Acer Aspire R7 (R7-571 / R7-571G)

100% of the reviews on Amazon.co.uk give this product a positive rating.

performance, screen, usability, portability, design

touchpad

87% of the reviews on Amazon.com give this product a positive rating.

Whether the Acer Aspire R7 is really going to prove a handy melding of laptop, desktop and tablet will only be revealed after prolonged real-life use. But the first impressions it leaves are positive. Clear thought has gone into its design and...

Original concept ; Genuinely works ; Good specs ; Strong build

It's heavy! ; Low-travel keyboard

All things considered Acer is to be applauded for offering a different take on the laptop experience. Here there's a concerted and genuine attempt to be open, to embrace those that want a laptop, but to make it easy for people to use touchscreens. Part...

The Acer Aspire R7 is an innovative and powerful laptop that is completely geared up for touch. From our limited time with the notebook, we have to admit that we were impressed with it, but it has a couple of quirks that could be considered as flaws...

If all that doesn't sound 'too' space-age for you, keep your eyes on MSN Tech as we'll feature the Acer Aspire R7 in a future laptop roundup.

The Aspire R7 offers a fresh and innovative design in the Windows 8 laptop market and in our short experience with it, we found it fun to use with fast and responsive performance, albeit a few flaws such as the stiffness of the Ezel Hinge.

Good screen ; Well built ; Good overall performance

Touchpad location ; Keyboard isn't great ; Lacks a palm rest

Acer's Aspire R7 challenges the concept of conventional notebook layout by placing the touchpad above the keyboard. Ultimately, it's what makes the R7 so hard to get used to, even after prolonged usage. We like its screen though, and the Ezel hinge...

Innovative design, well-built ; Bright 1080p display ; Good specs for the money

Cramped keyboard, awkwardly placed touchpad ; Unimpressive battery life ; Relatively heavy ; Only one configuration right now

The Acer Aspire R7 is a unique take on the Windows 8 laptop, with an adjustable display and an attractive hinge design. And, at $1,000, it's also a pretty good deal.

Giving credit where it's due, though, the backlit keys at least have a pleasantly soft finish, and feel nice to type on. But all these things are trade-offs, right? In exchange for the squat keyboard you get a display with truly adjustable screen...

Lovely 1,920-by-1,080 resolution display is improved with N-Trig DuoSense technology and stylus support. Sound quality is surprisingly good. Hard drive offers 1TB of storage.

Performance, though improved over its predecessor, is not spectacular. Experimental design still fizzles out.

Acer has taken a step to fix this, including a foldable palmrest pad with the R7-572-6423 that can be set just in front of the keyboard to replace the missing palmrest. It sort of works, but the fact that an accessory has to be included to provide...