Acer Aspire R11 R3-131T-P7HA Review

The Acer Aspire R11 is a small 11.6” convertible laptop that doesn’t wow in any particular category, but gets the job done.

Specs of the review model:

Microsoft Signature Edition
1366x768 HD touchscreen

Pentium N3700 processor

4GB RAM

500GB 5400RPM Hard-drive

The Hardware

The chassis of the Acer Aspire R11 Signature Edition is a rather muted baby blue plastic that doesn’t feel particularly inspired or snazzy. The off-centered Acer logo is nice as is the texture of the plastic. It feels surprisingly sturdy considering its looks. There is very minimal flex in any portion of the laptop. The bezel of the screen is quite thick, though when using the device in tablet mode it does provide ample grip so it isn’t all bad. The touchpad and keyboard are surprisingly nice and have a good feel.

The laptop has a good selection of ports for an 11.6 inch convertible. It has one USB 3.0 port along with full-sized HDMI, a USB 2.0 port, an SD card slot on the back of the device (not micro-SD like other convertibles in this class) and your standard AC power port on the right side and microphone/headphone jack. It also has a volume rocker and power button on the side in case you’re using it in tablet mode. The laptop is heavy for a small convertible. It weighs in at 3.3lbs, heavier than Lenovo and Toshiba’s 11.6 inch convertible offerings, but comparable to the HP Pavilion x360 11.6. Due to the large bezels and textured plastic, it doesn’t feel very heavy when in tablet mode at all.

PERFORMANCE

The Pentium 3700 processor has had mixed performance. When the device is running as it should, it opens web pages and documents with little to no delay. However, there seem to be driver issues. The cursor will randomly go off on its own while the laptop beeps, a problem that I have never seen before on any computer. Uninstalling and reinstalling driver updates from Windows Update and Acer Care Center seem to have alleviated these issues.

The 500GB HDD performs well in benchmarks, with around 110 Mbps of read and 105 Mbps of write speed, but it performs a bit slower than I’d expect. It seems to me that the driver issues on this laptop cause unnecessarily long load times and poor performance when things aren’t running smoothly. That said, when things are running fine, the drive performs well.

The audio from this laptop is good for an 11.6 inch convertible. While the quality might not be the best, the speakers get very loud and they are more than adequate for a laptop like this.

The Acer Aspire R11 is a good 11.6 inch convertible Windows 10 laptop that will perform well for students and people who just need a small computer for browsing the web and watching videos. Its performance is good when working correctly, though the driver issues have me concerned. Due to the software quirks unique to this laptop, I would recommend trying out comparable machines like the Toshiba Satellite Radius 11 and the HP Pavilion x360 before deciding on an 11.6” convertible. The hardware is durable, but the performance leaves something to be desired.

Verdict:

RECOMMENDED WITH CAUTION

You can find the Acer Aspire R11 we looked at here at the Microsoft Store (out of stock at the moment) and other configurations at the Acer Store:

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Acer-Aspire-R-11-R3-131T-P7HA-Signature-Edition-Laptop/productID.323774200

http://us-store.acer.com/aspire-r11-r3-131t-p344-touch-notebook

Staples USB 3.0 Flash Drive REVIEW

This is just a short review of the Staples USB 3.0 Flash Drive (16-128GB), which is currently on sale in all its data capacities at staples.com for very cheap (4.99 and up).

THE HARDWARE

The form factor of this Staples USB 3.0 flash drive is the same as its 2.0 variant - bulky and unattractive. It is an entirely plastic retractable design with a button in the center that snaps the USB back into its shell when you're done using it. The bulkiness can be an issue if you place it in a port that has another port right next to it - the drive may take up too much space for you to use ports that are too close. The plastic also warms up quite quickly when writing to the drive, but I haven't had any issues with that as of yet. When the device is working, it displays a red light that is bright, but not nearly as bright as it is in this photo.

PERFORMANCE

The drive performs extremely well for the rock-bottom price. In a write/read speed benchmark test, the drive showed 150 Mbps of read and 110 Mbps of write speed, which is great for such a cheap drive. By comparison, my PNY USB 2.0 micro flash drive has 20 Mbps of read and 4 Mbps of write speed, and my Toshiba Flash Drive Duo USB 3.0 drive has 90 Mbps of read and 10 Mbps of write speed. Despite the low price and unwieldy form-factor, the performance of the Staples USB 3.0 drive is quite good. Other drives, such as the PNY Turbo, will perform better, but are much more expensive and are intended for power users who need their flash drives to have the best performance possible. For everyday use, the Staples USB 3.0 drive is extremely affordable and fast! You can find all the variants (4.99 for 8GB, 5.99 for 16GB, 6.99 for 32GB, 9.99 for 64GB, 19.99 for 128GB) here:

http://www.staples.com/Staples-USB-3-0-Flash-Drive-Assorted-Capacities/product_SS4058492#/id=%27dropdown_1571989%27


Verdict:
RECOMMENDED

Acer Aspire V3-574-7481 REVIEW

The Acer Aspire V3 is a good midrange 15.6 inch multimedia laptop with decent specs for the price.

