Acer Switch Alpha 12 Review: A Noiseless Convertible Laptop

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Acer Switch Alpha 12: At First Glance

Acer comes up with a close rival to the Microsoft Surface Pro 7 – the Switch Alpha 12. Better still, the Acer Switch Alpha 12 offers noiseless performance and increased screen brightness at a lower price.

Talking about the price, when I published this review in January 2022, the laptop had a sales price of $824.98. However, the price may have changed when you’re reading this review.

Does the Acer Switch Alpha 12 really offer more value for less than the Microsoft Surface Pro 7? Let us find out in the sections below.

Acer Switch Alpha 12: Design, Dimensions, and Weight

Acer pulled it all out when it came to the design of the Acer Switch Alpha 12. As a result, it has an attractive yet sturdy design.

Therefore, it is capable of surviving the occasional bump while you’re traveling.

For the Switch Alpha 12, Acer opted for a 2-in-1 design that combines a kickstand, a tablet, and a keyboard. The design closely emulates that of the Microsoft Surface Pro lineup.

The body of the Acer Switch Alpha 12 is brushed with a silver aluminum chassis. This leaves the laptop looking and feeling premium.

Like all Microsoft Surface Pro lineup devices, Acer Switch Alpha 12 has a kickstand. The kickstand opens from the back and helps to set the device at different angles.

Also, the kickstand has a rubber strip on the bottom to stop the tablet from sliding or moving when using it on your lap.

Overall, the kickstand hinge is very sturdy. Hence, it does not flex when you touch the screen.

Proceeding to the Acer Switch Alpha 12s screen, the laptop features a 12-inch screen with thick bezels. As for resolution, the Switch Alpha 12s’ features a 2160 x 1440 pixels resolution display which makes screen contents very sharp.

The display is very bright and suitable for outdoor use. Additionally, the display also makes the colors pop and offers deep blacks.

Hence, when using the Switch Alpha 12 to watch a movie, pictures are sharp and clear. In addition, colors are also vibrant, which makes the tablet appealing to use.

For the cameras, Acer Switch Alpha 12 features a 2MP webcam on its front and a 5MP rear-facing camera.

The front camera is okay for engaging in video calls with friends and family. Meanwhile, the rear camera also produces decent pictures.

Moving on to the keyboard area of the Acer Switch Alpha 12, the keyboard is magnetically attached to the tablet. However, it does not offer so much of a good typing experience.

That is because the keyboard includes small “Page Up” and “Page Down” keys. The “Page Up” and “Page Down” keys are also too close to the left and right arrow keys.

Consequently, these may lead to many mistakes when trying to select texts.

Thankfully, the keyboard has a backlit feature that makes it possible to type in dark environments. Another great thing about the keyboard is that the keys have great tactile feedback.

About the touchpad, it is in a good spot and appropriately responsive. Furthermore, the touchpad’s palm detection is very smart, and it has a smooth finish.

However, the touchpad features an annoying all-in-one design where the right and left-click buttons are integrated into the main clickpad. For this reason, it is easier to have the cursor flying off your intended target when you try to click and drag.

Nevertheless, sensitivity for basic tasks is fine, and the pad feels reactive, but its multitouch abilities are not too good. This implies that the touchpad finds it difficult to recognize basic tasks like scrolling up and down using two fingers.

Two more features make the Acer Switch Alpha 12 a tablet to consider. First is the cooling system of the fan as there are no cooling fans on this machine.

Hence, you will get none of that whirling sound produced by laptops with cooling fans.

For a fact, the Switch Alpha 12 might get a lot of inspiration from Microsoft’s legendary Surface Pro tablet. However, it makes a mark for itself as the world’s first liquid-cooled tablet.

Secondly, the Acer Switch Alpha 12 features a stylus pen that feels excellent to use and acts like a normal pen. In addition, it features 256 levels of pressure sensitivity, giving it a natural feeling when writing and drawing.

Also, the stylus pen gives a natural feeling of writing and drawing. Thus, the Active Stylus is an excellent accessory to have if you plan on handwriting or using the Switch Alpha 12 for illustrations.

Let us proceed to the ports. Unfortunately, like most convertible laptops, the diversity of ports on the Switch Alpha 12 is also limited.

