Acer has taken wraps off the Acer Aspire Switch 10 E (SW3-013) among other things, in New York — an entry-level 2-in-1 notebook powered by the quad-core Intel Atom Z3735 and running Windows 8.1 with Bing. The wallet-friendly lappie will debut in Malaysia next Tuesday, 28 April 2015 and will come in two variants – 32GB and 64GB of storage.
The second-generation Switch 10 E is much improved from its predecessor, featuring a better “Acer Snap Hinge 2” that makes the display easier to remove and re-attach to the keyboard. The display can be detached then reattached in the opposite direction to give you a ‘tent’ mode. It doesn’t swivel 360 degrees like a Lenovo Yoga, but it’s close enough.
For a 10.1-inch device it can feel rather hefty at 630g (with keyboard it’s 1.28kg!) but on a positive note, it is better balanced with an almost 40:60 split between detachable keyboard and screen. The exterior gets curvier compared to previous generation’s, and the new Switch 10 E will also get some exciting colours with fabric patterns.
Being a budget device it only sports a 10.1-inch HD IPS display (1280x800p) protected by Gorilla Glass.
What’s interesting is that as a tablet, it has 32GB/64GB of eMMC storage built-in. In the 32GB variant, the keyboard unit also houses a 500GB hard drive for additional storage. With Acer SwitchLock, other Switch 10 E tablets cannot access the hard drive even when docked to the keyboard, aside from the original unit.
Under the hood, the Switch 10 E is powered by the quad-core 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z3735 mated to 2GB RAM. More than sufficient to run your everyday applications.
Speaking of applications, a Microsoft Office 365 Personal Edition subscription (1-year) is bundled free together with 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage. Switch 10 E is Windows 10-ready.
Compared to last year’s model, the 2015 Switch 10 E packs a bigger battery that is claimed to give you up to 12 hours of juice. Pretty impressive.
In terms of software, Acer has added a Quick Access menu for handy shortcuts to tasks like Acer SwitchLock or Acer VisionCare, just to name a few.
Pricing and availability
The Acer Aspire Switch 10 E (SW3-013) will be available in North America in mid-July with prices starting at US$279 (RM1,005), in EMEA in May with prices starting at €299, and in China in April with prices starting at ¥2,499. No Malaysian pricing nor availability have been revealed yet.
