At first glance, Acer's Aspire Switch Alpha 12 has a strong smell of "imitation". This is a Microsoft Surface type tablet running Windows 10. Although it has some imitation marks, it has a very special tripod and a cool cooling system (not a fan, but liquid cooling). When I first started using this tablet a few weeks ago, I thought it would not impress me.
However, I was wrong, or I should say that I overlooked one important point. When people go to Suning and Gome to buy tablets, they generally care about the price of these electronic products. The Switch Alpha 12 is very cheap, really cheap. You can buy a model with good configuration for 699 dollars (about 4650 yuan). You should know that this price is only a middle price in the field of hybrid tablets, The Switch Alpha 12 is a high-end product of "PC/tablet combination, touch screen and removable keyboard"!
This Alpha 12 is easy to use and can meet my daily work needs. In addition, its price is still so sincere. Compared with Microsoft's Surface tablet, it is cheaper (depending on the model configuration you purchase), which is more than 500 dollars (about 3323 yuan). However, it is still a bit difficult to get rid of the traces of imitating the Surface.
Alpha 12 has a 12 inch touch screen, which looks very good. The 2160 x 1440 resolution is slightly lower than that of the Surface Pro 4, but it can't be seen with the naked eye. The screen brightness is very high and the color is very bright. It's OK to watch it even outdoors (of course, if you don't face the sun directly). The Alpha 12 I evaluated costs $699 (about 4650 yuan). It is equipped with Intel Core i5 processor, 256GB storage space, 8GB memory, and also includes a stylus. This configuration can handle my daily work and even slightly complicated image editing. It is very light and familiar, and is worthy of its price.
As I mentioned above, it is a surface cloning device, which means it is a tablet with a support stand and a removable keyboard. Its support leg has a very solid hinge and rubber wrapped bottom, so it can stand steadily no matter what angle it is opened. Now, almost every surface cloning device is configured like this, so Alpha not only inherits the advantages of Surface, but also has the same disadvantages. When you put it on your leg and sit on the sofa to work, If you want to get up and pick up Alpha, its keyboard will hang in mid air, ugly and inconvenient.
The keyboard of Alpha 12 is also a surface style, which is connected to the tablet by magnetic force. It can be adjusted to any angle you like to type. When the keyboard is not used, it can also be used as a protective cover to cover the screen (just like the Smart Cover of the iPad). The area of the touch pad on the keyboard is not very large, but its accuracy and response speed are both excellent. I don't want to be too picky about this keyboard. After all, this is a device for locating cheap tablets. It's conscience to give you a keyboard with a touch pad.
It's very comfortable to use this keyboard code, but the entry-level configuration model has no backlight, which makes me very unhappy. Moreover, Acer placed the pg up and pg dn keys next to the direction keys, which is a bit brainless. I always accidentally touch those two keys when typing, which is very annoying. However, this keyboard is at least full sized, with very low keying sound and comfortable keying schedule. It is absolutely OK for office use. What's more, this keyboard is a random gift. Unlike Microsoft's Surface, it costs 130 dollars (about 864 yuan) more to buy its keyboard (the same is true for its stylus).
Almost all newly released Windows devices have some gimmicky features, and this Alpha 12 is no exception. It has a liquid cooling system. Even if it uses a powerful processor, Acer does not install a cooling fan on it, so sometimes the back of the machine is very hot. If you use it outdoors, you will feel uncomfortable holding it in your hand for a long time. Once, after I used it outdoors for an hour, its back became extremely hot, making me not want to touch it at all, However, this will not happen in indoor use. In any case, the absence of fans means that the noise will be very low, and most of the time it is still pleasant to use. However, I think most users will not buy Alpha 12 just for a liquid cooling system.
Generally speaking, this PC/tablet two in one device is stingy in terms of the number of interfaces, but Acer has a conscience in this regard. The machine has a USB-A, a USB-C that can be used to expand the screen (or even serve as a charging interface), and a small round power interface designed by Acer family. Why not use a USB-C instead of a power interface, This is a bit confusing.
Another thing that puzzles me is that like Microsoft's Surface, Alpha 12 also has a microSD card slot, but do you really insert a tens of gigabytes SD card into a machine with hundreds of gigabytes of storage space to expand its capacity? Anyway, I won't. There are two speakers on the top of the screen. Although the sound quality is mediocre, I never expect much from this kind of machine. Another good thing is that it has a physical Windows button.
Having said so much, it is actually a Windows tablet that is cheap and can meet most of your daily needs. Now let's talk about the shortcomings. The battery life is a bit bad! I used Walt Mossberg (a famous technology critic of the Wall Street Journal) style endurance test: open the Windows 10 software Netflix (streaming software, similar to iQIYI) in the background to cook the White House, and surf the Internet while using office software, Switch Alpha 12 barely lasted 4 hours and 30 minutes before powering down. This performance is really unsatisfactory.
Another thing that bothers me is that there are too many pre installed software in this tablet! Usually, PC manufacturers will pre install some third-party software to get financial support from the software side, so as to reduce retail prices. Acer has undoubtedly done the same, and it is a bit overdone, Alpha 12 includes McAfee anti-virus software, MusicMaker Jam, WildTangent and a lot of Acer's own application suites. I believe most people will not like these pre installed software (McAfee may still be useful).
Recently, the cold winter period that the PC market had previously suffered seems to be gradually disappearing. Although the overall sales of the entire industry has not been greatly improved (probably because of the recent disruption of Chromebook), at least people are starting to pay attention to these Windows devices, while fans are still waiting for Apple to update their Mac product line, PC manufacturers have come up with many new devices to entice users to buy. HP has produced a beautiful Spectre laptop, and Dell's XPS 13 has gradually become the mainstay of the industry. Although the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 did not meet Microsoft's expectations, they are also good products.
In fact, to sum up, we should look at Acer's Switch Alpha 12 from another perspective. Its mission is not to change the world like Apple or to launch a revolutionary device for people to use, but it is actually a good, stable, solid and durable hybrid tablet device, which is also required by the Windows ecosystem.
In fact, Switch Alpha 12 is a cheap version of Microsoft Surface. The cheap price can give you a good use experience. At the same time, the configuration is also very good. If it is not for its poor endurance, I will not hesitate to recommend it to people interested in this kind of hybrid tablet. In fact, since the development of PC industry for so long, it has launched devices of all prices to make everyone use them, to cater to different people. Alpha 12 also does the same, and its performance exceeds my expectations for it.
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Image and text translation from The Verge
