Acer unveils Star Trek Into Darkness notebook, the Aspire

NEW YORK: TAIWANESE COMPUTER MAKER
Acer launched a convertible notebook today, the
Aspire R7, which will appear in the flick Star
Trek Into Darkness.
Unveiled at a press event in New York today, the
Aspire R7 has a full HD touchscreen display with
1920x1080 resolution that can be flipped,
rotated and twisted into different positions to
offer four modes of use.
Rotating over an "Ezel Hinge", it supports a
"traditional notebook" mode, a "table top"
mode, a "display" mode and a "pad" mode.
The Ezel Hinge uses the R7's "dual hinge
technology" so the display can be moved around
into any position as it floats over the keyboard,
allowing users to work in various positions.
Acer said that it introduced this design because
customers were experiencing difficulty using
touchscreen laptops with fixed angles, as they
were awkward to use.
"Its flexibility viewing varies people to people so
the Ezel hinge means you can decide where the
most comfortable angle is for touch and type,"
Acer president Jim Wong said at the launch.
The display can be slid back behind the full-
sized backlit keyboard offering a traditional
notebook mode, or can be flipped over into a
standing position called "display" mode, which
Acer said is optimal for video playback.
The display can also be pulled down for "pad"
mode, where the touchscreen is laid on top of
the keyboard with the face up, like a tablet.
"With a proven dual-torque design, the screen
flips easily yet remains rigid when touched and
means it will stay put no matter how you
position it," Wong added.
On the inside the Aspire R7 has an Intel Core i5
processor with up to a rather sizable 12GB of
memory and a 1TB hard drive, though Acer said
that this can be upgraded to a 256GB SSD card
if you fancy swifter access to stored data.
The Aspire R7 offers a good range of
connectivity options including an HDMI-out
port, an SD card reader and three USB 3.0
ports, as well as WiFi, Bluetooth and a converter
port supporting VGA, RJ45 and USB.
Acer also made it a point to say that the Aspire
R7 has a volume control button, something we
weren't too surprised about. Check back soon
for our hands on review.
Acer continued to promote its "duality" tagline
as part of the announcement, saying that users
are looking to use both touch and type with
hardware to optimise the computing experience.
Acer's Aspire R7 notebook will see a worldwide
release of 14 May to coincide with the Star Trek
movie, which will hit cinema screens three days
later on 17 May. The Aspire R7 should cost
around £900 when it goes on sale in the UK,
Acer said. The film will cost a lot less. µ