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I've been wanting to upgrade my laptop for the past year or so, but until this laptop came out I couldn't really find one that matched what I was looking for. I wanted a laptop that was 11-13" since I'm a student and will be travelling with it relatively frequently. I also wanted good battery life since I don't always have access to an outlet. Finally, I wanted a laptop that had decent technical specs and performance. Finding a balance between all three of these facets was difficult but this laptop fits the bill (I'm currently typing on it right now).
Specs: 5/5
With one of Intel's new Haswell processors, I've noticed that Acer has really improved the battery life from their previous iteration of the S7. They've also managed to bump up performance by 10-15% according to recent benchmarks. Finally, the integrated graphics on this particular processor has also been improved slightly from the previous HD 4000 series. These specs are more than enough to run Microsoft office, watch HD video, browse the internet, run lab software, and do light gaming. I leave the more intensive games to my desktop. The SSD is quite snappy-the boot up time from power button press to desktop is around 5 seconds. This is great as I'm often turning it on and off when I move around.
Screen: 5/5
The touch screen is quite nice at 1080p resolution. The laptop comes with the text set to increased size, but I'm currently running it at 100% size and I can read everything comfortably. The text is crisp and the colors are vibrant. The screen is quite bright. It does have a glossy finish, however, so it will get fingerprints on it if you decide to use the touch screen. I rarely use the touch screen so it's just nice to have in case there's ever any reason I need it in the future.
Sound: 3/5
The speakers are probably one of the laptop's bigger weaknesses. They are somewhat tinny and have very little bass. I use headphones whenever I'm on the laptop though, so this doesn't really affect me. Some Dolby software equalizing does come preinstalled, but I don't find it to be particularly useful.
Keyboard: 4/5
The keyboard has increased travel compared to the previous S7, which is good since it was quite shallow before. The keyboard is nice to type on (I haven't noticed more errors than usual), but Acer did decide to shrink the function keys into the number keys. This was an interesting choice... it makes the keyboard look more clean, but also results in more keys being dual function. If you use Alt-F4 or anything with F# keys, then you'll have to add another key press to those combos-Alt-F4 becomes Alt-Fn-4 and so on. There are a few other changes to the layout (Esc is now where the tilde key usually is, and the caps lock key is now two keys: caps lock and tilde), but most of the changes are on keys that I don't use so I don't mind as much. You may find yourself having to adjust depending on which keys you use.
Touchpad: 4.5/5
The touchpad is now a Synaptics touch pad, and I find it pretty sensitive and functional. It has multitouch capabilities (pinch to zoom, two finger scrolling, etc.). As far as I know, it doesn't allow for three finger tapping. Otherwise, basic functionality is there and it just works. It can either be press to click or tap to click. There are two unmarked areas at the bottom that correspond to left and right click. Not the most mind-blowing stuff.
Input/Output: 4.5/5
The power button has now been moved so that it is protected by the power cord. The power cord plugs in with a right angle connector, and it folds over the power button. I personally like this change as it prevents me from pressing it by accident. There's one USB 3.0 port on the left and an SD card reader. On the right is the headphone jack, an HDMI port, a USB 3.0 port, and an Acer converter port that allows you to buy an ethernet dongle. It's annoying that there's no ethernet port, but if you were planning on staying on WiFi anyways, then it's not a huge deal. The wi-fi issues of the last iteration seem to be resolved as I haven't had any problems with either disconnecting, connecting or signal strength. The webcam works well, as do the built in microphones.
Battery life: 5/5
Acer has really improved battery life by giving the S7-392 a bigger battery capacity, as well as upgrading to Haswell. I've been able to go the entire day in lab (10-12 hour days) without having to even pull out my charger when I use the laptop intermittently, and under heavy use I can easily get more than enough time (6-7 hours). Haswell really does improve the management of idle power consumption of the processor. The adapter is pretty small compared to other bricks I've owned, and it's not a pain to carry around. There is NOT a mag-safe type connection if you're looking for that. It plugs into the laptop so if you somehow trip over the cord, it will probably pull the laptop off the table depending on what angle it pulls at. Maybe you'll be luckier than I usually am... that's why I'm always extra careful walking around laptops.
Design: 5/5
This is something that is far more subjective, but I find the design to be gorgeous. The gorilla glass 2 cover is beautiful and since it's on a white background, it's harder to see fingerprints than if it were on a black background. The style inside the laptop is very clean and it's clear that Acer has gone for a more simple design aesthetic. There are very few lights blinking on it, which I like. There's one indicator for power, and another for when the laptop is charging. I don't need a hard drive activity, WiFi, or other indicators so I'm glad they kept it simple.
