Acer Iconia W3, Aspire S7, Aspire R7, Aspire S3 - Computex 2013
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2014-05-07
·
1,792 words · ~8 min read
0:00
Linus Tech tips coverage of computex 2013 is powered by Western Digital our
0:04
trusted gaming gear partner is Corsair Vengeance and our trusted retail partner
0:08
is nc.com now if you've been following
0:13
lately you'll know that there's a couple of Acer devices that I am personally
0:18
pretty enamored with one is the W7 which is a phenomenally well-built Windows
0:22
tablet and the other is the Aspire S7 which is actually the notebook being
0:27
carried around by Yours Truly here at the show but this is an all new device
0:31
this is the W3 which is a full Windows 8
0:35
tablet in an 8 in form factor this is the first time we've seen this so it's
0:39
got sort of the expects are the specs that you'd expect so it's got the new
0:43
Intel Atom Processor it's got 2 gigs of RAM it's available in 32 gig or 64 gig
0:49
configurations but there are a couple things that are unique about it so
0:52
you've got micro SD expansion which is nice to have but I'm going to have our
0:55
lovely assistant Peter here show me how you actually transport this around with
1:00
you so it comes with the keyboard Docker doesn't yeah go ahead it comes with the
1:04
keyboard Docker it doesn't depending on the region but it Clips in on the
1:08
speaker ports down at the bottom stays in place now you can Chuck it in your
1:12
bag and you're ready to take it with you on the go but lonus why would I ever
1:16
take a tablet out of my house I never use my tablet outside of my house
1:19
personally I don't use my tablet outside of my house well there's a good answer
1:23
it comes pre-loaded with Microsoft Office in spite of the fact that this is
1:27
not a Windows RT device this is a full-blown window Windows 8 device
1:30
meaning you can run your modern UI experience oh thank you you can run a
1:36
modern UI experience you can run
1:39
a don't worry we'll get this modern UI
1:42
regular desktop experience whatever it is you happen to want you can run all of
1:46
your legacy applications but it comes pre-loaded with office meaning you can
1:51
actually get something done on it when you're on the go all
1:57
right yeah that's that's how things always happen at these things maybe Guys
2:01
these are pre-production units these aren't going to be available till
2:04
sometime around end of June so this one right here yes the button there does
2:09
load up the modern UI so you've got that same interface that you're going to be
2:12
familiar with already and then there's the desktop including
2:17
the see if I can figure out how to use this thank you Peter hopefully we're
2:22
going to find whatever you saw Microsoft Office on the other one so let's move on
2:25
to the next cool thing that AC are showing off in their booth now this is a
2:30
pretty unique design if you check out the coverage we did from the Intel booth
2:33
on NC Tech tips we showed a lot of
2:37
different hinge designs for two-in-one type devices tablet notebook we don't
2:42
know what it is this it doesn't quite fit cleanly into that category because
2:46
it's a little bit unique this is the Aspire R7 from Acer and I might have to
2:50
get a lovely assistant to come in here and help me move it around cuz I've got
2:53
only one hand but it can basically be used in what would be a traditional
2:56
notebook mode so there you go it's open all the way you may have noticed or you
3:00
may not have noticed that the touchpad is in a bit of a different position on
3:04
this thing so it's intended for you to be using it either as a touch P
3:07
traditional notebook mode just like that or and I have complained about this so
3:12
many times what is the problem with touchscreen the problem is that it is
3:16
fatiguing to sit like this with your ARM like this it's too far away show me what
3:21
it does this is why the touchpad gets
3:24
covered up it is intended to be used in what they're calling easel mode this
3:28
allows you to easily oh wow uh this allows you to
3:34
easily use the keyboard for typing and the touch screen for interacting with a
3:38
device like this is touch perfect for everyone the answer is no touch is not
3:42
for everyone and if touch isn't for you you don't have to use it a lot of the
3:46
time I would probably end up having a mouse hooked up to this but I'm the kind of person who actually carries a gaming
3:50
mouse around in his backpack so not everyone is necessarily me if it was
3:54
like my kid using it then it's going to be like Angry Birds or whatever okay
3:58
well there's some kind of a bird let's go look at that one sort of complete
