The S7-392-5410's chassis is essentially identical to that of last year's Editors' Choice for ultrabooks, the Acer Aspire S7-392-6411$1,423.99 at Quill. It measures about 0.51 by 12.75 by 9 inches (HWD) and weighs 2.88 pounds. That makes it one of the thinnest and lightest touch-screen laptops on the scene. It's still lighter and thinner than the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch$899.00 at Amazon, and less than a half-pound heavier than the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 with its optional Type Cover. The screen's electronics are sandwiched between two panes of Gorilla Glass 2, which helps make the lid strong, yet thin.
A 13.3-inch, 1,920-by-1,080-resolution, 10-point touch screen is a highlight of this ultrabook. It uses In-Plane Switching (IPS) technology, so you'll have no problem viewing the screen from a multitude of angles. A dual-friction hinge lets you use the laptop from a standing or seated position, and also shared between colleagues on a table when fully opened at 180 degrees. The hinge requires more force to move the lid beyond the 100-degree mark or so, which helps keep the touch screen steady when in use.
The touch screen is quick and accurate, encouraging you to use the touch-optimized versions of Windows 8 apps. We are less enamored of the touchpad, as it seems a bit too sensitive to stray palm touches. You can, however, tweak the sensitivity settings in the control panel or shut the touchpad completely off with a Fn-T key combo.
The backlit keyboard has an odd layout compared with rivals. The Caps Lock key is tiny and shares an opening with the relocated Tilde key. The F1-F12 keys share space with the number keys at the top of the keyboard, but the other keys are where you'd expect them. Acer did this to streamline construction processes, by sharing key openings in the aluminum keyboard deck with its international Aspire S7 models. For the most part, it works fine.
Port selection is very good, especially considering Acer only has a half-inch vertically to work with. The laptop has two USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI port, and an Acer Converter Port. The Acer Converter Port is physically a mini DisplayPort, and works as one, but it also can be connected to an Acer-sourced combination dongle $34.99 to work with Ethernet, USB, and VGA. For wireless connectivity, there is dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi.
The spacious 256GB solid-state drive (SSD) can hold plenty of apps, files, and the Windows 8.1 operating system. This is double the storage space of last year's Acer S7-392-6411, at a lower price. Unfortunately, that lower price also comes with a drawback. There is quite a bit of bloatware installed on the system. While not all pre-installed programs are useless, we can't imagine that you'll actively use all of them. The list this time includes Amazon, Booking.com, Chacha, eBay, Diddlr, Evernote Touch, Hulu Plus, iCookbook, Netflix, Newsxpresso, Next Issue, Spotify, Stumble Upon, Wild Tangent games, and Zinio. The Aspire S7 comes with a one-year warranty.
Performance
The Aspire S7-392-5410 is configured with an Intel Core i5-4210U processor with Intel HD Graphics 4400, 8GB of memory, and the aforementioned 256GB SSD. Booting up takes only a few seconds, and waking from sleep is even faster. The system did very well on the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test (2,708 points), which measures performance during office tasks, video conferencing, and Web browsing. It was on pace with the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 (2,704), though both were edged out by theSamsung ATIV Book 9 2014 EditionBest Price at Amazon (2,733).
Multimedia performance was good, though not stellar, on our tests. The Toshiba Kirabook 13 i7s Touch$1,699.00 at Amazon, our current Editors' Choice for high-end ultrabooks, was understandably faster due to its Core i7 processor.
On the 3D and gaming tests, the S7-392-5410 garnered 12 frames per second (fps) on Heaven and 11fps on Valley, both at medium quality settings. This is on par with the Toshiba Kirabook 13 i7s Touch and the Microsoft Surface Pro 3. All would be fine playing a less strenuous game like World of Warcraft or Diablo III, but you'll need a system with a stronger discrete graphics solution for AAA first person shooters like Destiny or Titanfall.
Battery life is a high point. The Aspire S7-392-5410 managed a healthy 8 hours 22 minutes on our battery rundown test. This qualifies the system for all-day computing, and it will certainly power through a cross-country flight, with time to spare. The Microsoft Surface Pro 3 (8:55), the Dell XPS 13 Touch$1,199.99 at Dell (9:31), and the Samsung ATIV Book 9 2014 Edition (11:26) had even more battery life on the same test. It's notable that the Samsung ATIV Book 9 2014 Edition and the Toshiba 13 i7s Touch (8:44) outlasted the S7-392-5410, even though both have higher-resolution screens, which mean bigger power drains. Both the Samsung and Toshiba systems are thicker, with more space for larger battery packs, which contributes to their longer battery lives.
Overall, the Acer Aspire S7-392-5410 is an great high-end ultrabook that simply has a lot of competition. There are a few drawbacks, like bloatware, the odd keyboard layout, and the overly sensitive trackpad. We figure that the majority of users who can spend $1,400 on a laptop will be happy with the S7-392-5410, especially those who need a full-fledged laptop rather than a tablet with an optional keyboard, like the Microsoft Surface Pro 3. The Toshiba Kirabook 13 i7s Touch holds on as our top pick for high-end ultrabooks, due to its 2,560-by-1,440-resolution touch screen, higher-performing Core i7 processor, slightly better selection of I/O ports, and a longer two-year warranty.
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