Operating system/install:
This is something that people probably find somewhat polarizing. I have no issues with Windows 8. It's a snappier version of Windows 7 and the lack of the "physical" start button in the bottom left doesn't really bother me. Other people will disagree-regardless, this is a review of the laptop not the operating system so I'm not going to base my review on the OS. However, I will base some of it on the fact that it comes installed with a bunch of programs that I found kind of useless. I immediately uninstalled McAfee antivirus (it comes with a year subscription I believe), a few Norton utilities, some preinstalled games, some Acer programs, and many windows 8 apps that I wasn't interested in. It took around 20 minutes or so.
Overall, I really like this laptop so far. I've only been using it for a week or so but it's been a huge improvement over what I was using before. I appreciate the improvements they've made over the previous model and while there are several aspects that I would change if I could, these don't seem to affect my use of the laptop (though they may affect yours.) Overall it's a quite solid laptop with good build quality and great design. I think it was worth the purchase and I would probably make the same choice if I had to choose a laptop again.
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I'm an IT consultant who visits several clients a week, so my required features in a laptop were light weight, great battery life, a 1080p screen so I can see more stuff at once and something sharp looking. The first version of the S7 (391) had notoriously poor battery life, so I was really happy to see the second version (392) got a bigger battery and the new Intel Haswell chip with its promise of superior battery performance.The other laptops I seriously considered were the Sony Vaio Pro 13 and MacBook Air 13. I didn't choose the Sony because its carbon fiber body flexes too much for my liking, even if it's potentially less fragile. I passed on the MacBook Air because running Windows in Boot Camp creates some annoyances that I'm not willing to deal with (all of my clients are Microsoft shops so I need to run Windows).
***Great Things About This Laptop***
-The improved battery life promise is real. I'm getting 7 hours per charge so far with this machine. My typical usage includes MS Office applications, a few browser tabs to run cloud apps, a few more browser tabs to goof off, some other IT-related tools and constant remote desktop sessions.
-It's very light, thin and good looking; it was also nice to find a beautifully designed ultrabook that doesn't try to mimic the MacBook Air. Its good looks are accompanied by a surprisingly solid build quality. Surprising to me that is, because I've seen some terrible products from Acer in my 16+ years of IT work. Frankly it was a small leap of faith for me to make this purchase.
-The screen is amazing. Holy crap. Makes my old laptop's screen look like garbage. It's a high quality IPS panel, so it looks good from any angle and the 1080p resolution is razor sharp. Colors are vibrant.
-The keyboard is pleasant to use. It's an improvement over the first S7's keyboard and much better than the Toshiba Portege's keyboard that I came from. It's spacious enough and the keys are nicely backlit too. It's not as good as a Thinkpad keyboard but considering how thin the machine is, it's pretty good. I like typing on it, and I have to type a lot.
-System performance is solid and it stays cool. The improved Haswell version of the Core i5 processor seems to breeze through whatever I throw at it. I rarely hear the fans spin up, and even watching Netflix doesn't seem to make it work too hard.
***Merely Acceptable or Not-So-Great Things About This Laptop***
-In case you're wondering about the Wi-Fi issue, I did indeed see some problems out of the box with dropped connections. I simply updated the driver from Intel's website (it's the Dual Band Wireless-N 7260) and have not had any problems since. This seems to be more of an Intel issue than an Acer issue.
-The keyboard arrangement is odd in some places, like the integration of the number/symbol and F1-F12 function keys. That means using something like the Alt-F4 combo to end a program now requires Fn-Alt-F4. Having the Home and End keys crammed in with the arrow keys will result in some initial frustration. It takes a little while to get used to the arrangement.
-The touchpad is a little finicky sometimes. I occasionally have trouble with two finger scrolling, and it takes a while to get used to figuring out the regions for right and left clicks. It's MUCH better than the trackpad on my 2.5 year old Toshiba Portege, but not as good as the Mac's (still the best in the business as far as I'm concerned).
-When you cram 1920x1080 pixels into a 13" screen, things are going to be small. Just be aware that although Windows 8 supports scaling, text on websites and in applications starts to look different (i.e. not as good) when you go above the native 100% sizing. I'm willing to deal with the small text though because I need to see multiple windows / data at once. At least it's super crisp.
-It's expensive... but understandably so when you look at how well it performs in such a light, thin, well built package.
-It's a little difficult to open the lid. The top is slightly recessed from the bottom which makes it difficult despite the added trim piece that's meant to help with the process.
