Acer Aspire S7 Preview: the Best New Ultrabook? Discussion

The Acer Aspire S7 Ultrabook announced at Computex Taipei may just be the best Ultrabook of the show, and will likely top "best of" lists at year's end. That's because Acer took everything that was great about the original S7, and fixed the few issues it had.

Read the full content of this Article: Acer Aspire S7 Preview: the Best New Ultrabook?

Related Articles:

• Acer C7 Chromebook Line Adds New SSD Models
• Acer Emphasizes Touch with New Notebook Reveals
• Acer Aspire S7 Review

 

Best new 13" Ultrabook? Didn't Intel expand the specifications to include 15" from Haswell onward?

 

It's a shame Acer scrapped the 11" model, it was probably the best 11" ultraportable notebook in terms of build quality and aesthetics besides the Macbook Air, it just needed a quiet fan and bigger battery.

 

I don't think PC manufacturers actually know how to make a killer flagship range. They are always missing something and never quite hit the mark. Whether that is a not-so-good trackpad, sub-par keyboard, not a good enough dislplay, not enough configurable options like RAM, CPU and SSD size.

The list of missing features is as variable as there are different models to choose from. Just so much of nothing special.

I like the R7. The overall design concept looks great, but the keyboard will make typing tiresome when used on your lap; a Haswell version hasn't been announced with an Iris Pro 5200 part; and the current version doesn't allow a customer to option it up to 16GB or 32GB of RAM.

The S7 Haswell hasn't been announced in a 15" factor and it doesn't seem likely that it will allow a customer to configure any of the above options.

No wonder Apple are laughing so hard. Their competition just doesn't know how to bring it. I'd get a 15" rMBP in Haswell if it supported touch, but it won't for a while.

 

Yes, I don't understand why somebody doesn't simply clone a Mac without all the stupid limitations of soldered RAM, unserviceable parts (and OSX, which I don't like, but that's a matter of taste). It's a model proven to sell well, it will sell well with Windows or Linux too. No need to make it look exactly the same, but keep the general concept: 13" and 15", 16:10 screen (if Apple can find them, everybody can), keyboard without number pad, centered touchpad, option for matte screen. That's it. A laptop is mainly keyboard and screen. Battery matters only to people that really use it on the move. Not many I think, because I always see laptops sitting on desks attached to main power, also Macs with claimed 6-7 hours of battery time. A 2 hours battery is more than enough for me.

 

I think that the Aspire S7's biggest competitor this year (thus far) will be the Asus Zenbook Infinity, which in my opinion, is the REAL killer ultrabook. Once MS fixes scaling in 8.1 (or hopefully soon), the Zenbook Infinity will definitely be a temptress (that screen looks really good on paper, though MS scaling in desktop mode will likely be pretty bad).

However, that updated Aspire S7 looks pretty good too. It's good to see PC manufacturers pay attention to detail. Now the real problem is choosing between the Dell XPS12/13, Zenbooks, and the lovely Aspire S7....

 

FYI, at
http://forum.notebookreview.com/wha...lightweight-high-res-options.html#post9263634
I wrote:

START QUOTE

Great, I just wanted to post exactly the same thread topic. Let's agree that 1080p is clearly not enough on a 13,3", and let's also agree on omitting the Chromebook for lots of reasons. This leaves us with:
Toshiba Kirabook: 2560x1440 2.7 lbs (available not Haswell ATM)
Acer Aspire S7: 2560x1440 2.87 lbs Haswell
Asus Zenbook Infinity: 2500x1440 ? lbs Haswell
Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus: 3200x1800 !! 3.1 lbs Haswell 12 hour battery
Tablet Hybrid: Samsung ATIV Q 3200x1800 ? lbs tablet with android

Check out Battle of the ultra-high-res laptops: Samsung Ativ Book 9 specs vs. the world | PCWorld
and Ultrabook Comparison « Ultrabook News and the Ultrabook Database for a start, but both sources are erroneous. E.g. the samsung is quoted to have 256GB as an option, elsewhere.

Here are some resources:
1. Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus Thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/722548-samsung-ativ-book-9-plus-haswell-new-6.html
2. Zenbook Infinity Thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...finity-ux301la-just-announced-computex-2.html
3. Acer Aspire: http://forum.notebookreview.com/not...s7-preview-best-new-ultrabook-discussion.html
(Be careful not to confuse the old S7 with the new S7.)
4. Kirabook: No Haswell upgrade annouced yet, so not thread so far.

Note that Windows 8.1 will fix many problems with scaling on high res. You should not use Win 8 on these Notebooks.

You also may want to check out Device list | Pixensity.com – Pixel Density

I would be gread if people interested in lightweight 13.3" high res (220 ppi+) Haswell ultrabooks were pointed to this thread, so they can collect information both here, and at the device-specific threads I linked to above.

END QUOTE

 

I'm very impressed Acer has realized & attempted to address the issues noticed by reviewers. The reason I didn't recommend the original S7 was the insanely loud cooling system. It was truly insane, the loudest of any notebook I reviewed in the past; here's the original review: Acer Aspire S7 Review

I'd really like to test this updated model.

 

Looks like Amazon finally has these in stock, so the pipeline is just starting to fill. Any rough ETA on when you might get a review unit?

Between this, the buzz around the T440s, and other Haswell refreshes, it's going to be a busy summer/early fall for reviewers and shoppers!

 

Hi, after some more research comparing the 2013 S7 to the Zenbook and the Ativ Book+, I was getting more and more interested, however it just occured to me there might only be one color option - silver/white! Can anyone confirm there will only be one color option?! I have no problem with silver only (though I would prefer black), but white really seems like a no-go for me personally. What do you think?

edit: it might be acceptable because of the white *glass* design. hmm.

the fan in the previous s7 is said to be extremely loud. the new s7's fan, says acer, is "30% less loud" (30% is a quote). It is unclear what they mean by 30%, they had better mention db figures. what I am trying to say is: there might be a chance this laptop is STILL above-average loud because it retains the basic cooling design. I am really looking forward to noise emission testing, compared to asus infinity and atvi book+. I swore to myself, never again a noisy/high pitch laptop (sony!!!).

 

Here's the link
Amazon.com: Acer Aspire S7-392-9890 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Crystal White): Computers & Accessories