I actually like the keys aside from the small CapsLock and weird placement of the tilde key. The green backlighting is aesthetically pleasing (never thought I'd say that...), and I like that they are silver and blend in with the rest of the computer. I've always disliked the black keys with the silver body.
My guess? Apple is buying up every chip Intel is putting out. They might even have pre-purchased (for a lucrative up-front deal for Intel) the first x00,000 run, to guarantee supply and lock others out. It;s not like this isn;t a common tactic from Apple with other components.
lol that's so funny. The reason why nobody other than Apple is using HD5000 is because they're such an "evil" company who's colluded with Intel to buy up all the supply of the chips? Or maybe the other OEMs are stingy penny-pinching bastards who can't be bothered to spend that little bit extra. This laptop is selling for $1400+ ...
In the few benchmarks I'Ve seen comparing them, HD5000 isn't allt hat much of an improvement over HD4600, despite twice the number of shaders. HD5000 seems pretty much power and memory bandwidth limited, that's why HD5200 is a significant improvement.
A few days ago, the MS store had the high-end model for under $1200 for students, though it was probably an error as it's now showing $1484. I almost pounced, but I have very little faith in Acer as a general rule. I'd love to see a proper review of this, as well as the Sony Vaio Pro and the new Samsung Series 9 or whatever they call it now (mmmmmm, 3200x1800).
The news post from Acer says, "Acer announces US pricing and configurations for its S7-392 Ultrabook", so I guess anything prior to now was either early release or something. Maybe it's that the models are now available on Acer's store? Anyway, still figured it was worth a short post.
The 7260 is ac capable in only some of the cards. Search for the product on Newegg and you'll see three different versions of the 7260, n, n + bluetooth, and ac + bluetooth.
Definitely rather have the Samsung Ativ 9 Plus for 1399 with its 3200x1800 screen over the Acer, this is $200 too expensive. I guess it's nice that it has 8GB ram at least, I'd like to see that on Samsung's offering. I *seriously* want a zenbook infinity though..
I'm really interested in that ultrabook, so waiting for the final review. Any of you guys know of a laptop that beats it in specs and price and is as light?
wow, still no dedicated function keys. seriously?? I remember crossing off from my consider-to-buy list few laptops with the top row keys being the shortcuts for multimedia purpose (Lenovo I think), like gotta use Fn key to use the F1-F12. I still think these function keys are still really crucial shortcuts (at least for me), e.g. rename, close, refresh, grammar check/thesaurus and save as.
And now this laptop is no different. Sorry, Acer. Function (no pun intended) over form.
That's not even the only key layout WTF, and I could understand the tradeoff on an 11" model to make room for a bigger touchpad; but Acer has lots of space of the keyboard here so it's just cheap to the point of stupid (which is Acer to the core). More apalling IMO, since it's something that will affect everyone, not just the 2% of users who actually know how to use the function keys is that the rightmost two thirds of the capslock is replaced with the ~ key to put the escape key in the ~'s normal place.
These look reasonable, but the price is ridiculous. The 13" MacBook Air is $1,099.00 for 128GB and $1,299.00 for 256GB. You would have to add $100 in upgrades to get the low end units to spec parity and $250 to the higher end one BUT that is still $100 less than the high-end Acer. Acer is trying to sell Ultrabooks that are MORE EXPENSIVE than APPLE.
Not only that, although I'm not an Apple fan the MacBook Air is a great little computer. The build quality is top notch, much better than (at least last generation's) S7 and there is much more room to save money by buying lower-spec equipment. i5 + 8GB RAM and 256GB is a perfectly doable option that would seem to make the most sense to me.
In order to be competitive Acer needs to actually beat the competition, not even tie. Their reputation is a big enough issue that this needs to be $100-$200 less than their cheapest competitor, not $100-$200 more than APPLE. This system looks good, but not exceptional and it needs to be priced that way.
Spec parity? I think you're forgetting the outdated low res panel on the Airs... I'm not excusing Acer's price, but ASUS has had lower priced 1080p/IPS Zenbooks at the same price point as the Air in the past, which makes it just as overpriced.
