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At a press event held today in New York, Acer unveiled the Aspire R7, a revolutionary 15.6-inch notebook that will redefine the touch and type computing experience. Featuring a Full HD 1920×1080 touch screen, the Acer R7 was made for the new computing lifestyle, which increasingly combines touching and typing. With a repositioned keyboard and a revolutionary “Ezel Hinge” that moves the display forward and into different positions, the R7 makes the combination of touching the screen and using the keyboard more intuitive and natural. Its ergonomic design allows users to explore and determine their own preferred way to interact with technology.

he Acer Aspire R7 was introduced today with other new products, including the Acer Aspire P3 Ultrabook, Acer Aspire V Series touch notebooks and Acer Iconia Android tablets. The new line of Acer mobile products highlights the company’s focus on redefining the computing experience through progressive design.

As Acer’s Exclusive Retail Partner, Best Buy Customers who Pre-Order Will Receive the new STAR TREK: THE VIDEO GAME for PC for Free
Available May 17th, consumers who place pre-orders with Best Buy between May 3 and May 16, 2013 will also receive a free download of STAR TREK: THE VIDEO GAME for PC as part of Acer’s marketing partnership campaign with Paramount for the upcoming film, “Star Trek Into Darkness,” opening on May 17, 2013.

The Acer Aspire R7 lets consumers transform their notebook into the shape that best delivers an immersive content experience based on their usage needs. With four modes of operation, the R7 can easily be used as a traditional notebook, a table top pad, a display, or switched into “Ezel” mode, allowing the screen to float over the keyboard at various angles. This allows users to work where they want and how they want — seated or standing, at a desk or with it on their lap. The Ezel Hinge makes it easy to switch the display around, to touch or type while creating, browsing or sharing content. Dual hinge technology allows for single-hand switching between modes and keeps the display rock-steady when touched.

1. Ezel Mode – Reach out and pull the display closer, eliminating the need to reach across the palm rest and keyboard to use the touch screen. Just pull it up and out where it can be positioned in front of the keyboard, or float over it. By pulling the display close, switching between touchscreen, keyboard and touchpad is seamless.
2. Notebook mode – Slide the display back behind the keyboard, and you have a powerful, full featured Windows 8 notebook computer with a 15.6-inch Full HD(1) 1920×1080 touchscreen display, an Intel Core i5 processor, 6GB of memory, a 500GB hard drive(2), a 24GB SSD(3) and a full-size backlit keyboard. It also includes a volume control button, HDMI port, SD card reader, audio jacks, three USB ports, WiFi, Bluetooth and a convenient converter port supporting VGA, RJ45 and USB.
3. Display Mode – Flip the screen over and it’s positioned perfectly for watching a movie, showing photos or giving a presentation. Sharing and collaborating is simple, enjoyable and straightforward. With Acer’s proven dual-torque design, the screen flips easily yet remains rigid when touched.
4. Pad Mode – Simply pull down the touchscreen and lay it on top of the keyboard with the face up, and the Aspire R7 morphs into a pad, without giving up the robust performance of a notebook. The ergonomic 4-degree tilting angle makes it perfect for browsing, writing or drawing. It’s ideal for pure touch interactions like casual gaming, browsing, drawing, annotating and more.

Premium Sound
Offering a superior audio visual experience, the R7’s powerful features and high-definition display are complemented by a premium sound system with Dolby Home Theater v4 and four 8 watt speakers. Because of its transformative design, the audio channels automatically reverse when switching modes, so sound is always perfect.

In addition, Acer also relocated the placement of the dual microphones from the traditional notebook layout. Instead of positioning them on the LCD bezel near the webcam, they are placed along the front of the notebook, just under the spacebar. This provides for the best voice sound quality, and enhances the aesthetics of the touchscreen by eliminating the need for holes in the bezel.

Premium Design
In a manner befitting its revolutionary design, the Aspire R7 includes a unibody aluminum chassis, a beautiful brushed metal hinge, and an arched cover with very subtle curves and lines. The bottom features a soft touch finish for a secure grip, making it easy to grasp and carry.
Even the keyboard placement was reconsidered in the new design. Repositioning it closer to the body in front of the chassis makes typing more comfortable and as efficient and as fluid as possible. The keys fall naturally under the fingers, eliminating the need to hold the arms out and over the palm rest and touch pad in order to type. The travel of the keys was also considered in the design, ensuring it is deep enough to provide a perceptible tactile response when typing, so that using the keyboard is just as enjoyable as touching the screen.

