one rate? Very well — but very differently. While those devices are primarily targeted at content-hungry consumers, the Nextbook is a slate upon which you can get some serious work done, and do so comfortably. You can’t always say that of the competition.

It’s in the other half of the equation, that of the content consumption and entertainment, where the Nextbook is currently lacking. It needs a bigger pile of apps and games to make up for that and, while we’re sure they’re coming, we don’t know when. If those apps arrive soon, then early adopters will feel vindicated. If, however, the Windows market is slow to mature, not truly getting hot for another six months or so, holding off will prove to have been the smarter option.

So, if gaming and music and movies and reading are what you’re looking to enjoy, then we might advise sitting this one out for a few months just to make sure that all your bases will indeed be covered. If, however, you’re looking for an impeccably engineered tablet upon which you can do some serious work, a device that doesn’t look, feel or act like a toy, then you should get yourself a Nextbook with Windows 8.

Back in June 2012, when Acer first announced the Aspire S7 Series, two things seemed noteworthy: these were the company’s first touchscreen Ultrabooks, for one, and they were easily its best-made. Whereas the earlier S3 and S5 skew a bit boring, the S7 is made of aluminum, with either a metal or Gorilla Glass lid, depending on whether you choose the 11- or 13-inch version. What’s more, it has a 1080p IPS display, which looked just as nice in our initial hands-on as the spec sheet would have you believe. Throw in a choice of Core i5 and i7 processors and a RAID 0 SSD configuration, and you can easily expect the same fast performance we recorded on the S5. So is this it? Has Acer finally built an Ultrabook we can heartily recommend? More to the point, does the 13-inch model get enough things right to justify that R10 000 starting price?

[title type=”h1″ class=””]Look & Feel[/title]

Smooth glass, sharp edges and cold aluminum. You can forget Acer’s reputation for putting out cheap plastic stuff. When one thinks of Acer, good build quality isn’t usually the first thing that comes to mind : the S7 is as nice to touch as it is to look at, and is easily the prettiest, most tactile laptop the company has ever made. The keyboard deck is fashioned out of smooth aluminum, with a large trackpad and metal keys. Though it looks like the screen has a bezel, it’s actually an edge-to-edge glass display, with a border that matches the white lid. To be clear, when we talk about that white lid, we’re referring to the 13-inch model, specifically: that bigger version has a white Gorilla Glass cover, this one we had for review.

At 1.297 kilograms, the 13-inch version we tested weighs even less than the Aspire S5, which was itself pretty light for an Ultrabook. That seems like a feat, given that the 13-inch S7 has a glass cover – after all, the last time we reviewed a laptop with a glass lid we ended up making excuses for its relatively heavy build. The 13-inch model is thinner, too (0.47 vs. 0.59 inch), which is noteworthy given that the S5 was once touted as the “world’s thinnest” Ultrabook. (The S5 had a motorized drop-down port door in the back, so it sort of had to be thicker than the S7.) Even if you don’t have the S5 lying around for comparison’s sake, we think you’ll be able to appreciate how impressively thin this is. It really does feel slimmer and lighter than other 13-inch Ultrabooks.

One of the best things about most of the PC laptops that we’ve been reviewing lately is that there has been no need to go on any tirades about awful, washed out 1366×768 panels, at least not in the high-end. We really liked the 1600×900 IPS display in the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga and the 1920×1080 display in the Asus Zenbook Prime, and the Acer S7 is another good one. It uses a 1920×1080 IPS touchscreen with the aforementioned Gorilla glass coating, resulting in a display that is fairly reflective but also has great color, brightness, and viewing angles.

I personally like 1080p in a 13-inch laptop, but others may find it a bit small, especially on the Windows desktop—Windows 8’s Start screen and Metro apps scale better than the desktop does and shouldn’t cause problems for even visually impaired users. The system uses 125 percent scaling on the desktop out of the box, which is a reasonably comfortable default setting that doesn’t look too bad.

[title type=”h1″ class=””]Keyboard[/title]

While the build quality and display are two of the S7’s best qualities, the keyboard is probably one of its worst. We noticed in our preview that both the 11-inch and 13-inch versions of the S7 were using the same keyboard, and while the size is reasonable in the smaller 11-inch chassis, there’s a lot of wasted space in the 13-inch version. The keyboard also suffers from a number of bizarre layout decisions.