I'd say the even bigger problem with the price is that it's within $50 of Apple's 13" rMBP. I imagine the Zenbook Infinity will ape the rMBP pricing since it looks to be as close as we've seen to the Windows equivalent hardware wise. And those both give you even better 2560x1440 panels, and you'll be looking at HD5100 (an assumption for the next 13" rMBP) which should be fast enough for most current games at 720p/low settings. At least in the case of the yet-to-be announced rMBP refresh you'll also likely be looking at 50% better battery life thanks to a huge battery (not to mention AC Wi-Fi/Thunderbolt/etc.).
umm...does anyone think that the price is atleast 250 dollars more than it should be for each of these...i mean i have a asus q550lf with better specs than this -_- and an integrated graphics card!
the thing driving these so high is raid ssd's and a 13.3 inch 1080p (unusable with 4400hd) screen...cmon acer
I grabbed the 256GB model for under $1500 a couple weeks back. It'll be expensive in a month when all the other Haswell ultrabooks start dropping but the biggest problem with that is that they simply haven't. Basically only Sony and Apple (on only one line) were on the ball with products, and Acer was late but still managed to hit in July for some of us.
The ATIV 9 Plus only begins pre-orders in a week and while it's cheaper, it's only got 4GB of ram and the HD 4400 is going to be even more stressed on 3200x1800.
The Sony ultrabooks are attractive but the keyboard flex bothers people and they're still more expensive than this.
The Zenbook Infinity looks great, but still no word on release date or price.
And while the Air is definitely a great OSX machine, it's getting worse every generation as a Windows machine. Bootcamp drivers are getting worse, and a low res, non-touch screen (for Win8) kind of sucks.
FWIW, the key travel is better than the previous S7. I can understand being annoyed with the layout though. $1650 is a lot but at $1450 I was fine with it, simply given how little competition there is for thin & light Haswell notebooks, unfortunately.
I picked up the 256gb model for $1100. Microsoft was having a special with student pricing. Came with Office 365 too. I was on the fence about buying this ultrabook, but that price sealed the deal.
Its funny to read all of these negative comments when its obvious none of the commenters have experience with this laptop.
I'm puzzled by the ridiculous Haswell based pricing!!!! Is it my imagination or are most of these Haswell based systems simply outrageously priced? Prices for high end laptops seem to be going up!!!!....and it seems to me that most of these systems are way overpriced....by at least $300 or more. With laptop sales on a SIGNIFICANT decline in 2012/2013 WTF are these vendors thinking with these ridiculous prices!!!! They seem to be competing with each other to see who can price their system the highest...Is it some sort of "skimming/premium strategy"....I remember when Apple systems use to have by far the highest prices...now everyone is trying to "one up" Apple with their pricing....bad idea!!!!...with this pricing strategy I believe you will see an even steeper decline in laptop sales this year. Wake up and smell the coffee VENDORS...I for one (and I believe many others) will delaying my laptop upgrade until these vendors lower their prices...BTW...this is not a slam of ACER...love their design for the S7...this is an indictment of most of the PC vendors (e.g., Sony, Lenovo, Samsung, etc.) with their outrageous pricing strategy for these systems. The PC vendors are in for VERY ugly 2013 and 2014 sales if they keep up their premium/skimming pricing strategy!
I think it's time we (the consumers) vote with our dollars and simply refuse to pay these exorbitant prices!!! I'd love to hear what others think.
I'm puzzled by the ridiculous Haswell based pricing!!!! Is it my imagination or are most of these Haswell based systems simply outrageously priced? Prices for high end laptops seem to be going up!!!!....and it seems to me that most of these systems are way overpriced....by at least $300 or more. With laptop sales on a SIGNIFICANT decline in 2012/2013 WTF are these vendors thinking with these ridiculous prices!!!! They seem to be competing with each other to see who can price their system the highest...Is it some sort of "skimming/premium strategy"....I remember when Apple systems use to have by far the highest prices...now everyone is trying to "one up" Apple with their pricing....bad idea!!!!...with this pricing strategy I believe you will see an even steeper decline in laptop sales this year. Wake up and smell the coffee VENDORS...I for one (and I believe many others) will delaying my laptop upgrade until these vendors lower their prices...BTW...this is not a slam of ACER...love their design for the S7...this is an indictment of most of the PC vendors (e.g., Sony, Lenovo, Samsung, etc.) with their outrageous pricing strategy for these systems. The PC vendors are in for VERY ugly 2013 and 2014 sales if they keep up their premium/skimming pricing strategy!