-I hate the bloatware that every manufacturer includes with their laptops and Acer is no different. The Pokki app in particular takes some work to fully get rid of.
***Final Thoughts***
I really, really like this thing. There aren't exactly a lot of choices for Haswell ultrabooks right now, but I don't feel like I'm settling at all. It's a beautiful device with terrific battery life, the screen is amazing and it hardly breaks a sweat while I'm working. I'm an IT pro so I see lots of laptops... lots of ugly, clunky laptops with crappy screens... and this ain't one of them. Yeah it's expensive, but you start to see why after you've used it for a while.
***Update 10/11/13***
Going on 1.5 months with this machine and it's been terrific. Wi-Fi has still not been an issue since I updated the Intel driver on day one. It stays amazingly cool and quiet. The SSD is quick. The touchpad is good enough that I stopped using my bluetooth mouse. I still really, really like this thing.
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Updated review after 3 months of use.I had my eye on the S7 391 for months but was hoping for fixes for the fan noise, keyboard and touchpad issues. The 392 is the same body but those 3 components have been replaced.
I have the i5. The fans are either silent (off) or soft. I am not a power user, and have hardly heard them. Computer stays remarkably cool given how quiet the fans are. There is an electronic hum when the keyboard backlight is on, which gets louder the brighter the light is.
Keyboard: Quiet but key action is crisp. I have not had double letters or space-bar issues on either unit (see below) but am not a fast typist. No touchpad issues. The loudest thing about the computer is the touch pad click
It's fast. I transferred 1.5 gigs of photos in 1 min 45 sec vs. 8 min 30 sec to copy them on my HP dm3. I downloaded ClassicShell 3.6.8 to solve the Windows 8 start screen nuisance.
Pros: Elegant. It's visually light and physically light. It may be the only ultra thin that's all silver when open.
Fast!
The display is gorgeous.
Generally quiet and runs quite cool.
Battery life is at least 7 hours with 2 browsers running (IE for work, ugh), and screen at 100% brightness.
I'm happy with both touchpad and keyboard.
Comes with the best cleaning cloth (2!) I've used. Papery fabric that looks/feels like packing material; don't throw away!
Cons:
Quality control. I've been luckier than some other reviewers, but my original unit did completely die after about 4 days, probably a stripped
screw which lost contact after computer was moved around. Amazon replaced it promptly.
Acer's customer service. You pay to ship your brand new malfunctioning computer to them, turnaround time is 10 business days (2 weeks) and they don't follow through well. I sent the second one back for an intermittent electronic hum. I later learned by asking here that the keyboard backlight is the cause and(can be turned off).
Backlight is sluggish. Several seconds feels like an eternity to type in the dark before you can see the keys.
A sensor sometimes adjusts the screen brightness and is distracting
Power cord has 4 connection points (at computer, socket, and the 2 blocks are each in 2 parts) so easily loses contact.
Honest reviews on Acer Aspire S7-392-6832 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Crystal
Lots of complete reviews here, so I will keep this short. I am really liking this laptop after 48 hours,were it not for the fact that the space key, arather important feature in a keyboard, works on a schedule that is somewhat different than my requirements.This is especially frustrating, in that I have not suffered through anyof the other hardware/software complaints (wireless working without flaws, USB connections solid, touch pad has tolerable sensitivity, etc.). The bloatware is a bummer, but save for a few OEM's that offer clean installs, this is a common "feature." If I canget used to the fact that I have anoccasional space key...I may keep it, as I really like it otherwise.
The above was written without correcting space bar failures. I have found that if I hit the space bar near the back edge (nearest the screen), then it registers correctly. Hit towards the middle or edge further front, a frustrating failure rate results.
The carbon fiber Sony Vaio Pro 13, another Haswell machine, was super light but far too flexible, so I opted for the rigid aluminium of the Acer. I would have waited to see what is coming out in the fall, but my college student (and constant drain on my finances) needed a laptop for the current semester, so there went the mechanically flawless Sony Vaio VGN-Z530N that I had been using.
If you can wait to see what is coming out, do that. In the meantime, I will attempt to update this review after more experience, and also to post about my attempts to stretch my right thumb.
PRO
Light weight
Battery life (after shedding battery-draining software)
Screen resolution
Start-up wait (almost none to speak of)
More than adequate speed (combo of Haswell i5, in my case, and SSD's)
CON
Space bar
Windows 8 (not Acer's fault)
Overloaded keys (only 5 rows....6 rows really are better, and there appears to be room. My old Sony, also a 13 inch, fit the 6th row, and it worked perfectly. I can live with it, though, using the other functions so infrequently.
