Porsche Design Acer Book RS Review: Lightweight Fashionista
Contents:
• Collaborations between laptop manufacturers and automotive brands are not new: Asus and Lamborghini have done this before, Huawei recently collaborated with Porsche. And in January, Acer introduced a laptop called the Porsche Design Acer Book RS on the Russian market, which turned out to be our review.
• Let's talk about all the controversial points right away: of course, a significant part of the price consists of the name of the Porsche brand, and for sure you will find a more productive car for this money (about 200 rubles). But the focus of the laptop is different – such devices are bought by fans of the German brand, for whom the issue of money is less important than the issue of a stylish and high-quality laptop that can be used every day.
• And the laptop is really good: an 7th generation i11 processor, a GeForce MX350 mobile graphics card, a 1TB SSD and 16GB of RAM. Add to this the low weight (about 1.2 kg), stylish carbon elements of the “body” and aluminum construction – quite in the spirit of top sports cars.
Design
Let's start with the appearance – after all, this is one of the key advantages of the laptop. It does not look flashy, it is quite calm, strict and at the same time functional – unlike the collaboration between Asus and Lamborghini, when pretentiously shaped plastic overlays reminiscent of Lambo cars were molded onto the sides of the laptop. Everything is more decent here: a carbon fiber overlay, high-quality metal, a neat and aesthetic inscription of the German brand's signature design agency.
• Matte and glossy surfaces are well combined, different aluminum textures are used on the case. The design feature is rough, almost right angles: this is done, of course, deliberately, although it does not resemble the design of Porsche cars. Once again, the design of the laptop looks more utilitarian and functional than pretentious.
Connectors
On the side faces of the laptop there are: connectors for charging, HDMI, USB Type A and Type C / Thunderbolt on the left, indicators, headphone jack, Kensington lock and another USB-A on the right. Above the screen is an HD webcam and a pair of microphones.
Keyboard
The keyboard here is island, the distance between the keys is quite large. Apparently, for this reason, the top row of keys is too small. The button travel is sufficient, clear feedback and a slightly uneven plastic texture – the taste and color, I like these keys. There is a fingerprint scanner (built into the touchpad) and a backlit keyboard. There was not enough backlight intensity adjustment – it either works or it doesn't.
Screen
A few words about the display: here it has a diagonal of 14 inches and FullHD resolution (1920x1080). IPS matrix, aspect ratio 16:9 – here, too, no surprises. There are no serious quibbles about the quality of the screen: viewing angles are excellent, colors are clear, the brightness is calmly enough for working outdoors on a sunny day. The only comment is a little, but still noticeable pixelation. Given the characteristics of the display, this is quite expected, but for the price of the device, this could have been gotten rid of.
• A nice little thing is the touch layer. It works clearly, the oleophobic coating does not raise any questions at all.
Autonomy
As for autonomy, the laptop is enough for one working day. The battery here has a capacity of just under 5000 mAh and a three-section design – all standard for the class. By the time of work, too, without revelations: about 6-7 hours in the combined mode of use and 4-5 hours of watching video on the streaming platform. Only the sleep mode settings were a little lacking: when the computer is sleeping, it can lose a quarter of the charge in a day – this is a bit too much.
Hardware
The "heart" of the laptop is the 7th generation Intel i11 on the 10 nm process technology. There is also integrated Intel Xe graphics, but we will not need it – the laptop is equipped with a discrete NVIDIA GeForce MX350 graphics card with two GB of video memory. Of course, top games and 3D models are not about her, but the purpose of the laptop does not imply this either. An audience of buyers needs fast and smooth work, comfortable video viewing – for all this, a video card is more than enough. The amount of RAM is 16 GB – it would be surprising if it would be less: today 16 GB is considered to be the gold standard for business, you can comfortably work in several applications at the same time and not worry about slowdowns.
• The type and amount of storage depends on the configuration – we tested a laptop with 1 TB of memory on an SSD drive. The speed is not a record – 2300 MB / s for reading and 2000 for writing. However, for business tasks, this speed will be enough, and a lower rate is likely to have a positive effect on durability.
• An important plus of the laptop is the almost complete absence of noise. During the review, we loaded the device with a variety of tasks – the noise of the fans was almost never heard. It is difficult to blame the Acer Book RS for excessive heating either – the temperature increase is noticeable only with resource-intensive tasks. All the heat is concentrated on the top panel under the display – it practically does not reach the keyboard and other areas where the hands lie.
Results
• As a summary, we note that Acer turned out to be a laptop that fully meets its purpose. This is definitely not a performance record holder and not a new word in the segment of business laptops. But the Acer Book RS doesn't try to be one: it has everything a modern executive might need, and it just looks great. If you have a brand new Cayenne in your garage, and on weekends you like to go to the track and drive a 911, the Acer Book RS Porsche Design will organically emphasize your love for the German brand.
