There's little doube that the craze for convertible notebooks was kicked off by Lenovo's Yoga Pro line-up, but now Acer is getting in on the game with a device of its own; the Aspire R 11. Aimed more towards the budget end of the market than Lenovo's expensive ultra-portable, it could strike the ideal balance between laptop and tablet for someone that doesn't want to carry around two devices. We got the chance to try one out ahead of its June launch earlier today, in order to find out whether it will be a better buy than a budget laptop.
Acer says its dual torque hinge design should prevent touchscreen wobbles when using the R11 in laptop mode, and it certainly held firm during our short time with one. The hinge isn't stiff, however, and can be opened and closed with minimal effort. It's definitely chunkier than Lenovo's gorgeous watch band hinge though, and the contrasting colours have almost toy-like connotations. The choice of colour definitely makes an impact here, with the blue model we tried looking a lot less serious than the white version. Acer calls the finish on the lid a 'fabric texture', but we aren't overly convinced; it might create a welcome amount of grip to prevent accidential drops, but it's another indicator that the laptop was built to a budget.
The 11.6in screen is another area where Acer has had to restrict specifications in order to keep costs low. The 1,366x768 resolution is disappointing, as there's not really enough room for multitasking and certain web pages can start to feel a little cramped. At least the panel is of reasonable quality, with a zero air gap construction giving the illusion that onscreen content is a lot closer to you and Corning's Gorilla Glass protecting it from scratches and scrapes. Colours were vibrant, even in the brightly lit demo area, but we'll have to wait until we've used our colour calibrator on a final retail model to give a final verdict on picture quality.
Acer was keen to stress the fact that the R11 has BlueLightShield, which can reduce the amount of blue LED light being produced by the backlight by as much as 54%. We weren't able to properly test this at the launch event, so we'll have to see how well it works in practice during a full review.
We were impressed with the comfortable keyboard and sizeable touchpad, which responded accurately to inputs and gestures. The island-style keys have plenty of travel and provide a reasonable amount of feedback. Despite the 11in form factor, we didn't feel cramped when typing. Of course, you can still end up mashing the keys when in tablet mode, but the R11 correctly ignored these accidental inputs while we were putting it through its paces.
Acer highlighted the R11's speaker technology in the reveal announcement, but we weren't able to properly put it to the test on the noisy demo floor. The paper diaphragm speaker drivers were certainly audible, but we won't know whether they effectively reduce distortion and preserve bass until we give the R11 a full review.
It's great to see convertible laptops reach ever lower prices, putting them within reach of customers that would usually be forced to choose between a laptop or a tablet. The R11 looks like a fun entry-level product with a lot of character, thanks to the unusual blue colour scheme and textured finish. It seems to works well as a laptop and has potential as a tablet too, so we can't wait to get our hands on a final model and give it a full review.
The Acer Aspire R11 is set to go on sale in the UK from June onwards, with prices starting from £350.