Specs of the review model:

1080p FHD 15.6'' non-touch matte display

Broadwell i7-5500U processor

Intel Integrated HD Graphics

8GB RAM

1TB 5400RPM Hard-drive

The Hardware

The chassis of the Acer Aspire V3 is good-looking compared to some competitors in this space. While it does have a lot of plastic elements, they aren’t overly glossed or obvious and the lid of the laptop had a metallic textured black surface. There is even a pattern in the metal that gives the laptop a little character amongst a field of business-like laptops with decent specs, including HP Pavilion and Toshiba Satellite L-series laptops. Like these laptops, it has a full size number pad with the keyboard and touchpad shifted to the left. The keyboard is decent, though it isn’t clicky, and the touchpad is surprisingly good with no issues. The Acer is around 5lbs and doesn’t feel too heavy for a laptop of its size.

One thing holding back the laptop from being a top performer is the 1TB 5400RPM HDD. While the drive is fairly snappy, the difference between even the fastest hard drive and a low-spec solid-state drive is immense. If you need a lot of local storage for games, photos and videos you’ll appreciate the spacious hard drive. However, boot times were good and the hard drive didn’t slow things down to an unacceptable level.

The laptop has a good selection of ports along with a DVD drive. It has two USB 3.0 ports on the left side of the laptop, with one of them being an Acer Sleep & Charge port, charging your phones and tablets very quickly even when the laptop is asleep. It also has an HDMI and VGA port beside the two USB 3.0 ports, as well as one USB 2.0 port on the right hand side for mice and other accessories compatible with USB 2.0. The charging port is also on the right hand side, as opposed to the left hand side as it is on most other laptops, which could either be helpful or annoying based on your home and office setup.

The i7-5500U processor and 8GB of RAM allow the Acer Aspire V3 to perform mid-range tasks admirably. Having multiple tabs open while streaming a video and editing Word documents are not a problem for this device. It can even handle some light video editing and mid-range gaming, with Rocket League, Civilization V and other games performing well with reduced settings at 720p resolution. Don’t expect to play Rise of the Tomb Raider or edit 4K video on here though.

The audio from this laptop is good, but not great. The Dolby Home Theater branded speakers are facing the bottom, which is unfortunate, and they don’t get quite as loud as you’d expect. The audio quality is good, with good bass. Other 15.6 inch midrange laptops, such as the Toshiba Satellite L-series with Skullcandy speakers, have better audio.

THE SOFTWARE

If you buy the Acer Aspire V3 from the Microsoft Store, you get a package of downloads from Intel, including photo and video editing software from Cyberlink and some games. It’s a nice edition and if this laptop was a gift for a high-school or college student, they would appreciate these additions. Since Microsoft sells “Signature Edition” machines, there won’t be any bloatware preinstalled other than Acers applications for updating device drivers. You will want to do this immediately.

We did experience an issue with the screen where it would turn green and flicker heavily for no apparent reason. It would sometimes fix itself with a restart, but the issue persisted until we uninstalled and reinstalled the Intel graphics driver. Since then, the laptop has had no driver issues.

The Acer Aspire V3 is a decent mid-range laptop that will perform well for students and others who don’t need to do graphics intensive work or play heavy-duty games. It’s good at multitasking, has a decent screen and keyboard, acceptable audio, and is light enough to carry around if necessary. At this price point you can get similar laptops from other manufacturers, and the one that’s right for you depends on your needs.

Verdict:

RECOMMENDED

You can find the Acer Aspire V3 we looked at here in this configuration, or with 6GB of RAM and a 500GB HDD with a touchscreen:

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Acer-Aspire-V3-Signature-Edition-Laptop/productID.326892300

HP Spectre x360 Review - Six Months Later

Introduction

The HP Spectre x360 is one of the best laptops on the market. After reading several reviews and browsing in-store, I decided on the Spectre x360 mainly due to the power you get for the price. For just over $1,000 (very slightly lower than the retail price), I was getting this configuration:

i7-5500U Broadwell processor
8GB RAM
256GB SSD
Full HD 1080p IPS display

Six months ago that was the best deal for such a thin and light laptop - the Lenovo Yoga Pro 3 was around the same price at the time, and that came with an underpowered core m processor and a much more limited port selection than the Spectre x360, though it was lighter and was equipped with a QHD 3200x1800 display. Having seen others experience scaling issues with such high resolutions in certain productivity applications (not including Office), I opted for the Full HD Spectre over its QHD option. I hoped that the Spectre x360 would last me many years of heavy use when I purchased it, so let's see how it's holding up...