Only a USB 3.0 and USB 3.1 Type-C port are available on the Switch Alpha 12.

Meanwhile, both ports mentioned above are on the left side of the laptop and are easy to access. The ports also have sufficient space between them.

Moving to the dimension of the Switch Alpha 12, the tablet measures 292.1 x 200.6 x 15.7 mm (W x D x H). Comparatively, the Switch Alpha 12 is bigger than the Microsoft Surface Pro 7, which measures 292 x 201 x 8.5 mm (W x D x H).

Proceeding to the weight, the Acer Switch Alpha 12 weighs 898.1g without the keyboard cover and 1251.9g with the keyboard cover. In comparison, it is heavier than the Microsoft Surface Pro 7, which weighs 790 g with the keyboard attached.

In conclusion, the Acer Switch Alpha 12 has a premium design and deserves eight in this review section.

Acer Switch Alpha 12: Processor (CPU) Performance

In terms of processor, the Acer Switch Alpha 12 comes with a dual-core Intel Core i5-6200U. This processor has a 2.30 GHz base frequency, 2.80 GHz boost frequency, and 3 MB cache memory.

Furthermore, the Switch Alpha 12 delivers a fast enough performance for office and internet use. Intel Core i5-6200U processor offers the needed power for multitasking and using processor-intensive applications.

As a matter of fact, this laptop should function smoothly with up to 25 Chrome tabs opened. Meanwhile, one of the tabs may be streaming a 1080p resolution video on YouTube.

That said, let’s discuss the performance of the Switch Alpha 12 on the Geekbench benchmark test. Geekbench is a benchmark test that determines the overall processing capability of a laptop.

Also, the higher the score on the Geekbench benchmark test, the better the laptop’s CPU will perform. Thus, in the benchmark test, Acer Switch Alpha 12 scored  6,398 points which are higher than the ultraportable average of 5,157 points.

Comparatively, the Switch Alpha 12 scored higher than the HP Spectre x2 which scored 5,814 points. However, the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 scored 6,811 points which are higher than the Acer Switch Alpha 12’s score.

In conclusion, Acer Switch Alpha 12 offers a good processing performance and should get an eight in this review section.

Acer Switch Alpha 12: Memory (RAM) Performance

The Acer Switch Alpha 12 features an 8 GB LPDDR3 MHz SDRAM on its single memory slot. Meanwhile, the 8 GB RAM is the maximum memory capacity the laptop allows.

Hence, it is impossible to upgrade the memory of this laptop to more than 8 GB. However, it is not surprising to see that the max memory capacity of the laptop is not so big.

This is because Acer Switch Alpha 12 isn’t an expensive laptop. Hence, we do not expect it to offer a large memory like expensive laptops.

However, even with the 8 GB RAM, the Switch Alpha 12 is reliable for delivering day-to-day multitasking and computing tasks. Moving on to its performance and how it multitas, the Switch Alpha 12 laptop can smoothly open many applications concurrently.

For instance, the laptop should be able to open about 25 chrome browser tabs while running apps like Photoshop, Spotify, and Google Docs.

With that said, I will now share the laptop’s memory performance in the PCMark8 benchmark test. Specifically, the PCMark benchmark test is a tool that tests the performance of a computer under an office-related workload.

Furthermore, a higher score on this benchmark test suggests a better performance. Consequently, the Acer Switch Alpha 12 made 3,281 points in the PCMark 8 benchmark test.

Comparatively, the Acer Switch Alpha 12 offers a better memory performance than the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 tablet which had 2,976 points. However, the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 beats the Acer Switch Alpha 12 with 3,394 points.

The memory performance of the Acer Switch Alpha 12 is applaudable. Hence, it should get eight in this memory review section.

Acer Switch Alpha 12: Storage Options and Performance

In terms of storage, the Acer Switch Alpha 12 comes with an SSD storage drive with a 128 GB storage capacity. However, heavy storage users may find 128 GB of storage space too small to save their documents, games, videos, and songs.

The good news is that the laptop features a single MicroSDXC card reader for increasing storage capacity. With that, you can save more files on the Acer Switch Alpha 12.