I think it's time we (the consumers) vote with our dollars and simply refuse to pay these exorbitant prices!!! I'd love to hear what others think.
You're right that this is overpriced, but I bought it anyway since work paid for it. While it isn't worth the price on paper, it is a pretty awesome experience....very fast and also a beautiful machine, not to mention very light, etc.
The price on this thing will naturally deflate to where it belongs. Just wait a few months.
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ant1pathy - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link
Those silver keys. Who approves something like that?rituraj - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
^+1. Looks like a plastic model of a laptop and not the real oneFlunk - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
I think I'm fine with it, It's not like you need to read the key-caps anyway.blau808 - Sunday, August 18, 2013 - link
Looks better in person. That pic is terrible.ESC2000 - Sunday, August 25, 2013 - link
I actually like the keys aside from the small CapsLock and weird placement of the tilde key. The green backlighting is aesthetically pleasing (never thought I'd say that...), and I like that they are silver and blend in with the rest of the computer. I've always disliked the black keys with the silver body.WallySimmonds - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link
HD4400? No thanks.rootheday3 - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link
Wally - why not? what's wrong with HD4400?also, Jarred - pretty sure that HD4600/4400/4200 are all GT2 HSW => 20EUs, not 16.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
Yes, sorry -- copy/pasted from the old S7 review and I missed that item.ClockworkPirate - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
Basically, what's wrong with the HD 4400 is that it's not the HD 5000. I'd love for someone to explain why no one except Apple is using the i5-4250U.psuedonymous - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
My guess? Apple is buying up every chip Intel is putting out. They might even have pre-purchased (for a lucrative up-front deal for Intel) the first x00,000 run, to guarantee supply and lock others out. It;s not like this isn;t a common tactic from Apple with other components.andykins - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
lol that's so funny. The reason why nobody other than Apple is using HD5000 is because they're such an "evil" company who's colluded with Intel to buy up all the supply of the chips? Or maybe the other OEMs are stingy penny-pinching bastards who can't be bothered to spend that little bit extra. This laptop is selling for $1400+ ...MrSpadge - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
In the few benchmarks I'Ve seen comparing them, HD5000 isn't allt hat much of an improvement over HD4600, despite twice the number of shaders. HD5000 seems pretty much power and memory bandwidth limited, that's why HD5200 is a significant improvement.teiglin - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link
A few days ago, the MS store had the high-end model for under $1200 for students, though it was probably an error as it's now showing $1484. I almost pounced, but I have very little faith in Acer as a general rule. I'd love to see a proper review of this, as well as the Sony Vaio Pro and the new Samsung Series 9 or whatever they call it now (mmmmmm, 3200x1800).CadentOrange - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
I have no faith in Acer at all. This laptop does little to change things.solipsism - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link
For the price and specs there seems to be plenty of better options out there.Dizway - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link
It's been available for weeks. Already a few reviews on Amazon.JarredWalton - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
The news post from Acer says, "Acer announces US pricing and configurations for its S7-392 Ultrabook", so I guess anything prior to now was either early release or something. Maybe it's that the models are now available on Acer's store? Anyway, still figured it was worth a short post.Zeratul56 - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link
Isn't the Intel 7260 ac capable?http://ark.intel.com/products/75439/Intel-Dual-Ban...
cmikeh2 - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link
The 7260 is ac capable in only some of the cards. Search for the product on Newegg and you'll see three different versions of the 7260, n, n + bluetooth, and ac + bluetooth.JarredWalton - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
Intel has Advanced-N and Wireless-N as well as Advanced-AC and Wireless-AC cards, sadly with many overlapping numbers.karasaj - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link
Definitely rather have the Samsung Ativ 9 Plus for 1399 with its 3200x1800 screen over the Acer, this is $200 too expensive. I guess it's nice that it has 8GB ram at least, I'd like to see that on Samsung's offering. I *seriously* want a zenbook infinity though..blau808 - Sunday, August 18, 2013 - link
3200x1800 is a lot of pixels to push with a 4400.p1esk - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
$1400-$1700 for Acer??? Who do they think they are? Apple?Also, I thought these will come with a hi-res screen, what happened?
