Acer Aspire Switch 12. My first impressions now available.

Posted on 16 February 2015, Last updated on 13 August 2018 by

The Intel Core-M based, fanless, 2-in-1 $699 Acer Aspire Switch 12 has arrived for review and my first impressions, written as part of a full review for Notebookcheck, have been posted.

Acer Aspire Switch 12 is available.

Acer Aspire Switch 12 is available.

Update: The full review is now available. Go give Notebookcheck (and my review) some love!

Think about 2013-level Ultrabook performance with no fans, more flexibility and a good market-start price. The Acer Aspire Switch 12 weighs 1.1 KG…until you add the keyboard which takes you up to 1.4 KG. Because of the always-exposed screen Acer have done the right thing and provided a nice case but when you put the bundle together with the power supply you’re carrying over 2 KG. Despite the weight I like the Switch 12 for a couple of reasons. 1) It’s more stable on the lap than many other solutions because of the rear stand and mid-mounted screen. 2) It’s fanless and is returning performance scores well above what  you’ll find with Baytrail-based solutions. There’s also a fast SATA-connected SSD inside which makes this one of the cheapest full-HD 128GB SATA SSD solutions out there. Add AC WiFi, USB 3.0 and a good keyboard that can be pulled away from the unit and you’ve got a productive setup. Comparisons must be made to the Surface Pro 3, Lenovo Yoga 3 11 and the HP Envy 13 X2 which is even more hot-desking focused.

WP_20150216_09_59_15_Rich

Acer Aspire Switch 12 and Microsoft Surface Pro 3

 

A preliminary set of performance results, battery life figures, confirmation that there’s a digitizer and other information can be found over at Notebookcheck.net where I’ll be publishing the full review. Let me know if you’ve got any questions and I’ll try to get them answered in the full review.

10 Comments For This Post

  1. Tobbe says:

    Hi

    Could you please run Octane benchmarks in Chrome on the computer? I want to be able to compare the performance against Chromebooks, and an Octane score makes that easier :)

  2. Chippy says:

    Psst! 15625 – battery, balanced mode. 16500 mains, high power profile. How does that compare with a C720?

  3. Tobbe says:

    The 720 with an Intel Celeron 2955U scores approximately 11600, with an Intel Core i3 4005U it scores ~ 14600

    So the Core-M is about as fast as last generation mobile i3

  4. Chippy says:

    Yes. Something between i3 and i5 from Haswell generation.

  5. Tobbe says:

    Ohh, and thanks for the benchmark numbers!

  6. Tom says:

    I’m interested in the 10″ Dell Venue Pro with Core M. Anyone know when that’s coming out? Also, any hands on impressions anywhere?

  7. Tobbe says:

    Do you mean the Dell Venue Pro 11? (It has a 10.8″ screen.) It’s out already, and it’s getting pretty good reviews too!

    Here is one: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-Venue-11-Pro-7140-Convertible-Tablet-Review.133634.0.html

    (Here’s a Swedish review as well http://www.sweclockers.com/recension/19805-dell-venue-11-pro-flaktlos-surfplatta-med-intel-broadwell-y)

  8. Joe says:

    Dell is releasing a 10″ version: http://liliputing.com/2015/01/dell-venue-10-pro-2-1-windows-tablet-way.html

  9. Tobbe says:

    Yes, but not with a Core-M, it’ll have an Atom Z3735F. And Tom asked for a Core-M model :)

  10. tom says:

    Looks like Liliputing and Anandtech had an error and fixed it: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8974/dell-updates-education-solutions-with-new-chromebook-11-latitude-11-and-venue-1010-pro-offerings
    “Update: There was an error in the specs we received; this will not be Core M, but rather that will be the Venue 11 Pro. Sorry for the confusion.”

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