In the aspect of performance, with the Acer Switch Alpha 12, you can enjoy speedy delivery. For example, it took the Switch Alpha 12.33 seconds to transfer 4.97GB of mixed media files.

This implies that the files were transferred at a transfer rate of 152.4 MB per second. Impressively, the Acer Switch Alpha 12’s transfer rate is higher than the category average of 144.6 MBps.

In comparison, the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 offers a better transfer rate of 318.1 MBps.

To further establish the storage ability of the Acer Switch Alpha 12, I will discuss its Crystaldiskmark benchmark test result. In case you’re curious, the Crystaldiskmark 3.0 is a tool that tests the read and writes speed of a device.

To clarify, in computing, an example of “read” is when you open a file. On the other hand, “write” operation happens when you save a file, for example.

From the benchmark test, Acer Switch Alpha 12 has a read speed of 518.1 MBps and a write speed of 199.9 MBps. In comparison, it offers a better speed than the Lenovo IdeaPad Miix 700.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Miix 700 has a read and write speed of 497.9 MBps and 153.5 MBps, respectively. To clarify, the higher the MBps value, the better.

In conclusion, Acer Switch Alpha 12 offers a good transfer speed, which competes well with other laptops in its category. Therefore, I will rate it 8 in this review.

Acer Switch Alpha 12: Graphics Card Performance

The GPU that is featured in the Acer Switch Alpha 12 is an Intel HD Graphics 520. This graphics card functions at a base frequency of 300 MHz and a boosts frequency of 1000 MHz.

Additionally, this graphics card is integrated, which means that it is embedded in the CPU of the laptop. As a result, the graphics card lacks a dedicated VRAM.

It, therefore, means that the GPU shares the laptop’s memory (8 GB) with the CPU to perform graphics tasks. Not having a dedicated GPU denotes that the laptop can’t handle demanding games like Overwatch or The Witcher.

This is because the integrated graphics card is made to handle only light-weight gaming.

To help you further determine the graphics performance of this laptop, I will share its 3Dmark11 benchmark test result.

3Dmark11 is a tool that determines the graphics performance of a GPU – the higher the score, the better. According to the benchmark test result, Acer Switch Alpha 12 hits a score of 64,550 points.

That’s more than the 47,040 average for ultraportables. Comparatively, the Acer Switch Alpha 12’s score is higher than the 60,424 points achieved by the Microsoft Surface Pro 4.

In conclusion, the Acer Switch Alpha 12 can play simple games. However, don’t expect more than that out of this 2-in-1 laptop.

Considering these factors, I will rate the Acer Switch Alpha 12 seven in this graphics review section.

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Acer Switch Alpha 12: Battery Life and Performance

In the battery aspect, a 2-cell 4870 mAh Li-Ion battery powers the Acer Switch Alpha 12. According to Acer’s claim, the battery life of this battery is 8 hours.

However, it will be essential to verify this claim to ensure its authenticity. Thus, in a verification test involving continuous web surfing via WiFi, the laptop lasted only 4 hours and 49 minutes.

That’s far less than the ultraportable category average of 7 hours 49 minutes. Comparatively, the Switch Alpha 12’s battery life lags behind the 6 hours 5 minutes achieved by the Microsoft Surface Pro 4.

Therefore, when you are out with the Acer Switch Alpha 12, you will have to carry the charger along.

In contrast to Acer’s claim, the laptop’s battery life is almost four hours less than the verified test’s advertised battery life. Therefore, I think the battery life of the Acer Switch Alpha 12 is poor.

Putting that into consideration, I will rate the Acer Switch Alpha 12 six in this review.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

So far, so good, the Acer Switch 12 is an affordable laptop computer that can perform the tasks you’d expect from a low-cost PC. In addition, this 2-in-1 laptop offers a substantial value for money.

It stands as one of the fastest midrange laptops available but is reasonably priced. With a solid performance, gorgeous display, and an excellent cooling system, the Acer Switch Alpha 12 makes the list of the best 2-in-1s you can buy.

However, the Acer Switch Alpha 12 falls short in one critical area – battery life. As a result, you may need to carry the power supply with you all the time.

In conclusion, the Acer Switch Alpha 12 strikes a fair balance between performance and price. Hence, you still get value for your money with the Acer Switch Alpha 12.

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