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REPORT ANALYSIS AND FINAL THOUGHTS
The Acer S7 is the smallest and most powerful ultrabook available on the market today. In fact, we cannot find any notebook that is available in a standard configuration with read and write performance of up to 1GB/s and this ultra will be looked at very closely by those media professionals that have so long relied on their Apple product for professional media services. It is just that powerful.
Acer (and Lite-On) have done this by marketing a brand new SSD form factor that would technically allow RAID configurations to be utilized in todays portable systems right from the initial point of sale. At a time when many might have expected to see such a form factor fit within the specifications of NGFF (New Generation Form Factor) expected later this year, Acer looked elsewhere to an mSATA design that, for the most part, would be considered propietary where the form factor uses a custom pin layout that provides for two physical SSDs to be placed on a single PCB.
On the negative side, relocation of the power button is a must in future development and it would be great to see less fan use resulting in a longer battery life per charge. Where many ultrabooks are reaching up to ten hours per charge, the typical of four hours is very low if we were to compare this system on battery life alone. Last but not least, although we understand that heat must be effectively dissipated for the smallest and most powerful ultra on the market, one can feel the heat when the system rests on your lap or legs when using the system on the road.
Price is our next consideration and the Acer S7 can be found
right now at Amazon at $1129.99 for the 11.6″ version with the 13.3″ model starting at $1299.99 for the base model and running up to a high of $1619.96 for the configuration tested on ouir bench. While our configuration does not fall into the definition of Intel’s ultrabook pricing guidelines, perhaps it is once again worthy of mentioning that this is the most powerful ultrabook (actually laptop) money can buy and their will be many a media professional jumping at the Acer S7 ultrabook.
After all, it is chalk full of features to include an IPS HD screen, Gorilla Glass protection, highest possible transfer performance available, not to mention the S7’s incredible build. If we could just relocate that power switch….
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?