Acer Aspire S7-392 (Haswell) Owners Lounge

If it were just a question of consistently getting decent but not maximal performance, I could live with that. But not the disconnects and other driver flakiness (recall that I had to reboot in order to get that 8-9 mbps; on waking from sleep it was under 1).

I wonder if I've just got a lemon. I may try to exchange it before giving up, but it looks like many vendors have sold through their initial stock. Frustrating thing is that there really aren't any equivalent, much less superior options right now, IMO.

 

There's probably an issue with fresh drivers, given how long the 7260 has been out (I think less than a month.)

I mean, even the Amazon reviews aren't too stellar and there's people having issues on these forums.

Amazon.com: Intel Network 7260.HMWG WiFi Wireless-AC 7260 H/T Dual Band 2x2 AC+Bluetooth HMC: Computers & Accessories
http://forum.notebookreview.com/networking-wireless/716325-intel-7260-a-11.html

I got to about 6 hours on battery, but it was definitely under heavy load for a couple hours when I was using Lightroom. Again, by no means a scientific (or arguably useful) measurement. :x Hopefully official reviews will come out soon to give you a better idea on that front.

 

Hey, I am thinking of possibly getting the S7-392-6832, which says it has 128GB SSD in Raid 0. Was wondering if there's an option to disable the RAID and get 2 separate drives. Also wondering if it's possible to take them out and replace them with other drives.

 

Neither..first there is no option in the BIOS to turn raid 0 off and I'm told they can't be upgraded as they are in a proprietary format (two drives on one chip) which you can't just buy easily. You can google it and find pics of what it looks like.

 

Does this have the AC version of this card or the N version?

 

Really, that seems surprising and disappointing to me According to a post on the Acer support forums, on the S7 391s you could disable the RAID on those.

Based on this support article: Acer Support - Answers, E-Mail, Chat - Reinstall Windows on the Aspire S7-191 on the s7 191 seems you could change from UEFI bios to Legacy bios and that opened
up more config options. Is that option no longer there on the 392?

EDIT:
Ah, I was being silly anyway. If you disable a 128GB RAID0, you're going to get 2 64GB drives, not 2 128GB drives, what I wanted was more storage. And looks like if I want more storage there's a $300 - $400 price difference :/

 

Sorry if someone already answered this question here but with this model, is there room to add an SSD in addition to the 1tb it comes with?

 

I had the S7-191 for awhile and am thinking of getting it again now that you can buy them for about $650. I really had no issues with it when I bought it for $1120 other than the non-dedicated PF key set. It was a super fast pc and as long as you accept you are going to get limited battery life it is really a great one for travel.

 

Wrong forum. These come with 128GB or 256GB SSDs.

 

Well, the fact that the S7-392 has HD4400 is something I am not thrilled about, and I've only come to be accepting of getting something with HD4400 because I've been looking for weeks with something with nvidia, and everything is either too heavy or has crappy screens (or a combination of the two). Not willing to go as low as HD4000, though.

I guess I still have other questions, though. I'd like to dual boot, and I am wondering whether the recovery disk you have to create to be able to reinstall windows handles reinstalling on a different size partition fine. I've never actually tried to use Acer recovery media before.

Also, I'd like to make sure there's not something going on that would prevent me from being able to partition the drives so that I can dual boot.

I'd also like confirmation as to whether there is a Legacy BIOS option as the s7 391 had to be able to change more configuration options there.

Thanks

 

Aspire S7-392 optional external battery compatibility

somewhat disappointing

and i'm also wondering about doing clean install, 1. can you undo raid, 2. which partitions does it come with and which can be removed?

 

Why would you want to undo raid? If you can and I'm not sure on these you will end up with either two 64GB or two 128GB slower disks, what's the point? This is what you have, two SSDs on a single card in a proprietary format. There is really nothing you can do with it so you are better off leaving it in raid where the performance is outstanding.

 

i'm worried about linux support. also, it might be cool to have windows on one 64 and linux on the other.

since when can raid 0 split into two slower discs of the same size?? that's raid 1 afaik

 

Well, for one thing, it would be a nice thing to know whether the flexibility is there or not. I personally prefer to have separate drives for dual booting.

