Acer Aspire R7: the new Windows 8 hybrid laptop you want to own

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Acer announced a series of new unique Windows 8 powered devices in a New York City press event on Friday. One of this new devices is the Acer Aspire R7, this is a new kind of 15.6-inch laptop that can also transform into a tablet with a distinct design that combines type and touch, and makes the trackpad a secondary feature.

The one thing you’ll quickly notices about the Aspire R7 is the arm that holds the screen with the base, something that Acer named “Ezel Hinge”, and it allows to move the display in four different positions: “Ezel Mode” which makes possible to position the screen forward over the keyboard in almost any angle:”Notebook Mode”, “Display Mode”, and “Pad Mode”. You can even flip the screen over to show a presentation — and of course the screen will rotate too.

Another noticeable feature is the location of trackpad, this is located behind the keyboard — quite unusual and in an awkward position to use it in the laptop mode, but the thinking behind is that users will spend more time using natural touch and the keyboard. It is also said that there is a lot of tension on the hinge and that allows to move between modes with a single-hand and the display stays steady when touched.

Tech specs

Under the hood of the new hybrid Acer Aspire R7 have some good specs, the device features: a full 1080p (1920 x 1080) ten-point touchscreen, an Intel Core i5 processor and 6GB of memory, a 500GB hard drive and 24GB solid-state drive (which I’ll interested on knowing if they are combining both drives for speed or if one drive is for the OS and the other storage), 3 USB ports, a HDMI port, your typical SD card reader and a VGA, USB and RJ45 adapter. As well as Dolby Home Theater v4 speakers and backlit keyboard.

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Price and availability

The Acer Aspire R7 will be on sale on May 17th, it will be exclusive to Best Buy in the U.S., per-orders is already open (May 3, 2013), and the price will start around $1000. No words yet if there will be a higher-end model with the choice of a Core i7, more memory and bigger solid-state drive.

Old Dell model

Although the R7 has a very interesting design and I can actually see myself using this Windows 8 PC, I can’t stop thinking that Acer has borrowed some of the ideas from old Dell’s XPS M2010 model, which was a desktop with similar lines and hinge. What do you think? It looks pretty darn similar, right?

Source Windows Experience Blog | Images courtesy of Microsoft and Acer

About the author

Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 14 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me.