Acer Aspire R7 laptop: Designed with innovation

You can't talk about the Acer Aspire Rs 7 without mentioning the hinge (or Ezel as Acer puts it). It's an innovative design that attempts to bring the screen even closer to you and make your computing experience more personal. The flexible hinge allows you to position the display as you like, but essentially you can do three things -- bring the screen closer to you while working, make it lie flat for use as a tablet and flip it over to use in ‘kiosk' mode.u00a0The build quality of this ‘laptop' is also great, it has a very premium feel to it and the hinge is far from flimsy. You can position the display any which way and the hinge manages to hold it steady. Connectivity is very limited with just three USB portsu00a0at your disposal, but it's enough, barely.

Coming to the multimedia capabilities of the device, this laptop can hold its own with the best. The screen is a gorgeous, 1080p panel that is bright and vibrant and very crisp, easily among the best we've seen on laptops so far. The speakers are another bonus, they're Dolby Digital certified and the audio quality iswell above average. Plus, you get four speakers as opposed to the usual two, so you can theoretically take advantage of them to watch movies in surround sound. All this, coupled with a battery life of almost four hours at high load makes this a very capable multimedia device. The problem with this device is that we can't seem to see the point in it. Sure, you get the ‘Ezel' hinge and you can manipulate the display, but why? It's not like a standard hinge is inconvenient and even though you can flip the display over, why can't you just flip the laptop around as you always used to?

Another problem, though comparatively minor, is the keyboard and touchpad. The repositioned keyboard feels awkward and it's quite painful to use on your lap when there is no palm-rest, it's fine on a desk though; the keys don't engender much confidence either and feel a bit floaty. The touchpad also seems to serve no purpose owing to its awkward positioning but the touch-screen is accurate.u00a0This is, undeniably, an excellent device. The hardware might not be much, in terms of specs, but if you can find a use for the hinge and can get over the touchpad and keyboard positioning, not to mention the large size, this device can be worth the hole that it'll burn in your pocket -- and the envy of everyone who wants to check out your new laptop.u00a0

Pros
>> Innovative hinge design
>>u00a0Great build quality
>>u00a0Excellent speakers
>>u00a0Responsive touch screen
Cons
>>TouchPad positioning
>>u00a0Keys on the keyboard
>>u00a0No palm-rest

Specifications
Processor: Intel Coreu00a0i5-3337U 1.8 GHz
RAM: 8GB
Graphics: Intel HD 4000
Display: 15.6-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels)
Storage: 1TB
OS: Windows 8 (64-bit)
Connectivity: 2 x USB 3.0, HDMI, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n
Price: Rs 74,999