Doh! - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
I'm sorry but that's one ugly ultrabook.blau808 - Sunday, August 18, 2013 - link
The picture doesnt do it justicemaximumGPU - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
I'm really interested in that ultrabook, so waiting for the final review. Any of you guys know of a laptop that beats it in specs and price and is as light?igesta - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
wow, still no dedicated function keys. seriously??I remember crossing off from my consider-to-buy list few laptops with the top row keys being the shortcuts for multimedia purpose (Lenovo I think), like gotta use Fn key to use the F1-F12. I still think these function keys are still really crucial shortcuts (at least for me), e.g. rename, close, refresh, grammar check/thesaurus and save as.
And now this laptop is no different. Sorry, Acer. Function (no pun intended) over form.
DanNeely - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
That's not even the only key layout WTF, and I could understand the tradeoff on an 11" model to make room for a bigger touchpad; but Acer has lots of space of the keyboard here so it's just cheap to the point of stupid (which is Acer to the core). More apalling IMO, since it's something that will affect everyone, not just the 2% of users who actually know how to use the function keys is that the rightmost two thirds of the capslock is replaced with the ~ key to put the escape key in the ~'s normal place.Flunk - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
These look reasonable, but the price is ridiculous. The 13" MacBook Air is $1,099.00 for 128GB and $1,299.00 for 256GB. You would have to add $100 in upgrades to get the low end units to spec parity and $250 to the higher end one BUT that is still $100 less than the high-end Acer. Acer is trying to sell Ultrabooks that are MORE EXPENSIVE than APPLE.Not only that, although I'm not an Apple fan the MacBook Air is a great little computer. The build quality is top notch, much better than (at least last generation's) S7 and there is much more room to save money by buying lower-spec equipment. i5 + 8GB RAM and 256GB is a perfectly doable option that would seem to make the most sense to me.
In order to be competitive Acer needs to actually beat the competition, not even tie. Their reputation is a big enough issue that this needs to be $100-$200 less than their cheapest competitor, not $100-$200 more than APPLE. This system looks good, but not exceptional and it needs to be priced that way.
Impulses - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
Spec parity? I think you're forgetting the outdated low res panel on the Airs... I'm not excusing Acer's price, but ASUS has had lower priced 1080p/IPS Zenbooks at the same price point as the Air in the past, which makes it just as overpriced.Flunk - Thursday, August 15, 2013 - link
The 13" MacBook Air is 1440 x 900, It's not that far from 1920 x 1080.Zomow - Saturday, August 17, 2013 - link
Yes, because 60% more pixels isn't 'that' much... never mind the crappy panel.Bob Todd - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
I'd say the even bigger problem with the price is that it's within $50 of Apple's 13" rMBP. I imagine the Zenbook Infinity will ape the rMBP pricing since it looks to be as close as we've seen to the Windows equivalent hardware wise. And those both give you even better 2560x1440 panels, and you'll be looking at HD5100 (an assumption for the next 13" rMBP) which should be fast enough for most current games at 720p/low settings. At least in the case of the yet-to-be announced rMBP refresh you'll also likely be looking at 50% better battery life thanks to a huge battery (not to mention AC Wi-Fi/Thunderbolt/etc.).Impulses - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
Yeah, for a power user those would probably be a better value anyway... This price creep tied to high res panels might get out of hand soon tho.piroroadkill - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
Wake me up when the 13" laptops with core i7-4558U arrive. Until then, yawn.austinsguitar - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
umm...does anyone think that the price is atleast 250 dollars more than it should be for each of these...i mean i have a asus q550lf with better specs than this -_- and an integrated graphics card!the thing driving these so high is raid ssd's and a 13.3 inch 1080p (unusable with 4400hd) screen...cmon acer
Jaerba - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
I grabbed the 256GB model for under $1500 a couple weeks back. It'll be expensive in a month when all the other Haswell ultrabooks start dropping but the biggest problem with that is that they simply haven't. Basically only Sony and Apple (on only one line) were on the ball with products, and Acer was late but still managed to hit in July for some of us.The ATIV 9 Plus only begins pre-orders in a week and while it's cheaper, it's only got 4GB of ram and the HD 4400 is going to be even more stressed on 3200x1800.
