Acer Aspire R7 ultrabook: touchscreen beast that will dominate your desk

Acer's Aspire R7 is on the big side making it more suitable as a desktop replacement than a laptop.

Acer's 15.6-inch Aspire R7 starts at Dh4,999. Pichi Chuang / Reuters

When first encountering Acer’s Aspire R7, the word that comes to mind is “big”. This is an ultrabook that is unapologetically huge, a beast that will not be confined to a subsection of your small and trendy attaché case, but instead will utterly dominate your bag, your desktop and your face.

Central to the R7’s appeal is its huge 15.6-inch, 1080p touchscreen, mounted on a flexible easel that allows a number of permutations. While you might not end up using many of these, the screen displays images and videos beautifully, and offers a satisfying touchscreen experience.

Acer is wagering that the touchscreen is so compelling that you’ll use it more than the built-in trackpad. Using this logic it has taken the unusual step of putting the trackpad above the keyboard rather than below it.

This could prove a little irritating if, like me, you prefer to use a touchscreen sparingly for everyday tasks. Aside from the convenience issue, smudged fingerprints on the screen are pretty off-putting. But of course there’s nothing to stop you plugging a mouse into one of the three USB ports.

Aside from the fancy screen and oddly-placed trackpad, much is as you’d expect from a high-end ultrabook. Complementing the screen are inbuilt speakers that offer a full and rich sound. The basic model comes with 500GB of hard drive storage, with an extra 250GB available for not much extra money.

So should you buy one? If you’re looking for a small, light, discreet laptop, the R7 isn’t for you. In fact, it’s highly likely that the R7 ate such a petite laptop for breakfast. Its sheer size and weight make it a chore to carry around day after day, unless you’re using it for smaller-scale media presentations on a regular basis.

The R7 is more likely to be your cup of tea if, like many folk, what you’re after is essentially a desktop replacement, a machine that will sit on the same desk for 90 per cent of the time but that can be moved between rooms without too much trouble. It plays this role admirably, and, starting at Dh4,999, at a reasonable price too.

q&a swivel while you work

A laptop with a swivelling screen. That means it transforms into a tablet, right?

Well, not exactly. OK, the screen can fold so that it sits flush right on top of the keyboard, meaning that it looks like a tablet …

I sense there’s a “but” coming …

I’ll grant you that folding the screen means you can use the R7 like a tablet; however it would be a slightly awkward experience, given the size of the screen (15.6 inches) and the weight of the overall unit (2.4kg).

So what’s the point of a swivelling screen then?

The screen’s easel works well if you’re using the R7 as a conventional desktop replacement (which, let’s face it, most people likely will) giving a greater number of viewing angles than a standard laptop.

OK fair enough, but what use is flipping the screen over so that it’s pointing away from you when you type?

Well, on the one hand it can be used if you’re giving a PowerPoint presentation to colleagues at a table (if you’re comfortable controlling it without looking at the screen). On the other, it means you can watch a movie without having to look at a keyboard in front of you.

This is all sounds good, but I don’t know if a swivelling screen is a top priority for a laptop.

Indeed. But the R7 is a decent enough ultrabook that its swivelling screen is the icing on the cake, rather than the cake itself.

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