Having told you about the Swift and the Spin we come to last new model that was launched last November in Glasgow this is the Switch. While I would describe the Spin as a Notebook/Tablet this unit the Switch is a Tablet/Notebook.
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The Acer Aspire Switch Alpha 12 measures 29x20xjust over 1cm. and it weights 1275grams with the supplied keyboard attached and 909 grams without it.
The attachment is very magnetic and just presents the two parts close together and they click in place. While the keyboard is solid the Tablet part would need to be propped against something without the stand that flips open from the Tablet you then have a very useable Notebook.
The keyboard has 81 keys and the alpha keys are full size, there is .5cm clear to the left, right and behind the keyboard, the front has a 9cm area with the 9.5x5.5cm trackpad inserted 8cm from the left and 11cm from the right.
The screen back is silver grey everything else is various shaded of black with the screen being the shiniest. A webcam is centrally placed on the top of the landscape screen with a pair of speakers inset either side of the webcam; these speakers give far more volume than most other small Tablet offerings. The rear has a camera in the top right corner.
The screen prop goes through around 150 degrees and should stay at any point through that travel to suit you.
The left side has three buttons the largest in the middle for volume control, nearest the centre of the unit just above the hinge is a Windows button at towards the top the on/off button. The top has a pin hole microphone, while the connections are on the right side, 3.5mm socket for headphones, a full size USB3 port, a micro HDMI port and finally DC input.
Press the on/off button for three seconds and then nine seconds later – assuming you have not set any passwords – you are at the Desktop around 3.5seconds will turn it off from Desktop.
The unit I was sent has an Intel i3 processor with 4GB RAM and a 128GB SSD drive (119GB usable). When first used 22GB is taken by Windows 10 Home version 1607.
The viewable screen is 25.5x17cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 12inches with a display of 2160x1440. The screen supports 10 point touch and there is a stylus supplied for those into fine drawing etc.
In use I found I got between five and seven hours dependant on type of use Internet, watching video etc.
As mentioned above it can be used as a Notebook with the typeable keyboard attached and propped against something or open the hinge and use it anywhere with a flat surface.
However for me this is a Tablet first and the stylus provided allows those like me with stubby fingers to draw fine lines or access an exact screen area.
For anyone who spend their time out and about this could be for you with the supplied 284 gram keyboard there for writing those longer documents.
The Acer Switch Alpha 12 is available from Amazon for £483.59 with free delivery.
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