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KEYBOARD AND TOUCHPAD
Perhaps the biggest downfall of the Acer S7, as a Canadian, is the lack of choice in keyboard selection. Canadian sold systems and keyboards are different in key shape and placement and, as well, our keyboard has multi-lingual functionality and becomes very confusing to most. This has sent me worldwide in search of the right systems with a standard US keyboard, however, our shipped S7 sample was not so fortunate.
The Acer S7 has a short stroke Island style keyboard with a centered and wide trackpad. The keyboard is backlit and electroluminescent which means it wil not only turn on and off by itself, but also, it will adjust the keyboard brightness according to the exterior lighting.
ACER S7 PORTS
On the left side of the S7, we have the DC port, mini-HDMI, headphone plug in as well as the on/off switch. You have no idea how this switch eluded me when I first started looking around the system. One gets so used to it being right there in front of you. This also becomes one of the biggest concerns and thoughts for improvement on the S7 as we have inadvertently hit this button, shutting down the system while handling it, several times now.
On the right side we have a Kensington lock port, two USB 3.0 ports as well as the SD card slot, something we seem to be finding less and less in ultras these days.
SYSTEM COOLING
Looking at the back, we see the vents for cooling and this is probably going to be the biggest downfall for some ultra lovers. As much as we are always hoping that we can do away with fan cooling in ultras, it simply isn’t possible as todays ultras are just that much more powerful than we saw of much larger desktop systems of only yesterday.
The S7 is no different running the most powerful processor money can buy right beside the highest performing storage sub-system we have ever seen in a laptop. The end result is almost steady fan use that adds a bit to the system noise, provides a bit of heat while on your lap and inevitably lowers battery life to a degree.
In the Acer S7, two fans do the job of pulling the cool air in from one vent, and pushing the hot air out the other.
Anyone know where I can find out more about LITEONIT CMT-64L3M 64.0 GB ? That is what appears to be used in my ACER Aspire S5. 128 GB SSD system. Are there 2 mSATA slots or is this one module with 2 Channels ?
Steve
The laptop was unusable because of a know issue where WiFi connection is unstable; that means every few secons you get disconnects from your WiFi router, interrupting your internet connection.
Thanks….first I have heard of the issue. Will look into tx.
YOu probably tested the fan noise in Power save mode on batteries ?
This thing runs two 10K RPM fans producing 50db under load. not much load needed at all to go up to 50db. All other things are irrelevant. This is crappy laptop
Negative…tested as per normal use and I dont typically use power save mode.
Respected Sir,
I want to buy an ultrabook that has the follwing specifications,
SSD only,core i5,touch screen,battery backup upto 6 hrs.
Kindly suggest me the best option.
i will be greatly thankful to you.
What country will you be purchasing from?
INDIA
I cant offer any direct assistance there but to say just about every ultra fits your criteria.
Les,
Have you experienced any of the wifi issuies with the Acer that have been reported elsewhere?
Do you think the 128g version will have the same performance (transfer speeds, etc.) as the 256 that you reviewed?
I haven’t got the unit any more, however, the WiFi would not be associated to capacity of the SSD I wouldn’t think. I was looking it over from the piks that I have on hand and maybe its possible that they ran into the same issue that the S9 experienced where the Wifi was losing signal because of the aluminum shell. Samsung fixed that be incorporating two plastic pieces where the WiFi antenna sits.
Les,
Sorry I wasn’t more specific. I was wondering if the 128g version will have the same hard-wired data transfer performance as the 256.
I can’t test this but logically even you RAIDED write transfer speeds will drop somewhat for lower capacity drives when transferring highly incompressible data such as this.
Thanks. I ended up getting a 15.6″ Macbook pro with a 256SSD. I’ll be using your SSD optimization guide when it arrives:)
Were you able to confirm if the SSD can be upgraded to a higher capacity SSD using a normal msata drive or do the custom connectors/configuration make changing to a normal msata SSD impossible?