Only 60gb left available of the "128gb" at start. Actually, twin 60gb SSD's in raid 0, so 128gb is inaccurate. Get the i7 with the larger SSD's, if you can afford it.
Tons (and tons) of bloatware.
EDIT 1, same day: Corrected a few typos, and decided to take the advice of Don Blair. I am returning this unit due to the problem with the space bar, but will give a replacement a try since I am otherwise happy with it. Based on similar experiences documented in other reviews, I am not necessarily optimistic. On the plus side, I am going to go through the process of completely re-installing the operating system to wipe out my data. Oh, joy.
EDIT 2, 9/1/13: Took previous advice and returned the S7 with wonky spacebar. Got on phone with Amazon support to verify a rapid turnaround of replacement S7 (the i7 w/larger SSD's), and as usual, Amazon does not disappoint, received replacement in 1 day. Which is all the good news.
I still like the design and features of this machine. However, it is clear that Acer has fairly severe quality control issues on their manufacturing line. The very first time I powered on the replacement S7, odd behavior, consisting of faint circles appearing in a vertical line at the left side of the screen, without input on my part. I forged ahead, and completed the process of setting up the PC. Naturally, this included a huge amount of update files. Since the update, the spontaneous registration of touches on the screen has subsided, but the wonkiness on startup remained. It lasts for only a few seconds, and nothing much results from it. Based on this experience, I am uncertain whether the problem is hardware, firmware, or what.
However, if the problem persists, I will be returning this machine, as well, upon my return from travel. As I advised previously, if you can wait to see what other machines are coming out later, do so. Either that, or buy the Mac Air 13 and be done with it. I can't take that option, as I am firmly entrenched in the Microsoft nightmare that is Windows.
I begin travel very soon, and am now forced to go with this machine
EDIT 3, 9/28/13: I have sent the latest machine back, seeking a refund rather than a replacement. The replacement S7 received unprovoked input on the touch screen, and it only got worse during my travel. The result was especially frustrating, causing undesired actions to take place.
This is two for two, and I am giving up on Acer.
Based on this experience, and other reviews complaining of similar and other hardware issues, I believe it is valid to state that Acer has serious issues with quality control during manufacture. It would have been nearly impossible to miss the problem with my latest machine, since it appeared at first boot-up and was consistent. Ergo, Acer's Q.A. process is deficient at best.
I cannot recommend the S7 laptop's from Acer at this point, since acquisition of a reliable machine appears to be random chance, and I have revised my rating down to a single star from the 3-star rating I provided originally. This type of quality control simply cannot receive any higher rating. On the other hand, those reviewers whose machines were without hardware issues seem quite happy, so your mileage will no doubt vary.
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My purchase was done through the Microsoft Store online in July as it was one of the few ways to get the device that early. Generally the laptop proved to be quick, quiet and absent of heat-related issues. It's a great looking device providing better than expected audio from the built-in speakers and admired by those who have seen it. My experience until the last couple weeks had been positive.The Little Annoyances:
It took a little time to get use to the Function keys requiring an additional key-press
The color used to indicate the characters on the physical keyboard is like a matte gray on a matte silver background. Under certain lighting conditions when back-lit keys aren't fully illuminated, it is difficult to identify each key at a normal viewing angle.
After waking the device, I often have to hit Ctrl-Alt-Del to get the mouse pointer to appear. This happens whether or not the laptop is connected to my usb 3.0 universal docking station.
THE BIG PROBLEM:
After barely two months of use, the machine suddenly froze one day and became totally unresponsive. I eventually powered it off. At that point the "boot device" or hard drive was no longer visible to the system in any way shape or form. The device was over-nighted to Acer support in Texas as directed. After a week and a 1/2 I received the unit back but with ONLY 40gb of hard drive space TOTAL less than 8gb of that was available for use. What followed was a lot of time on the phone with support and then Acer's level 2 support. Finally I was told that they would pay to have it shipped back for repair via ground and then "re-configure the Raid settings." Wanting to be clear, I asked what the drive(s) and volume(s) capacity would be after this repair. I was told it would appear as 64gb and that they would do nothing else. This unit was purchased and used in a 128gb configuration until the problem occurred. The SKU doesn't even come with storage configured the way they said they would do it. However, it didn't seem to matter what I said. Oh and yes, I work in IT and understand different raid configurations and their requirements. I called the Microsoft store to see if they would advocate for me. Even they wondered what in the world Acer was doing. However, it will be a couple days before their escalation team gets involved.
Wow Acer! Really? Arrgh!
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