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
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:
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