There are also other good reasons for wanting to know if you can go to a legacy BIOS mode, because some operating systems don't play nicely with UEFI.

 

You could always split them. One is two disks with striping (raid 0) and the other is two mirrored disks (raid 1). In both cases there are two disks only you get the total of the two with raid 0 and only half of the total space with raid 1. Of course you have to reformat raid 0 disks to make them usable as two standalone drives which you wouldn't have to do with raid 1.

 

I currently own the laptop but this is my first ultrabook. I'm moving from a Sager NP9130 that has excellent key travel. I find that my style of typing leads to missed keys (I move my fingers quickly across the keyboard). On the Sony Vaio Pro 13, however, this doesn't occur. I'm not sure if I've been spoiled (since I also use a Cherry MX Blue mechanical keyboard at home) with keyboards with better tactile response.

Is the keyboard on this laptop standard for ultrabooks or subpar? I know the S7-391 model had a horrible keyboard and the travel has been improved in this year's model but I still get typos. Is it just something that users get used to after using an ultrabook for an extended period of time?

My two options are to either keep this laptop or return it and get a Sony Vaio Pro. Which would you guys pick?

 

Hi guys,

I'm going to pursue a demanding masters in Australia and am looking to buy a haswell ultrabook within the next month.

My options are: acer aspire s7-392, samsung ativ book 9 plus, asus zenbook infinity (All windows 8, not a mac fan)

I'm really interested in the acer s7 as it is already out and should be more available in the following month. I don't want to wait longer than till the end of August to purchase an ultrabook. My budget is about 1500 USD.

What i require is the following:

1. Good travel on keyboard
2. Quick startup and basic microsoft/adobe acrobat applications for my thesis and any related internet work
3. good screen resolution (1080p or higher as i will be reading many journals)
4. decent battery life

Would you recommend buying the s7-392 after using it over the last couple weeks or do you think i wait it out for the zenbook infinity or samsung ativ book 9plus. My issues with higher resolution screens is that of scaling and i feel like windows 8 will have issues with high res screens currently and thats why samsung and asus are holding out a bit. Also the higher the screen res, i guess battery life will also be compromised. Im happy with a 1080p display.

 

None of the really thin ultrabooks have good travel on the keyboard for obvious reasons. They say the S7 is slightly improved over their first version. Anything with a SSD will boot very fast (less then 10 seconds) and come out of sleep in about 2 seconds. All the Haswells have good battery life and the screen is up to you. All the touch screens will be glossy and non touch may be matte although you won't find a haswell non touch. Windows 8.1 is supposed to scale much better than anything currently available.

 

is it THIS FAST at resuming??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=rNLNXGcXkss&t=533

linked at time 8:53

 

I see Amazon has dropped the price of the i7/256 version by about $100 tonight.

 

I read in an amazon review that they've switched to the synaptics touchpad. Can you tell me if the driver has the option to enable "edge scrolling" which is available in the Sony Pro 13 synaptics driver? Previous model was Elan, I think, and it was not an option. This is very important (for my wife). Thanks!

 

According to Acer's website, it says the S7 can come with a WQHD display. Anyone know if this is available yet, and if so where? All I've seen so far are 1920x1080 screens.

 

Does anyone know where i can get a full comprehensive review of the acer aspire s7-392?

The youtube vids are all poor and very brief. The relevant ones are not in english.

Can an owner of the s7-392 please upload and post a link

Cheers!

 

I just tried this just now and I actually didn't know about this feature until you mentioned it. To my surprise it is enabled by default. And YES, the new synaptics touchpad works great with my Acer s7 392-9460 (256gb ssd / 8gb ram). right "edge scrolling" works great . No problems with it so far. Although I still need to get used to windows 8 some more. but i'm getting the hang of using the touchpad to navigate around windows 8 its getting quite easier now.

 

I just got mine yesterday through the Microsoft store in costa mesa. Thank you accidental damage insurance! $199 was sooo worth it! My previous laptop was the Samsung series 9 13" (2012 version) ultrabook with 128gb/4gbram I loved that laptop it was small, gorgeous build, crazy light, and great matte display (I love the screen on that one it was gorgeous and easy on the eyes!). but it just broke on me. I dinged a small scratch to the left hinge on that computer, at first I thought it was nothing serious since its only a small scratch. But it suddenly showed symptoms slowly progressing: keys slowly became non-functioning one by one over a few days and then suddenly it just died and it won't power up. That made me think twice about the reliability of the Samsungs so I opted not to wait for the haswell version of the Ative Book 9 plus since the main architecture of the body is pretty much the same.