The Hardware

I have had no issues with the hinge, and it feels exactly as it did when I purchased the device, allowing me to flip the Spectre into tablet mode with no issues. The hinge is a bit loose for my taste (it does wobble a bit when you use the touch screen without supporting the screen with your other hand) but since I don't like using the touch screen extensively when it's in laptop mode it isn't really an issue for me.

Like the hinge, the keyboard has held up perfectly well. It is an excellent keyboard, with no flex, and is one of the best you can find on a laptop. The trackpad is wide and awkward, but still functions very well and has shown no signs of wear. The IPS Full HD display is excellent, with great viewing angles and colors. It is a bit glossy though...

Despite a few bumps from everyday use, the Spectre x360 looks and functions pretty much as well as it did when I first took it out of the box. It is a bit of a fingerprint magnet, but those can be easily cleaned.

The Software

When I first purchased the Spectre, it ran Windows 8.1. Everything performed extremely well, except for the Wifi card. While it got great speeds while in the same room as the router, it performed rather poorly when farther away compared to other devices. This was definitely a driver issue.

The upgrade to Windows 10 made the situation much worse. Several times, the Wifi would simply stop responding, forcing a restart of the system before I could reconnect. Drivers downloaded through HP's driver utility often caused more problems than they resolved - sometimes the trackpad stopped working. However, the updates downloaded from HP in December and earlier this month seem to have resolved all of my issues. The wifi has performed very well, and there have been no issues with the trackpad after the latest Synaptics touchpad update.

Tablet mode isn't exactly a joy to use on this machine. While the slightly large bezels are good for providing a nice grip on the sides without accidentally touching the screen, the laptop is simply a bit too heavy for comfortable tablet use. Tablets definitely need to be lighter than 3.2 pounds to be comfortable. However, I have found uses for this mode while lounging on the couch or when I was on a cramped flight - I was able to play Civilization V and Beyond Earth in "Windows 8 touch mode" for several hours in tablet mode. Of course, more casual titles such as Sonic Dash from the Windows app store also function very well on the Spectre x360.

The Performance

The Spectre has been a great performer. I have been able to do several tasks at the same time with few to no slowdowns. The fan does come on occasionally, but the laptop never gets too hot. Casual and mid-range games run well on the Spectre, including Civilization V, which runs great at 720p and is playable at 1080p.

Boot times are almost instantaneous thanks to the SSD. The drive itself isn't the fastest, but it is a decent SSD with 550 Mbps of read and 280 Mbps of write speed. The 512GB SSD is definitely a faster option, but the smaller, slower SSDs will definitely suffice for general tasks.

Conclusion

The HP Spectre x360 (2015 Broadwell edition) was an excellent value at the time it came out. It has proven itself to be worth its cost with its versatility and power for the price. As a very light tablet user, the Spectre has essentially done everything I would use a tablet for. For others that may not be the case due to its weight and the awkwardness of having the keyboard on the backside of the tablet. If weight is an issue, the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro, Lenovo Yoga 900, and Toshiba Satellite Radius 12 are convertible laptops that are lighter (and in the Toshiba's case, smaller).

I give the Spectre x360 a very positive endorsement given how it has held up over months of fairly intense, everyday use. It is a top tier machine at a good price that will hopefully last for several years.

Verdict:

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Links:

You can find the Spectre I just discussed here:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-spectre-x360-2-in-1-13-3-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i7-8gb-memory-256gb-solid-state-drive-natural-silver/4221601.p?id=1219708600575&skuId=4221601

Of course it is now available with sixth generation Skylake processors:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-spectre-x360-2-in-1-13-3-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i7-8gb-memory-256gb-solid-state-drive-natural-silver/4351701.p?id=1219735412367&skuId=4351701
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/HP-Spectre-x360-13-Signature-Edition-2-in-1-PC-Intel-i7-6th-Gen/productID.323246400
http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/Laptops/hp-spectre-x360---13t-touch-laptop-m6w88av-1

You can find the comparable Lenovo Yoga 900 here:

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/yoga-laptop-series/yoga-900-13/#80MK0011US

And the Toshiba Satellite Radius 12 here (at a very good price of $799 for the 1080p version as well):

http://us.toshiba.com/computers/laptops/satellite/radius-12/P20W-CST3N01