The Sony ultrabooks are attractive but the keyboard flex bothers people and they're still more expensive than this.
The Zenbook Infinity looks great, but still no word on release date or price.
And while the Air is definitely a great OSX machine, it's getting worse every generation as a Windows machine. Bootcamp drivers are getting worse, and a low res, non-touch screen (for Win8) kind of sucks.
FWIW, the key travel is better than the previous S7. I can understand being annoyed with the layout though. $1650 is a lot but at $1450 I was fine with it, simply given how little competition there is for thin & light Haswell notebooks, unfortunately.
blau808 - Sunday, August 18, 2013 - link
I picked up the 256gb model for $1100. Microsoft was having a special with student pricing. Came with Office 365 too. I was on the fence about buying this ultrabook, but that price sealed the deal.Its funny to read all of these negative comments when its obvious none of the commenters have experience with this laptop.
jetter - Tuesday, August 20, 2013 - link
I'm puzzled by the ridiculous Haswell based pricing!!!! Is it my imagination or are most of these Haswell based systems simply outrageously priced? Prices for high end laptops seem to be going up!!!!....and it seems to me that most of these systems are way overpriced....by at least $300 or more. With laptop sales on a SIGNIFICANT decline in 2012/2013 WTF are these vendors thinking with these ridiculous prices!!!! They seem to be competing with each other to see who can price their system the highest...Is it some sort of "skimming/premium strategy"....I remember when Apple systems use to have by far the highest prices...now everyone is trying to "one up" Apple with their pricing....bad idea!!!!...with this pricing strategy I believe you will see an even steeper decline in laptop sales this year. Wake up and smell the coffee VENDORS...I for one (and I believe many others) will delaying my laptop upgrade until these vendors lower their prices...BTW...this is not a slam of ACER...love their design for the S7...this is an indictment of most of the PC vendors (e.g., Sony, Lenovo, Samsung, etc.) with their outrageous pricing strategy for these systems. The PC vendors are in for VERY ugly 2013 and 2014 sales if they keep up their premium/skimming pricing strategy!I think it's time we (the consumers) vote with our dollars and simply refuse to pay these exorbitant prices!!! I'd love to hear what others think.
jetter - Tuesday, August 20, 2013 - link
I'm puzzled by the ridiculous Haswell based pricing!!!! Is it my imagination or are most of these Haswell based systems simply outrageously priced? Prices for high end laptops seem to be going up!!!!....and it seems to me that most of these systems are way overpriced....by at least $300 or more. With laptop sales on a SIGNIFICANT decline in 2012/2013 WTF are these vendors thinking with these ridiculous prices!!!! They seem to be competing with each other to see who can price their system the highest...Is it some sort of "skimming/premium strategy"....I remember when Apple systems use to have by far the highest prices...now everyone is trying to "one up" Apple with their pricing....bad idea!!!!...with this pricing strategy I believe you will see an even steeper decline in laptop sales this year. Wake up and smell the coffee VENDORS...I for one (and I believe many others) will delaying my laptop upgrade until these vendors lower their prices...BTW...this is not a slam of ACER...love their design for the S7...this is an indictment of most of the PC vendors (e.g., Sony, Lenovo, Samsung, etc.) with their outrageous pricing strategy for these systems. The PC vendors are in for VERY ugly 2013 and 2014 sales if they keep up their premium/skimming pricing strategy!I think it's time we (the consumers) vote with our dollars and simply refuse to pay these exorbitant prices!!! I'd love to hear what others think.
ESC2000 - Sunday, August 25, 2013 - link
You're right that this is overpriced, but I bought it anyway since work paid for it. While it isn't worth the price on paper, it is a pretty awesome experience....very fast and also a beautiful machine, not to mention very light, etc.The price on this thing will naturally deflate to where it belongs. Just wait a few months.