So I am eligible now to claim for a new computer of same value or you could opt for a more expensive and just pay the difference (FYI- if you opt out and get something of lesser value they won't pay the difference, so get something equal or more). I was approved for the claim late april 30th. I was thinking GREAT I can wait for the haswell computers! But they had this weird policy at microsoft store that you should use the claim within 30days of approval of the claim, so it was may 29 for me as deadline or else they'll consider it as abandonment. I was surprised with this news but thanks to Frank he understood my situation and patiently he worked with the insurance company to extend my claim. So with that issue fixed I just waited for the release dates for the new laptops.

Sony vaio pro 13 came out first and in the Microsoft store by june30th, thanks to Frank I knew about this info and went there to take a look at it. That computer is insanely light! And is actually well built even though there really are flexing on the architecture. Although it made me think about the keyboard flexing which might not be good if you type like a gorilla because the motherboard and components are right under. But overall, I believe the overall architecture of the vaio pro is solid. Also, the keyboard surprises me of how much travel it has (better than my Samsung series 9 and much better than this Acer s7 392-9460). The display has great colors and viewing angles. But I think its a little dark but not dark dark and is quite reflective (Maybe I was just spoiled with the matte display of the series 9, I prefer matte screens its so easy on the eyes), another con for me for the vaio pro 13 is that the hinge doesn't allow to be opened as much as I would like. I would've liked a 256 gb version as well but they only had the 128gb version available then(the sony vaio pro13 on Microsoft store online has it posted already for $1799 on 256gb/8gbram). Overall I liked the sony vaio pro 13 and I would've bought it had the acer s7 392 had not been unveiled at computex aswell.

(if you guys wanna know more about the sony vaio pro 13, go visit Lisa Gade at mobiletechreview, I've seen lots of her reviews and she is now my favorite reviewer. She is very thorough and neutral. here's a link to her sony vaio pro 13 review Sony Vaio Pro 13 Review - Ultrabook Reviews by MobileTechReview)

Comes July 16 or maybe 17, I forgot, haha. Acer s7 392-9460 was posted at the online Microsoftstore! Called Frank, it was his day-off, but I spoke with Jason. So I find out that they don't have those in-stock yet and they don't know when or if they actually will have those acers instock (I think online and physical stores have separate stock inventory). But thanks to Jason he was able to order online to have it specially delivered by the end of the month to their physical store in Costa Mesa so I can purchase it with the insurance coverage.

End of the month of july comes, I called to confirm if it has arrived and Frank told me it has. So drove there trying to beat the clock since I have work at 3pm. Bam! 405South traffic due to an accident (I know it was an accident because the tow truck is just a few cars infront of me with emergency lights blinking. Anyways once I got there at South Coast Plaza, went in to the Microsoft store and finally got to see Frank and thank him in person for him being patient with me. He went to the back room as I waited right inside their store browsing the sony vaio pro 13 and the sony duo 13. the duo 13 looks great by the way. The hinge mechanism has been improved and the keyboard layout has improved a little also. Then Frank came out and has my computer in the box. As he was approaching, I have to say i'm relieved I finally get to have a better computer as I've been using an older laptop (again maybe I was just spoiled by my Samsung series 9 with a boot up of 12seconds)to compensate for waiting for the haswell. He then led me to Lizzy to finalize the purchase. I was in a hurry but it was great that she was able to do it very quickly. And Yes, I got insurance again just to be safe. Drove home with the computer in this cool looking Microsoft shopping bag. haha got home left the bag on my bed then got ready for work all without being able to open my new computer. haha which is okay since I wasn't late for work. So far loving this ultrabook. I will write my take on this computer when I get a chance.

(FYI for the important stuff- I was worried initially since the acer has the same intel wifi as the sony vaio pro 13, which I've read people have had bad experiences. So the first thing I tested was the wifi. But to my surprise with my testings, NO wifi problems for my acer s7 392-9460 13"- good range with no disconnects, and have constant downspeed of 21mbps). CHEERS!