4:01
there's a bird okay so angry birds or something like that well that's what they're going to want to do and this is
4:05
going to be a perfect mode for that now with that said it's not like you lose
4:08
the productivity as well personally I think it take me a while to get used to
4:11
a touchpad on the top but check this out if I'm working on something I want to
4:15
show it to someone this I can probably do on my own you flip it around you can
4:18
see in the mirror right here it auto rotates which means you can easily show
4:22
someone something this could be great for Creative professionals and just for
4:26
Content consumption you don't have to use it as a notebook at all it can can
4:29
be used in tablet mode it is a little bit on the heavy side guys let's be
4:33
realistic it's a notebook it's not a tablet it's a full-fledged notebook
4:37
device you got your USB 3 you got your SD card you got everything that you
4:41
could want on a notebook it's also got an IPS panel and I've pretty much run
4:45
out of steam for what to say about this other than yeah that looks pretty cool
4:48
very different from anything else that we've seen so far now we're almost at
4:52
the part that I'm really excited about that I've been geeking out about but I
4:57
guess I'll do this one first cuz it's pretty cool as well this is the Aspire
5:00
S3 which is very similar to The Notebook that I use except that it has been made
5:05
a little bit more accessible in terms of pricing so what have they changed versus
5:09
the S7 number one is the keyboard is black okay not that big of a difference
5:15
number two is the keyboard lacks the E illumination that automatically reacts
5:19
to the lighting in the room okay so if you really need an illuminated keyboard
5:23
you're going to want to get an S7 number two is it only has a glass surface on
5:28
the multi-touch touchcreen on the back of the notebook is now a
5:31
plastic surface so that's not going to be quite as scuff resistant but it's
5:35
certainly going to have some scratch and scuff resistance even though it's not
5:39
quite to the same degree as glass would it's a little bit thicker but you
5:44
actually get something in return for increasing that thickness you're
5:48
actually able to add check this out a dedicated graphics card to it so this
5:52
particular model comes with a GT 735m
5:55
which compared to the onboard Graphics that are available in most of these thin
5:58
and light notebooks is definitely going to be an improvement it also uses up to
6:03
a 1 tbte sshd meaning you're going to have quick resumes from sleep I've gone
6:08
ahead and put it to sleep right here so we're going to go ahead and wake it up check this
6:13
out especially compared to traditional
6:16
hard drives that do not have an SSD component built into them although pure
6:20
SSD models may also be available and this is the one that I'm actually
6:25
excited about this is the Aspire S7 392 if you you guys have ever watched
6:30
one of my live streams or you've ever heard me talk about my favorite notebook
6:34
you'll already know I have one of these
6:38
but this is the older generation and I had three complaints about my notebook
6:43
three Each of which has been addressed with the new generation product
6:48
complaint number one the battery life is not good enough I have to carry around
6:52
this external battery in order to keep it acceptable to the point where I can
6:55
really get the 6 hours 6 and 1/ half hours of battery life that I need out of
7:00
it 30% better battery life in the new device very nice complaint number two
7:05
the keyboard is extremely low profile too low profile it's not very
7:09
comfortable to type on it doesn't bother me as much as it bugs slick but bam
7:14
higher travel distance keys on the new keyboard in spite of the fact that the
7:18
new S7 is 1 mm thinner than the old S7
7:22
last but not least the touchpad on mine has a bit of a latency issue it's it it
7:27
legs and it's a little bit too Twitchy sometimes when I'm trying to use it and
7:31
and click with the uh with the buttons down here new S7 no more leg all gone it
7:37
is now officially like I I actually couldn't improve anything about it at
7:42
this point so that's a shame because you
7:45
guys are going to have a re it's going to be a real trick to make something better than this in my eyes now so guys
7:51
don't miss any of our computex 2013 coverage remember we're powered here by
7:55
WD Corsair Vengeance gaming peripherals and nc.com
7:59
and check out the link in the video description don't forget to check out
8:02
our Forum subscribe all that great stuff we're going to have more coming for you
8:06
very soon