Acer Aspire R7 with Haswell and Active Digitizer--first impressions and discussion

Welcome aboard. Yes, the R7 is a lovely and unloved machine. I stopped by my local Bestbuy the other day and they were no longer even displaying one. Sad since it is one of the best 15 inchers you can buy for the money. I think Acer just hasn't been able to overcome their "cheap crap" stigma in people's minds. That and the fact that Bestbuy employees seem trained to tell you Acer is crap. I had 3 different computer department personnel tell me that when looking at the R7 pre-purchase. A shame as they clearly are uninformed.

I do wish that they had gone with maybe some lighter materials in building this to take some of the weight off. It simply cannot be used as a tablet for holding. But as a flexible laptop with stylus support for this price it simply is unbeatable.

 

I'm still amazed that such an all round fantastic device (there is simply no level at which it fails and many at which it excels) seems to have been such a complete fail in the marketplace. I suppose a complete lack of advertising may have to do with it. Also BestBuy idiots telling customers Acer sucks (yes, on many devices it does, but they got this one RIGHT).

When the Surface Pro 3 was announced I was considering selling this and picking one up, but then to test it, I put the screen on my R7 at 100% zoom (instead of 125% default) and opened my database form. As fate would have it, the diagonal on my form was about 12 inches, same as on the SP3 and let me tell you text was so small I could barely read it. My form fits PERFECTLY on the R7.

IMHO, 13.3 inches is the MINIMUM acceptable size for a serious business machine.

The ONLY negative IMHO of the R7 is that it is heavy. Actually quite a bit heavier than it needed to be but they decided to go with a heavy duty construction rather than cheap this plastic as on the Sony Flip. Tradeoffs I guess.

 

Since the announcement of the Surface Pro 3 reignited the N-Trig vs. Wacom wars, I've spent more time with my Acer and I've got to agree with you @mitchellvii. The R7-572 really is a great machine.

Up until yesterday, I had been using it with a Sony Active Pen, but I ordered an Acer stylus to compare to the SP3's and Sony's. The pen is much smaller than I prefer, but the nib is softer than the Sony, so writing and drawing on the Acer screen is much less slippery. The SP3 pen is a bit softer still and Microsoft and N-Trig are working on a tip that they hope approximates the soft nibs from Wacom.

 

Yes, I was messing with some other tablets and using my Note 3 mostly to surf the web for about a week and didn't touch the R7. The other day I needed to get some real work done and opened it up again. Really was amazed at how fully functional it is compared to other things I have used. No, it's not a laptop that can be a tablet, it's a laptop that can be a really flexible laptop.

Like the SP3 but 12 inches is still going to be too small for my requirements.

** Surprisingly I just use my old HTC View pen on my R7 and it works very well.

 

Anyone facing this problem?
The screen (or the active stylus) seams to be sinking only in a too short distance range. Less the half a cm from the screen! This makes it impossible to write on the hand write panel... or anywhere else without "clicking" with the side of my hand by accident. Should't the screen deactivate my hand when the pen is close to the screen? Is there a correct hand position so as the r7 "know" you are using a pen?
I try to write on the handwrite panel but it's like it tries immediately to insert the first line I've just drawn.
Help please : (

 

how do you replace the nib on the acer stylus?

 

Assuming you have found a replacement nib (I don't think Acer sells them), you just pull on it with your thumb and index finger. You may need to tap gently on a surface to seat the replacement nib firmly into place.

 

This is very similar to user turbo87's issue (on page 34 and 35 of this thread):

This happens to me too with my htc pen. However, if I move the OSK handwriting panel to the top of the screen it works fine. But in the default spot (bottom center) if I write on its top line then weird things happen (mostly it seems to auto hit Insert the moment the pen is raised from the screen). However if I write on the 2nd line, or move the panel up then it works fine.

So far, only people with non-Acer pens have commented on this. Does anyone else have this problem - especially with the Acer pen?

 

I cant pull it. It seams that it's stuck to the pen.. so.. must it not be replaceable?

 

It seamed to fix itself.. maybe after I installed the Portuguese handwriting language.
Is there any way to configure the panel? like it was on win7 (distance, write speed, ink thickness, etc.)?? Maybe the answer is there.