This was by far the best review I have read on this particular product, which I finally ordered (Best Buy marketplace). My comments do not add more in the way of professional evaluation, but are instead offered to supplement Bernie's excellent review from the perspective of a "tech-savvy" customer who has owned a few laptops in his time and has used this one for a few days.
The first thing that impressed me about this system right out of the box was the exceptional build quality - from the graphite exterior which feels more like metal than plastic to the touch, to the perfectly-calibrated metal hinges. The next thing on the impression scale is it's sheer simplicity. There is nothing loud about this laptop - it's flat graphite color and simple lines may not provide extension of individual expression (unless one is similarly staid), but certainly suggest an understated elegance.
The keyboard seems to have been an issue in the review. In my opinion, the keyboard, frankly, is just fine. While the key travel is short, it is uniform, even and definite. Each of these letters I am typing in this review offer a solid - yet perhaps ever-so-slightly soft - click-like feedback. In that sense, hitting a key is a "binary" experience; there is nothing vague or disappointing in my typing experience. The rigid structure of the laptop means there is absolutely no yield or flex to the keyboard deck itself. A fledgling touch-typist, I like that the touch pad is completely out of the way of my wrists, and so no errant input from Synaptics muddies my work (as would so often happen with my VAIO). I also like the tactile nubs on the home keys (F and J) - I've used other keyboards where I could barely feel them.
The screen certainly seems bright enough - in fact it is so bright and sharp that I am fine with all icons set to small. Some users have increased the desktop size to 125%, but with my reasonably decent (corrected) vision, I find 100%/small is perfect.
A note about lid flex - and this is not a controlled study, of course - but if I hold the base of the laptop firm on a table, and push at either corner of the screen from 30 degrees open to fully open (about 160 degrees) and back, there seems almost negligible distortion of the screen frame, and no disruption or distortion of the image on the screen. Closing the lid, there is a point-of-no-return at about 20-30 degrees at which the lid gently snaps closed. Movement is smooth and there is just the right amount of tension. That speaks not only to the rigidity of the frame, but to the hinges, which seems solid and well-calibrated.
I understand that Bernie and NotebookCheck have a wealth of comparative perspectives that I simply do not have. But having owned a Dell Latitude, and IBM T40 ThinkPad, and most recently (and regretfully) a VAIO EB-series 15.4" notebook, I can definitely state that this is by far the best one of the bunch in terms of quality, snap and speed, and form factor.
My 256 SSD drive holds, in addition to Windows 7 Pro, a full Microsoft Home and Business Office Suite, a creative suite by Adobe including Photoshop, LightRoom, Encore and Premiere, and various other smaller programs that I have installed. That fills the SSD to only 68.3 GB, leaving an additional 140 GB available - and more should I decide to delete the recovery partition. There is a bay that allows for another drive, and I am aware of one owner who has already added another SSD. Using Revo Uninstaller, I purged from the system all pre-installed McAfee and Norton software, EverNote (I have MS OneNote), NewsExpresso, and Windows Live. That said, bloatware was really minimal. I have installed ESET (Nod 32) antivirus, and most of my important data files are either on a NAS at home or in the cloud. I will be adding a scheme to Retrospect (my backup program) to add the Travelmate to my nightly backups for those few data files that stay on the system (local projects, music and pictures, Outlook pst files). I also use a Microsoft bluetooth mouse (5000) and sometimes use a Logitech K810 bluetooth keyboard (a hold-over from my VAIO, in which the chicklet keyboard WAS vague and generally unpleasant). Bluetooth connections to these peripherals are seamless and keep my USB ports available, but I had to visit the bluetooth radio in Device Manager and disable the option for power management.
The Acer Travelmate P645 has managed to tick all my boxes: Windows 7 Professional, FHD screen, back-lit keyboard, Bluetooth, at least three USB ports and an HDMI-out, a quality dedicated graphics card, Haswell processor, 8 GB expandable dual-channel RAM, and compact 14" form factor. I did not expect many of those details to exceed expectations - especially at this price (2 GB on the graphics card, all USB ports meeting 3.0 standards, 256 vs 128 GB drive, etc). And I certainly did not have a solid state drive on my list, expecting that my price point would preclude that option. But having experienced SSD over the past few days, suspect I'll never go back to HDD again.
A final point - and this pertains to the overall score. I respect Bernie's perspectives, and frankly think his formulaic approach is the best I've seen on the net. But I still disagree that this is an "81%" product. Even with the negatives acknowledged - and perhaps we may disagree on the keyboard - the 81% score seems to reflect a disconnect from what is a solid, well-designed product that is an unusually good value. I feel unqualified to suggest a score, since the parameters that determine that score are so precisely defined here. But looking back at school, an 81% is barely a B, and most would call it a B-. If I were to grade this system, I would add at least ten percentage points and place this comfortably in "A" territory.
In all, it's not as "pretty" as my VAIO was. But it seems more refined, mature and elegant - and the solid steel hinges offer a stylistic accent against the graphite black. At the local coffee shop, the stylish and colorful laptops will get noticed - and this one will probably be overlooked and dismissed. Perhaps similarly in the marketplace, only the more discriminating shoppers will notice this one among the louder choices. I almost missed it myself. Yet underneath its quiet exterior is the heart of a true performer. To be had at this price is simply one of the best deals out there. I passed up many opportunities that would have had me pay far more for much less.
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