Acer Switch 7 Black Edition (i7-8550U, MX150) Convertible Review

[Redaktion]

Acer's flagship convertible, the Switch 7 Black Edition, offers powerful hardware and an innovative fanless cooling solution. Both the Intel Core i7-8550U and the Nvidia GeForce MX150 are cooled without any fans. You can learn how well this works out in everyday life by reading our review.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Acer-Switch-7-Black-Edition-i7-8550U-MX150-Convertible-Review.365766.0.html

[Leonardo Visentin]

Interesting solution, that of liquid cooling, in a portable device, but I think performance suffers a lot with i7-8550u under strong usage, which is quite disappointing, event though battery running times are quite a bit more disappointing, giving this device's target usage.

[Novah]

Please integrate all units and format depth for straightforward and transparent comparison.
Battery should be in Wh. Specification formats like the memory channel, storage type, form factor, and port types should be specified as well, even if they may seem obvious.

[william blake]

390 cinebench with i7 8 thread  omegalul.
easy money.

[Peng]

Performance wise is good BUT battery life is really bad. Disconnected my power cord at around 8pm, around 10pm must plug in already. I don't even play game, was surfing the internet only. Now have to look for back up battery, bought one for thunderbolt port charging but cannot charge at 12 v. Beware the battery life, office/home use is good but not mobile usage. It is also not light and I still could not find a case for it (Jan 2019), my unit comes with a free bag pack which I don't like to use. Now trying to undervoltage and will see how much it can help battery life.

[Astar]

Now have to look for back up battery, bought one for thunderbolt port charging but cannot charge at 12 v.

It is common knowledge that USB Type-C PD charging for laptops/ultrabooks/2-in-1s require 20V. You should have checked this before buying any Type-C charger or charging capable USB Powerbank. Brands like Cygnett, Anker Powercore etc. are the ones that can output 20V.

This is not a fault of Acer.

In my view though, this is a huge step for a winning platform based on the original Acer Switch Alpha 12 (SA-5), which I had. The liquid loop cooling which enables it to be fanless is a wonderful design. I was looking for an upgrade to a newer version of it.

However, this platform is simply not suitable for running an i5 or i7 class CPU TOGETHER with a discrete GPU like the MX150.

You end up paying so much for the Intel i7 and the MX150 components, but both of them are unable to run at their full potential due to the throttling due to the thermal budget constraint. Furthermore, the dual liquid loop heatpipes in the chasis adds too much weight to the device. in the end, you achieve none of the objectives of a high end variant of the platform and only ended up having an overpriced and dysfunctional device.

What Acer should have done is to use the AMD Picasso APU instead if additional GPU power is required! Simple solution but Acer's designers/engineers really dropped the ball on this. What a disappointment!

[Piero]

AMAZING !!! You all, Acer SWITCH is just amazing in two unparalled features: the hollow hinge and the liquid cooling !!!. 1) the hollow hinge allows to hung it up (to seat backs in flight, in buses, etc., and) to a sleak plastic double clothes hanger fixed underneath my standing desk (manual sit/stand), gaining space on desk, and connected with three 24" portrait monitors above the desk (total 42" portraite together) (I use 3 Cable Matters USB-HDMI interfaces). 2) the liquid loop allows mind concentration, eliminating any air fan noise. There is no competitor for these two aspects!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Piero]

AMAZING !!! You all, Acer SWITCH is just amazing in two unparalled features: the hollow kickstand and the liquid cooling !!!. 1) the hollow kickstand allows to hung it up (to seat backs in flight, in buses, etc., and) to a sleak plastic double clothes hanger fixed underneath my standing desk (manual sit/stand), gaining space on desk, and connected with three 24" portrait monitors above the desk (total 42" landscape together) (I use 3 Cable Matters USB-HDMI interfaces). 2) the liquid loop allows mind concentration, eliminating any air fan noise. There is no competitor for these two aspects!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!