 

I just took the plunge and bought . I had been waiting for the Samsung 9+ but gave up especially after the Amazon pre- order listing was removed yesterday from their site. I get it Monday.

Can anyone help me understand Amazon's return policy? I think I have 30 days but if I try it and don't like it will I be subjected to a re-stocking fee?

 

bigburp - I also just got this computer about 2days ago and i can tell you that I've adjusted on my typing. you have to understand these ultrabooks have little to no key travel by design. so you have to adjust your typing habits a little bit. A friend of mine has the acers7 391 and yes you are right that the keyboard travel on that thing is horrible. My first ultrabook was the Samsung series 9 and i adjusted really slow at first on that as i am used to using normal keyboards and old laptop keyboards(i used to punch those keys with so much force). But after a few work days with the series 9 i was able to adjust my typing habits by just simply smooth typing. You are right though that the sony vaio pro 13 has superior keyboard travel. If i was going to rate the keyboard the best would be sony vaio pro 13, followed by acer s7 392, then Samsung series 9 and the last year s7 391 will come last. I recommend that you try to use your computer for a few work days and really try to adapt. And if you still can't adapt to the keyboard for work purposes then you should opt-out and get the sony vaio pro 13 instead if you think you can work with that keyboard better. But so far i'm loving the increased travel of the keyboards.

 

Amazon has never charged me a restocking fee and in fact refunded my shipping charges as well and of course they also pay the return shipping themselves. They have an official policy that may say something different but I have bought and returned at least 7 or 8 different laptops and my experience has always been the same. It is the reason I will only buy from either Amazon or BestBuy which is pretty just as easy to deal with.

 

Huh. Every time I've ever returned something to Amazon, the only time they've picked up the return shipping is if the item was defective--for non-defective returns that weren't shipped because of their error, they made me pay return shipping.

Their stated policy is worded pretty vaguely, but seems to allow them to charge 15% restocking for non-defective computer returns--though it does not surprise me that they may waive this especially for high-demand items they can easily resell as open box.

One thing to watch out for: I have heard anecdotal stories that Amazon has occasionally canceled the accounts of users whom they deem to be returning too much stuff. It's not certain what "too much" means and this certainly isn't publicized in their policies, but if you Google "amazon too many returns" you'll see more info. The hidden effect of this is losing access to Kindle and other digital content associated with your account.

 

Anyone know anything about the square trade insurance policy amazon touts? It's pretty damn pricey at like 300+, but the insurance policy for the next lowest tier 1250-1500 (?) is 181. Since this laptop is 1550, what would happen if I bought the cheaper policy?
Thanks.

 

Does the model (Acer Aspire S7-392-9460) from the Microsoft Store carry a standard 2 year warranty? The model Amazon (Acer Aspire S7-392-9890) sells does.

 

Thanks, I use the edge scroll more often than 2 finger scroll. I like the swirl feature too... it helps not having to pick up the finger when scrolling long pages.

 

i'm not sure as i am not home yet. i'll check it out when I get home later. the insurance I got from Microsoft $199 covers accidental damage from spills and drops. I believe this also extend's the manufacturer's warranty for an additional 2years. i will confirm it later when i get home. go visit a nearby Microsoft store at your home. oh and i haven't tried purchasing through amazon yet so i can't comment on them.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=rNLNXGcXkss&t=533

Linked at time 8:53

Does the s7 wake from sleep as fast as this VAIO pro 13? This wake time in the video is incredible

 

Does anyone know anything of European launchdate for this? Cant find anything anywhere

 

@msterling21 - just got home checked my warranties and insurance. FIRSTLY, this is important from my understanding of the Microsoft complete for laptops 2 year plan insurance, Acer covers 1 year parts and labor for their devices. SECOND, from what I can understand from the terms and conditions of the Microsoft complete for laptops 2year plan insurance is that their plan is SOMEWHAT an extended warranty. BUT, this is a big BUT, if hardware failure happens during the Acer warranty (1 year) due to normal wear and tear"NOT ACCIDENTAL DAMAGE" you will have to use Acer warranty not the Microsoft complete warranty. So from my vague understanding of the terms the Microsoft complete warranty covers accidental damage for 2years upon purchase of the device. Then it picks up where Acer's warranty ends for another year for parts and labor.

here's a link of the terms and conditions start from page http://www.microsoftstore.com/terms and let me know on how you interpret this as i'm a bit confused if the accidental damage would only start after the manufacturer's warranty.

