Acer Aspire R3-471T-54T1 Convertible Touchscreen R 14 Laptop Review

Acer Aspire R3-471T-54T1 Ultra Portable Convertible Touchscreen Laptop- R 14 Review

Certified Refurbished Acer Aspire R3-471T
via Amazon



Acer Aspire R3-471T-54T1 (or Aspire R 14) is a powerful ultra slim design convertible touchscreen laptop that can be used in four modes (moves between laptop, tablet, stand and tent around its 360 degree double torque hinge easily with a single hand) for different purposes- work or play, with a Haswell Intel i5 processor at up to 2.7GHz speed, generous storage space and memory and good number of connectivity options. This is a certified refurbished unit with probably no wear and tear and comes with a 90 day warranty by the manufacturer- that’s how you’re getting a much cheaper price, but don’t worry as the hardware is quite decent on this model and is solidly built.

Acer Aspire R 14 comes with a 4th generation Intel i5-4210U mobile processor (3MB L3 Cache) at 1.7 to 2.7GHz speeds with Intel Turbo Boost- dynamic extra power when needed (and energy efficiency when performing simple tasks) and hyper threading for dual-core and four-way processing, 6GB DDR3 SDRAM memory that is expandable up to 12GB- on one memory slot for reliable multitasking to smoothly run multiple browsers and apps, a very large 1TB Serial ATA hard drive at 5400rpm spindle speed (standard read/write times) to save lots of photos, songs, videos and ordinary files and Windows 8.1 64-bit operating system that seems to be quite all right to use with the touch display (or touchpad, keyboard or mouse) and the new Start screen with slightly different Start button will make your life easier than the ordinary Windows 8.

14 inch Active Matrix TFT Color LCD widescreen energy efficient LED backlit multi-touch display that supports 10-finger multiple gestures, with 1366x768 pixel resolution, 16:9 cinematic aspect ratio and Zero Air Gap technology to help reduce reflections for sharper and clearer images (better clarity and contrast) even in bright light or outdoors, uniting touch function and sight better than before (bonding touch to LCD) and image quality is good despite not being Full HD. Graphics card is the 4th generation on-processor Intel HD 4400 graphics that helps with good quality picture and is efficient at streaming videos while consuming less energy. This is not an advanced gaming machine by any means but performs OK overall, modern games at low and older games at higher settings and one of customers reported playing games like Trine 2, Sid Meyer Beyond Earth and Pinball FX2 smoothly and without delays. Acer Smart Audio that reverses instantly when you flip the screen over makes it interesting and you get to hear better sound in whatever position and sound quality is good via HD Audio and stereo speakers.

Acer Aspire R3-471T-54T1 Ultra Portable Convertible Touchscreen Laptop- R 14 Review
Silver Acer Aspire R3-471T weighs just 4.85 pounds and has the dimensions of 0.9 x 13.5 x 9.6 inches- relatively slim and lightweight (battery is a little heavy), compact and portable with the omitted DVD drive and a long battery life of up to 7-8 hours from its 4-cell 3560 mAh lithium ion battery, depending on how you use it. So it doesn’t come with a built-in optical drive but 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connectivity, Acer Nplify 802.11bgn wireless, Bluetooth 4.0 + HS, HDMI port with HDCP Support to connect to your HDTV or HD monitor, up to 10x faster USB 3.0 port with Power-off Charging, 2 x USB 2.0 ports, Memory Card Reader Secure Digital (SD) card, a 3.5mm combo headphone/speaker jack and a HD webcam with 1280 x 720 resolution and built-in digital microphone for teleconferencing with work colleagues or chatting with family and friends on Skype. Keyboard is functional with media control keys but not a separate 10-key numpad due to more compact size of the system and the touchpad is Acer’s Precision Touchpad that allows better navigation on Windows 8 screen and gesture recognition technology (it knows when there is a non-intentional contact).

Conclusion: Sleek finish Acer Aspire R3-471T-54T1 is a powerful, functional and versatile convertible 14 inch laptop that can be used in four modes as it can be easily flipped or moved around the dual-torque solid hinge- laptop, display, tent and tablet/pad. You’ll find a bit of adware and junkware that you will need to remove before starting to use it smoothly. We like that it works fast- offers snappy performance despite not having an SSD but a large 1024GB hard drive for saving multimedia files and decent amount of memory for multitasking, runs quietly and stays cool even after hours, has a good quality touchscreen but not FHD and not IPS display (IPS panels are expensive but the lack of it on a convertible multi-mode computer makes it hard to see at larger angles) and decent sound, wireless could have been the faster 802.11ac rather than the 802.11bgn but at this low price point you’re really getting heaps in terms of design, power, specs and features- it is much more than just an entry-level casual use laptop for only daily tasks. You get 1 month trial version of Microsoft Office 365, which you can choose to purchase when it expires if you will be needing Word, Excel and Power Point. One upgrade you may want to do would be the Solid State Drive- SSD (by ditching HDD) for even faster overall performance and boot-ups. It is a great convertible laptop that we highly recommend at this price level.

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