Video: Acer Switch 11 Review

Last year I reviewed the Acer Switch 10 a 2 in 1 tablet PC and laptop and at the time I liked the tablet mainly for its compact design and budget price. The Switch 11 is its slightly bigger brother with an 11 inch displayer rather than a 10 inch and the spec I am reviewing is around £351. The processor is an Intel Atom Z3745 running at 1.33 GHz, 2GB of RAM and a 32GB eMMC drive with a 500GB hard drive in the detachable keyboard.

The Switch 11 has snap hinge which means you can completely detach the keyboard (which includes the extra hard drive) and use it as a tablet. As a tablet is does feel a little on the big side despite is being around the same size as a Surface Pro 3, the tablet is 11mm thick and which makes it feel a bit on the bulky side.

There is a large bezel on the tablet which adds to the overall size but the display is clear and sharp running at 1366 x 768 and uses Gorilla Glass 3. Acer say it has zero air gap that helps reduce screen reflection, I am not sure how much difference it actually makes but the viewing angles are very good. The snap hinge means you can use it as a notebook or a tablet and you have the option of fitting the screen around the other way for use in presentations, the hinge connects with a satisfying clunk which is as elegant as something like the Surface Pro 3 but works well. One of the issues I have had with other 2 in 1 devices is that all the weight is in the tablet part and the keyboard part is light which means the whole package feels unstable (the Surface gets around this with the kick stand). The Switch 11 does not suffer this issue as it has the weight of the spinning hard drive in the keyboard so in notebook mode it feels stable however this does mean the overall package is heavy coming in at 838g. The keyboard has short travel on the keys but it is perfectly fine for typing on, I also found the trackpad very useable and it supports Windows gestures and two finger scrolling.

The tablet part of the Switch 11 has a power port, MicroHDMI, MicroUSB, MicroSD card slot and headphone port, on the keyboard there is a standard USB 2 port. Other specs include a 2MP front camera with a 5MP rear camera, Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11a/b/g/b/n support.

When it comes to performance you are looking at a mobile processor with 2GB of RAM so it’s not going to set the world on fire with benchmark scores but it handles web browsing and Windows Store apps perfectly well, it runs Windows 8.1 Home should be capable of running Windows 10. It will be perfectly capable of running iTunes and Chrome and can run resource hungry applications like Photoshop as long as you don’t push it too far. Spending time running various app and browsing the web gave me a very average 5 hours of battery life which is nothing to write home about.

The Switch 11 comes with lots of Acer software and other pre-installed software that I could do without. The pre-installed software ranges from the semi-useful Acer software including adDocs, adFiles and abMedia which are Acers cloud apps and the less helpful McAfee trail that I always remove as my first job with a new machine.

At £351 on Amazon you are into traditional laptop prices and the whole package rather weighty, heavier than many 11 inch laptops so unless you want the hybrid form factor you may be better looking at a traditional type device. If you can go to an 10 inch tablet the Acer Switch 11e may be a better bet.