For starters, the keyboard lacks a dedicated row of function keys, half-height or otherwise. There’s plenty of room for one across the top, so its exclusion doesn’t make a lot of sense. There are also some questionable layout decisions—the Delete key is to the right of the space bar, and some Page Up and Page Down keys are crammed in with the half-height arrow keys when a more logical place to put them would have been to the right of the rest of the keys. The Caps Lock key is in its usual place, but it gives up some two-thirds of its standard width to make room for the tilde key, which is itself displaced by an escape key that doesn’t have a row of function keys to hide in. It’s an odd layout, to say the least, and I’m not sure why Acer made the decisions it made here.

[title type=”h1″ class=””]Hardware & Batterylife[/title]

The S7 comes with an Intel Core i7-3517U processor (a dual-core CPU with Hyper-Threading), 4GB of system memory, Intel HD Graphics 4000, and two 128GB SSDs in a RAID 0 array (256GB total). The RAID 0 array helps the system with performance. But it falls short on 3D performance, with only integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics. You wouldn’t want to use the system for gaming anyway.

The Acer Aspire S7 features a 4-cell lithium polymer battery that can hold up to 4680mAh and is one of the areas of the S7 we could certainly see an improvement in. The first battery test we ran on the S7 was a long-term battery drain test to see how long it would take for it to drain. Our testing showed an hour of battery drain resulted in a 19% drop in the S7’s battery under the conditions of leaving its Wi-Fi on, its screen at 50% of its brightness and leaving it on to let its battery drain. This means you should expect a little over 5 hours of battery life under these conditions.

The battery drain issues continued into our video tests as well as we conducted two tests of running video located on the S7’s hard drive and the other, a streaming video. The first test was conducted under the conditions of the S7’s screen brightness was at 50% while playing a 1080p local video, which resulted in a 26% drop in its battery, which means you should expect close to 4 hours of local video playback. As for our streaming video test, it was conducted under the same conditions, but instead, the video was a streaming 1080p video and resulted in a 30% drop in its battery. This means you should expect around 3 hours of streaming video playback.

You’ll want to keep the S7 plugged in often. To keep the system light and thin, Acer only promises a six-hour battery life using the internal (non-serviceable) battery. Our video rundown test returned a passable 4:45, but this is far from all-day computing. In contrast, the HP 4t-1100 lasted 5:48 and the Dell XPS 12 came in at 5:09. The media-darling (and ultraportable Editors’ Choice) Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (Retina Display topped all at 7:10. Granted, at 0.75 inches, the MacBook Pro is the “thickest” of the systems in this svelte line-up.

[dropcap1]I[/dropcap1]n conclusion, the Acer Aspire S7 is a media performance laptop for the traveling artist, similar to the main audience for the Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (Retina Display) and the Asus ZenBook Prime UX32VD-DB71. All three give you 1080p (or greater) resolution in a 13-inch portable package, as well as good multimedia benchmark performance. The S7  is certainly the way to go if you want the slimmest possible touch-screen system to commute with you on the (Gau)train. However, the other choices may be better if you’re a plane commuter, since they have better battery life overall. The Asus UX32VD-DB71 in particular comes with discrete graphics and a much less dear price tag of R10 999+. Even the other Windows 8 systems with touch screen (Dell XPS 12 and HP Envy TouchSmart Ultrabook 4t-1100) have better battery life than the S7. Again, if you have R11 000 to spend, you’ll probably be happy with the S7, but for a little more (R2000), you’re in upgraded MacBook Pro 13-inch (Retina Display) territory. And that laptop will make it through a continental plane trip with many minutes to spare. You choose

This year promises to be better -as always- with plenty to look forward to from Samsung, LG and Acer to the Best of CES Awards. Before you die of FOMO and all things curiosity, rest assured I’ll be tweeting through the CES announcements where possible. If not, we’ll have a recap of the Best of CES 2014 and Awards right here.

For those twitter updates follow me on @Papi_Mabele