Acer Aspire Switch 12 review

The Acer Aspire Switch family continues to grow, with the forthcoming Switch 12 showcasing not only a number of varied position options, but it's one of the first devices to feature Intel Core M technology. That means a fanless design, which in turn opens the door for slimmer build without power compromise.Although the Switch 12 isn't about being the smallest and slimmest, and it certainly doesn't feel lightweight in the hand - but that's because it has invested so much into its variable position design. The quality of build is solid though, with a textured rear finish for added grip.The new model features an 8-hour battery life and comes with 30 GB or 120 GB SSD storage. The device will first be released in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia during Q4, and it will cost $810 (about ￡500, AU$930), according to ComputerWorld.

The Switch 12, which features a detachable keyboard, full 1,920 x 1,080 resolution screen and an Intel Core M processor, can be manipulated to offer five different viewing modes. Like the Switch 10, the Switch 12 can be positioned as a laptop and tablet, but because its screen can rotate 360-degrees and rest on a kickstand, it can also flip into display, tent and desktop formats.The Acer Aspire Switch series comprises the Switch 10, Switch 11 and now the Switch 12. While they all include detachable tablets Acer has take a different design approach with the Intel Core-M based Switch 12. The screen and hinge puts it in the same stand-able tablet class as the Surface Pro 3akku bty m6abut it's the detachable keyboard that really sets it apart. It's a full size keyboard with chicklet keys that stows with the stand and can either be attached to the front of the tablet or detached and used away from the unit thanks to a built-in battery and wireless link. By using the Core M platform Acer have been able to provide processing power above that which an Atom-based 2-in-1 can offer and yet remain completely fanless. Where some 2-in-1s can be labeled 'tablet-first' the Switch 12 is a much more laptop-first design and it could appeal to a broad range of users. We'll look at some interesting usage scenarios in the review and cover productivity, gaming and battery life with comparisons to other convertibles.Acer has previewed a new version of its Aspire Switch 2-in-1 hybrid laptop. The new 12.5-inch model, appropriately dubbed the Aspire Switch 12, is a revamp of the Switch 10, which Acer released earlier this year.

As we unboxed the Acer Aspire Switch 12 we couldn't help notice the weight of the tablet. At 1.1 KG (2.4 pounds) it's too heavy to be instantly attractive and that's largely due to the stand that is permanently attached to the unit. It's like Acer looked at a ad 3014stnLenovo Flex design and decided to cut the keyboard off leaving a stub. It turns out that the stand is extremely stable but we'll talk more about that later. What's more important is what happened when we tried to fold the keyboard section back over the screen as you would normally do with a laptop. It doesn't! Although you can attache the keyboard at the rear you can't fold it forward. You're left with a permanently exposed screen.What's innovative about the Switch 12 is its ability to take on so many forms. Like many convertible laptop/tablets, it can be used in normal, tent, stand or tablet mode, but it also has a detachable Bluetooth keyboard. When used without the keyboard, however, users will need a wireless mouse because there's no touchpad. Acer have included a good quality case for protection but that adds to the weight. In total, 2.1 KG / 4.6 pounds with the power adapter. Hopefully there's more to the new model than just a new screen and fanless design. When we conducted a hands-on review of the Switch 10 back in April, we found the $379.99 (about ￡225, AU$409) model to be appropriately priced, but lacking the under-the-hood specs to create any noise on the market.