Availability and Pricing
Best Buy is Acer’s exclusive retail partner. The R7-571-6858 has a Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price of of $999.99 USD(4). It will be available in stores and online for shipping on May 17th. Pre-orders can be placed now at www.bestbuy.com. Additional models and specifications will be announced in the following weeks.

Acer brought a whole bunch of folks out to NYC for a global press conference and made sure the attending press got their money’s worth. In addition to outing the unique convertible R7, the company unveiled the Aspire P3 — its first convertible Windows 8 Ultrabook. The screen can be angled forward to use as a traditional (ish) laptop or completely folded down in slate mode. As you can see in the image, there’s even a place to clip on a stylus. Acer wasn’t too forthcoming with specs during the presentation, but we’ll be sure to dig up those specifics when we get our hands-on (which should be coming shortly).

Update: You’ll find impressions and specs after the break.

Filed under: Acer

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When it comes to Ultrabooks, there are dime a dozen models to choose from out there. Of course, the more expensive models would feature just pure SSD memory for the storage space, in addition to a high powered Core i7 processor from Intel with a fantastic looking chassis to boot, made out of nothing but premium material. Well, some of the more established names when it comes to the Ultrabook market would be Samsung, Lenovo, HP, Dell, and Acer, but with Gigabyte who is not so established, it is nice to see them make the jump into the Ultrabook market with the Gigabyte U2142. Thing is, the Gigabyte U2142 will not be any ordinary Ultrabook, as it is a convertible model with more than decent specifications located right underneath the hood.

For starters, the Gigabyte U2142 convertible Ultrabook would come with a multi-touch 11.6 “display to take advantage of the Windows 8 operating system, while sporting a dual storage system that would certainly mean far more storage space compared to just featuring an SSD alone. Another interesting aspect of the Gigabyte U2142 would be the swiveling hinge which allows you to turn it into a tablet as and when the situation calls for it. While this is not exactly the newest idea in the market, at least it offers you the flexibility of carrying both a tablet or an Ultrabook in a single device. Lenovo’s famous swiveling hinge has made its mark a long time ago, and to see a resemblance of it in a Gigabyte device, it is definitely interesting.

The Gigabyte U2142 would tip the scales at 1.39 kg, and measures 20mm thin, sporting the third generation Intel Core processor, with a display resolution of 1366 x 768 with multi-touch capabilities, a maximum RAM count of 16GB, and the choice of a SSD 256mSATA SSD and a 1TB HDD. Depending on the model that you pick, the Gigabyte U2142 would retail from €949 to €1,099 where its starting price is concerned.
[ Gigabyte U2142 convertible Ultrabook announced copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Toshiba is releasing “Dynabook KIRA V832″ – the first 13.3 inch WQHD LCD Monitor touch panel Ultrabook – on April 24.

The screen features a 3.7 million pixel (2,560×1,440) high-definition LCD, which is better than full HD display. The battery life is 9.5 hours long. Intel Core i5-3337U processor, 128GB SSD, 8GB RAM, and keyboard with backlight are built-in.

Price: open price
Size: 316 x 207 x 9.5-19.8 mm
Weight: 1.35 kg
OS: Windows 8 64bit

Take a stroll through the laptop section at Best Buy recently? If you have, you know Toshiba’s got a firm stronghold on the cheapie notebook market. The thing is, $400 systems don’t exactly offer high margins — a problem when people aren’t buying that many PCs to begin with. And besides, who wants to be known for shoddy build quality and ho-hum designs? Not Toshiba, anyway. The suits in Tokyo were so fed up with the company’s low-rent reputation that they decided to launch a premium line to prove Toshiba is indeed capable of making high-end machines. That line is called KIRA, though for now there’s just one product to speak of: the KIRAbook, a 13-inch ultraportable starting at $1,600.

For the money, you get a mix of modern design, top-shelf components and a whole lot of sucking-up from Toshiba’s technical support. Topping the list is a 2,560 x 1,440 display, making this the first Windows Ultrabook to sport such a high-res screen. (We’ve already seen similar panels on the Chromebook Pixel and the Retina display MacBooks.) Additionally, users receive two years of warranty coverage and a dedicated support line, with near-instant pick-up times and a US-based staff (something customers have been asking for, says Toshiba). Also included: full versions of Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 and Premiere Elements 11, along with 25GB of online storage and a two-year Norton subscription — something HP already bundles on select machines. The KIRAbook will be sold in the US, Japan and Australia, with prices ranging from $1,600 to $2,000. It’ll ship May 12th and go up for pre-order on May 3rd, but for now, we’ve got a detailed walk-through video waiting after the break, along with some early impressions. So come join us — because who doesn’t enjoy laptop porn?

Filed under: Laptops

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