Pros & Cons
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- Slim, lightweight design.
- Gorilla Glass lid.
- Full HD touch screen.
- Intel Core i7-5500U processor.
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- Very few ports.
- Lots of preinstalled software.
Acer Aspire S7-393-7451 Specs
| Graphics Processor | Intel HD Graphics 5500 |
| Native Display Resolution | 1920 by 1080 |
| Operating System | Windows 8.1 |
| Optical Drive | external |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-5500U |
| Processor Speed | 2.4 |
| RAM (as Tested) | 8 |
| Screen Size | 13.3 |
| Tested Battery Life (Hours:Minutes) | 9:57 |
| Touch Screen | |
| Weight | 2.87 |
| Wireless Networking | 802.11ac (2.4+5.0 GHz Dual-band) |
Editors' Note (6/8/2015): After this review was posted, a retest of the battery life showed that the Acer Aspire S7-393-7451 lasted 9 hours 57 minutes, which is more than 3 hours longer than the original test result of 6:20. We have updated the review and benchmark chart accordingly, and raised the S7-393-7451's rating from 3.5 to 4.
Thin. Lightweight. Portable. The Acer Aspire S7-393-7451 ($1,299.99 as tested) checks all the right boxes when it comes to finding a sleek and mobile high-end ultraportable laptop. The design is sharp—with an aluminum unibody chassis and Gorilla Glass lid—the components are capable, and the price isn't bad. But a sleek design isn't everything when other systems offer as much for similar prices, and the Aspire S7 comes with too much bloatware and too few ports to completely win me over, especially when comparing it to systems like the Dell XPS 13 Touch or the newest Apple MacBook Pro 13-Inch, Retina Display, our Editors' Choice high-end ultraportable.
Design
The design and look of the Aspire S7-393-7451 is relatively unchanged since the first Aspire S7 was introduced in 2012, with the same aluminum unibody chassis, white Gorilla Glass-covered lid, and thin and light dimensions. This svelte ultrabook measures just 0.51 by 12.7 by 8.8 inches (HWD), and weighs only 2.87 pounds. That's even slimmer than the 0.6-inch-thick Dell XPS 13 Touch and 0.54-inch-thick Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus.
View All That thin profile is especially impressive when you consider the fact that the laptop's 13.3-inch full HD (1,920-by-1,080) display is a touch screen, which usually adds thickness. The display has an In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel, providing excellent sharpness, brightness, and color quality from nearly any angle. The screen also opens out to a maximum of 180 degrees, so you could use the laptop as a flat, shared display for another person or group. The accompanying speakers with Dolby audio enhancements are also very good, with clear sound and enough volume to fill a room, but there's a very slight buzz at high volumes.
The chiclet-style keyboard is just as thin, 
with the minimal key travel you might expect, but the underlying switches provide a fair amount of resistance, and don't feel flimsy. The plastic keycaps have a silver, metallic finish, with backlit lettering. The backlighting is also automatic, adjusting to the room's lighting on its own, though you can tweak the brightness or turn it on and off manually. The one issue we've seen more than once with the Aspire S7 is that the silver finish on the keys, when combined with the backlighting, makes the lettering nearly invisible under certain lighting conditions.
Features
The slim design of the Aspire S7 doesn't leave a lot of room for ports, but there are still a few. On the right you'll find a mini DisplayPort, an HDMI output, a USB 3.0 port, and a headset jack. On the left is the laptop's Power connector and Power button, along with a second USB 3.0 port and an SD card slot.