 

@jcarrz1 - I've only had my acer s7 for 2 days and when i saw this video i was amazed at how fast the sony vpro 13 is. I tried it with my acer and bam! no biggie, i guess acer has rapid wake technology too.

see this video: View My Video

 

@kroskal - i read on a site it should ship in the U.K. by the end of September. See this site: Acer Aspire S7 touchscreen ultrabook hitting the UK in September

 

Maybe that's because there is always something wrong with every PC and I do mention that in my returns. Again, they have never charged me a restocking fee or shipping on returns and have refunding the initial shipping charges as well.

 

Fair enough, but that's an important distinction for anyone who's expecting to return an item to Amazon without identifying a defect beyond "I didn't like it."

 

Thanks for checking. Speaking of the standard warranty. The answer was on Acer's own website. The Amazon model does come with 2 years and Microsoft Store does not... just 1.

Acer | Limited Warranty

Ultra-thins, Netbooks & Chromebooks
Consumer & Commercial
One-year limited warranty.
Two-year limited warranty for the following model(s): S7-392-9890, V5-122P-0649

 

Old model, web page is from 2012

 

I have finally settled on this laptop after a month of wrestling between the Sony Vaio Pro 13 and the Acer Aspire S7-392. I love this device. Do any owners have any suggestions as to what protection to use with this laptop? Or are you just using the leather case that Acer provides in the packaging?

 

does anyone have new battery life estimates? I'm especially looking for low-end estimates, how practical is this to use for an entire day without carrying charger?

 

@msterling21- you're welcome man. I just read the link to acer's warranty. thanks for pointing out that the Microsoft models come with only one year. kinda weird having one year only for the Microsoft models. That's why I got the insurance to try to make it to atleast 2years anyways. Have you decided where you are going to get your acer s7?

 

@jcarrz21 - from my estimates I've been surprised with haswell so far. 7hours is routine for this notebook (with wifi-bluetooth, autobrightness). I've been estimating 12-14%/hour with normal to heavy usage (tested with Netflix videos). FYI- I did not tinker with the power management that it came with my Microsoft version.

 

@falconxp- oops didn't see that. but try this one. can't find a specific release date for European models yet. but there's a guesstimate here's a link: Acer Aspire S7-392, an Ultrabook to Shame All Others

 

@bigburpsx3- good choice. me too I chose this over the sony vaio pro 13 with no regrets at all. I would've chosen the sony vaio pro 13 if acer had not unveiled this at computex as well with new changes that addressed: increase battery life, increased keyboard travel, repositioned the power button, 8gb ram standard, and the quieter fan. Just goes to show you that acer is atleast listening to their customers.

For now I've just been using the case that it came with. overall the quality of the case is elegant and clean. I would've liked a magnetic lock but the Velcro works just as great.

 

Hi all,

Does anyone know what the difference is between the Amazon model (S7-392-9890) and the Microsoft Store (S7-392-9460) is? The specs look identical to me. Perhaps the warranty differences that have been pointed out earlier are the reasons for different model numbers?

Thank you!

 

My guess is that they're the same. S7-392-9460 seems like a B&M sku, they want stores to make money by selling their own warranty. S7-392-9890 is an online sku, they want online shoppers to have confidence in their product. Also, because online stores have terrible return policies (restocking fee). Instead of returning it, you have to go through Acer warranty to fix any issues. I remember buying a Sony Z series laptop on Amazon in 2008, they wouldn't take it back for a dead pixel. They referred me to Sony to get it repaired under warranty.

If you click on the "buy" link for the 9460, it's unavailable online (except for the Microsoft Store)
Acer | Aspire S7 | S7-392-9460 | Overview

If you click on the "buy" link for the 9890, it's available online
Acer | Aspire S7 | S7-392-9890 | Overview

Just a guess.