US Version of r7-372t thunderbolt?

demichej
demichej Member Posts: 10

Tinkerer

I'm hearing reports that the US version of the r7-372t does NOT have a thunderbolt port on it. Can anyone confirm or deny that?

 

Acer reps?!?!??!

 

Thanks.

Answers

  • awqwerty
    awqwerty Member Posts: 16 New User

    At the moment the only 372t listed in US is this one from the acer website: NX.G8SAA.001

    It lists this under full specs:

    Number of USB 2.0 Ports1
    Number of USB 3.0 Ports2
    Total Number of USB Ports4

     

    That leads me to believe it's a Thunderbolt 3 capable USB-C probably like the upcoming switch 12s

    I'm checking this version out tomorrow and I'll reply again if I'm wrong about that assumption; if you don't hear anything, that's what it is. 

  • awqwerty
    awqwerty Member Posts: 16 New User

    Just thought I'd get back to you... bought it today. Microcenter is the only place in the US that carries it and they refused to show me a model the morning after i made my last post because there were only 2 in stock and they didn't want to "create" a display model. If you live in the PA area and decidde to go to the store, please buy it from my real life friend Timna though, she's great! (sorry anyone reading this but it's good to give shoutouts and commissions to friends). Also, check retailmenot to see if you can get any extra money off when you buy.

     

    That business aside... 

     

    Yes.... USB 3.1 (C) thunerbolt is confirmed. 

     

    Overall impressions after a day: Really **bleep** good with some minor gripes.

     

    Standard SD card slot does not allow it to sit it flush with laptop so it juts out. I recommend cutting a MicroSD adapter to refasten the prongs onto a MicroSD card in order to accomplish this. 

     

    Minor backlight bleed on portions of edges only visible with true black (bootup... bordered black). I suspect this problem will be present even if I return it given acer history. 

     

    That's it for gripes.... really... I am pumping video to a TV/Projector for media/gaming so #1 isn't too big an issue. As I said, it's only true black that I notice it and I'm somewhat obsessive over minor details. #2. Pain in the butt but not impossible. I might give upgrading the SSD a shot instead down the line but for now the workaround should suffice. 

     

    Impressions otherwise: Brightness is great (disable adaptive) contrast ratio is great. Speed of SSD and overall performance very good. Battery life, I'll have to cycle it a couple of times but I suspect I'll get ~8.5 hrs +/- .5 with responsible brightness management (that means you not adaptive). 

     

    Honestly... I was somewhat against getting this laptop and not getting to test out some of my possible complaints made me unhappy but there are a few things that really set it apart from other laptops.

     

    The hinge is awesome for portability. In my opinion, every laptop in the world needs this hinge. I commute every single day and for work I'm bouncing from room to room so I'm on the go and stationary and switching back and forth frequently. I tested this out on the train and what makes it really good in my opinion in terms of portability is that the hinge gives it great balance since you can tilt the back forward and the screen up. So far, this is my preferred way to use the laptop at all times since I just type directly under the screen.  I really like compact laptops that are portable. My previous/current work laptop is a 12y/o acer aspire 1 with an upgraded HDD and 2gb ram running linux that has still been serving me well but as you can imagine... time eventually catches up to these types of things. I really liked the switch series out now and I tried out the acer one 10 but I just coudln't life with the terrible charging speed and 32bit EFI bootloader and only having 2gb ram. There's a 10V that will probably arrive in america in feb or sometime soon (it's been available outside the US for a few months) but it's still only 2gb ram so far. Anyway... I decided to give this r13 a shot for a couple reasons

    -skylake 6500U

    -USB C with Thunderbolt

    -8GB Ram (basically will be the new "minimum standard" in a few years)

    -SSD

    -Ezel Hinge - I love the switch line but this design is an improvement because I'm always afraid of losing my keyboard dock on detachables and my next point explains the rest

    -Upgradeable storage/Replaceable Battery - I use my laptops for a long time... I don't want to deal with opening up a tablet and definitely don't want to have to "send it in" to replace a battery 2 years down the line

     

    One last thought about this: 

    Google the razer blade stealth displayed at CES 2016... compare the specs to this. For the "home gamer" I think it's a no brainer here. I know Acer is coming out with their 12s but I really don't see any plusses since that only has a core M processor versus this i7 for 900$ that will be getting a min 8hr batt life (realistically). Thunderbolt external GPU gaming has been shown to be able to keep up with the desktops in the past few months so there isn't really anything this laptop is not suitable for except for maybe... standard vertical tablet mode (especially when walking around). I think it's a bit big for that. I do like lap-based kickstand tablet mode though. It's ultracompact that way and it doesn't matter where you are because you get the benefit of that huge screen. 

     

    Absolute last thing I'm going to say about this....

     

    A few days ago there was a report of skylake processors having a glitch which will require a BIOS update:
    http://liliputing.com/2016/01/intel-releases-fix-for-skylake-bug-that-could-freeze-computers-under-some-conditions.html

    Acer! We want this update!

  • demichej
    demichej Member Posts: 10

    Tinkerer

    Thank you for the very detailed information.

     

    I'm still really confused about why there is literally only 1 seller of this laptop in all of the United States. That seems so crazy.

  • awqwerty
    awqwerty Member Posts: 16 New User

    I suspect there will be an increase in February of companies as they're launching the 12s in Feb and likely a few others. The reason why I'm thinking this is because only the i7 has been offered so far with FHD screen and there are a lot of other variants (inlcuding QHD).  On the bright side though Microcenter is offering it at a pretty reduced price.

  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder

    "Standard SD card slot does not allow it to sit it flush with laptop so it juts out" - most of the R models have this issue. A SD card inserts about 20mm and a SD card is over 40mm.

     

    That said there are a number of seduced height microSD card adapters available on Amazon. The enclosed picture is a 128GB micro in a 23mm SD adapter on a R5. I have a 20mm on order but apparently is on a slow boat from China.

     

    Warning: some adapters are desined for a Raspberry Pi and have a "bag on the side". The key is you need an adapter that is no more than 2.1mm thick.