The case is sealed with no obvious way to get inside although when we ran a fingernail along the join it popped-apart slightly. There are screws on the folding base and it looks like the battery might be housed inside this. As the processor is housed in the top-left (as you face the tablet) and the bottom half of the tablet is extremely thin it makes sense that the battery is in the base.Finally there's a 'desktop' mode which is what you get when you separate the keyboard from the unit. It feels like a mini all-in-one and again is better in some respect to a laptop that requires the screen to stay at a fixed distance to the eyes. There are arguably some ergonomic advantages to the Switch 12 design. Finally there's a mode that Acer haven't mentioned as the keyboard and mouse pointer can be used many meters away. For PowerPoint presentations this is a real bonus. We were able to control the Switch 12 tabletsony netzteil vgp ac19v37 from over 10 meters away and as there's Miracast and WiDi (we assume due to the Intel wireless module) support built-in you could potentially be 20 meters or more away from an extremely large screen at full HD or, potentially, a 4K screen over WiDi.It's disappointing to hear that Acer didn't improve upon the 8-hour battery life, especially considering it will cost almost double the price. But perhaps by the time the model hits the US it will have gone through an additional upgrade.

As tablets get smaller there's less and less room for traditional ports so what you find on the Acer Aspire Switch 12 is, in comparison to tablets, very good. In comparison to laptops however it's missing a few options. Starting with theda130pm130Micro USB 3.0 port at least you've got one super-speed USB port. You'll need to buy the appropriate adapter (unless Acer decide to ship that in retail boxes - they have with tablets in the past) but you can use a micro USB 2.0 to USB female (OTG adaptor) to get USB 2.0 speeds from the port. Alternatively there's a full-size USB 2.0 port on the hinged stand. The stand also has a 3-pin connector used to give charging power to the keyboard. Unfortunately those pins are not present on the front of the keyboard so there's no way of using the keyboard and charging it at the same time.

The detachable wireless (only) keyboard has full-size keys with the function row integrated into the numeric row so that only 5 rows of keys exists. There's no number-pad function and features like sleep, airplane mode, screen backlight off (useful for low-power music streaming or to save power when video rendering) screen brightness and volume are integrated as additional FN-keys. It means that there's a lot of text on the keycaps which might be a little confusing for some. The keys themselves have a little more travel than the type-cover keyboard on the Surface Pro 3 samsung extended life battery np3530ec but are unfortunately not back-lit. There's mo flex in the keyboard and it's nice and quiet.The keyboard dock sits behind the 12.5-inch tablet face, held in place by magnets, and can be pulled out as a separate piece to clip into the front of the unit for a laptop-like design. But even with the keyboard absent the hinge design of the tablet means it can free-stand without toppling over - and we suspect some of the extra weight has been positioned for functional purposes, rather than a headline-grabbing lightweight spec.In addition to the mouse pointer and buttons you've obviously got a touchscreen which works well. We had no problems with smooth response and edge response in Fresh Paint and as the Windows screen element sizes were well set, using a finger wasn't a major problem. This Full HD screen could mean that some Windows Desktop programs have very small text and windows elements. Power Director 12 is one example we saw that demonstrated this limitation on the high-density screen.

A deeper dive into the testing reveals more detail that we can compare with other devices. See detailed measurements below.1920x1080 pixels on a 12.5-inch screen is a nice experience and optimal for Windows Desktop where higher-densities can cause issues with some programs and notification boxes. MSN News has sharp text and crisp images. The only downside to the resolution is that native-resolution gaming will have a performance trade-off.When we measured the maximum brightness we saw a good maximum level of 389 nits which beats the Surface Pro 3. Brightness distribution isn't perfect though as we saw only 327 in the lower-left corner and an average distribution of 89%.

At the price of $699 though (RRP) there's a lot of performance and responsiveness here.toshiba portege z830 batteryThe Lenovo Yoga 3 11 is going to be the main competitor but the HP Envy 13 X2 must also be considered as it comes in at the same price, with a similar CPU and the same total weight when the case is included.In the Google Octane browser test (see results above) the Acer Aspire Switch 12 returns excellent results with 3X the performance of a Baytrail-M platform. Given the AC-WiFi performance, fast disk and good web performance the Switch 12 is a great package for web-based work. The PCMark 7 score of 4117 is also a good indication that the Switch 12 is going to be snappy in general use. The Microsoft Surface Pro 3 and new Dell XPS 13 (2015) return better PCMark 7 scores however.