Best Laptop 2013 Acer Aspire S7 Ultrabook Reviews - Acer
is swinging for the fences with the new $1,499 Acer Aspire S7-392-6411
Ultrabook. The second generation of the company's S7 series sports some
welcome updates, such as improved battery life, a better keyboard and a
fourth-generation Intel Core i5 processor. But the Aspire hasn't ditched
the aspects of the S7 we loved, namely the super-slim, all-white
chassis and the 1080p touch-screen that continues to turn heads. The end
result is a home run for Ultrabook shoppe.
The very definition of sleek, the 3-pound, 0.5-inch-thick Acer Aspire S7 Ultranook features a stylish, all-aluminum unibody chassis with a white glass lid.
The 10-point touch , 13-inch, 1080p screen provides vivid blues,
yellows and greens at a very-high brightness level of 329 lux. An Intel
4th-generation Core series CPU and SSD provide strong Windows 8
performance. Plus, a huge 6,280-mAH battery provides nearly 9 hours of
endurance.
Design 2013 Acer Aspire S7 Ultrabook
One
thing's for sure: Acer can definitely make a pretty laptop. Like the
Aspire S7-391 before it, the S7-392 rocks a scintillating, all-aluminum,
unibody chassis. Covered in Corning Gorilla Glass 2, the lid of the S7
is an absolute vision in white. We love the silver border that lines the
lid as well as the light-up Acer logo in the center.
The lid is
about a millimeter shorter than the deck, a configuration that is
interesting to look at, but makes opening the notebook a bit of a
hassle. When closed, the lid shows off the sturdy, rounded, silver hinge
that enables the display to tilt back a full 180 degrees.
After
opening the lid, we took a moment to appreciate the silky feel of the
silver, matte keyboard deck. We love how the sides of the deck curve
upward at a gentle angle and how the keyboard resides in a subtle
recess.
Performance 2013 Acer Aspire S7 Ultrabook
For
such a svelte laptop, the Acer Aspire S7-392 packs quite a wallop. Its
1.6-GHz fourth-generation Intel Core i5-4200 CPU with 8GB of RAM ably
streamed an episode of "Breaking Bad" from Netflix while performing a
system scan with 8 open tabs in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and
Internet Explorer.
On the PCMark 7 benchmark, the S7 notched
5,051, well above the 3,800 ultraportable average. The Sony VAIO Pro 13
and its 1.8-GHz Intel Core i7-4500U CPU scored 4,698. The Samsung ATIV
Book 9's 2-GHz Intel Core i7-3537U processor posted 4,490.
During
Geekbench, the S7 notched 5,184, failing to meet the 6,082 average.
However, the S7's score placed it only slightly behind the ATIV Book 9's
showing of 5,187. The Pro 13 did somewhat better, with 5,507, while the
MacBook Air and its 1.7-GHz Intel Core i7-4650U processor scored 8,333.
The
Aspire S7's 128GB SSD booted Windows 8 in an agile 9 seconds, faster
than the 23 second average. The ATIV Book 9 (128GB SSD) and the Pro 13
(512GB SSD) both loaded Windows 8 in 7 seconds.
The S7 lost a
little footing during the File Transfer Test, duplicating 4.97GB of
mixed-media files in 45 seconds. That equals a transfer rate of 113
MBps, slightly above the 101 MBps average. However, the ATIV Book 9
clocked in at 154.2 MBps, while the Air (256GB SSD) and Pro 13
registered a blistering 318.1 MBps and 392 MBps, respectively.
When
we ran the OpenOffice Spreadsheet Macro Test, the Aspire S7 matched
20,000 names and addresses in 5 minutes and 12 seconds. That's faster
than the 5:55 category average, but several seconds behind the Pro 13
and ATIV Book 9, which posted times of 5:10 and 5:09, respectively. The
Air completed the task in a speedier 4:26.
Graphics 2013 Acer Aspire S7 Ultrabook
The
Acer Aspire S7-392's Intel HD Graphics 4400 GPU with 128MB of VRAM
offers better performance than the last-generation integrated GPU.
However, you'll still be limited to mainstream fare such as "World of
Warcraft."
On the 3DMark11 benchmark, the S7's score of 895 easily
toppled the 749 ultraportable average. The Sony VAIO Pro 13, which also
has an Intel HD Graphics 4400 GPU, notched 600. The Samsung ATIV Book 9
and its older Intel HD Graphics 4000 GPU scored 597.
During the
"World of Warcraft" test, the S7 managed 39 fps on autodetect at 1366 x
768, which dropped to 28 fps at 1080p; both are below the 40 fps
ultraportable average. By comparison, the ATIV Book 9 notched just 20
fps at 1080p, and the Pro 13 hit 30 fps. At its native resolution of
1400 x 900, the MacBook Air averaged 50 fps.
Battery Life 2013 Acer Aspire S7 Ultrabook
The
biggest improvement of this newest edition of the Acer Aspire is its
endurance. On the LAPTOP Battery Test (continuously surfing the Web over
Wi-Fi), the Acer Aspire S7-392's 4-cell, 6280mAh lithium-ion battery
lasted 8 hours and 53 minutes. That's more than double the previous S7
(4:10) and nearly 3 hours longer than the 6:05 ultraportable average.
This runtime is also almost 4 hours longer than the Samsung ATIV Book 9
(5:07). The Sony VAIO Pro 13 posted 7:20, but nearly doubled that time
to 14:38 with its extended battery. The MacBook Air lasted an epic
12:29.
souce: laptopmag
