Acer’s Liquid-Cooled Hybrid Packs a Lot of Power for Not a Lot of Money

It ’s a mickle to ask a motorcar to be both a laptop and a tablet , but Acer comes damn close-fitting to nailing it with its newfangled Switch Alpha 12 . To make it work , Acer had to get weird with design .

Acer ’s not the first to try something strange to make a loan-blend that aggregate the public utility company of a laptop with the efficiency of a tablet . Microsoft , for example , embedded a distinct GPU in a keyboard that then dock with a tabletwhen making its Surface Book . But for the Switch Alpha 12 , Acer really thinks outside the box by install a built - in liquid cool down system of rules .

Acer ’s Switch Alpha 12 is another example of the growing number of computers trying to be the next organic evolution of the laptop computer PC . Almost every company now has a horse cavalry in that race , whether it ’s Apple ’s iPad Pro , Huawei ’s Matebook , or Samsung ’s TabPro S.

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

And like the others , the Switch Alpha 12 is a laptop computer - tablet hybrid . you may tell right out that it focuses most of its energy on being a laptop computer because of its most distinguishable feature article , that internal liquid cool off system . This tolerate the Alpha 12 to use a much more powerful mainframe than most other crossbreed while also being much quieter . It ’s a loanblend that really transform into a laptop without suck up .

Of of course , Microsoft has been building something interchangeable for year now with the Surface Pro , but Acer achieve almost the same carrying out for room less money . For a standardized Surface configuration to the Acer I reviewed ( i5 processor , 8 GB RAM , 256 GB SSD ) , Microsoft rouse almost $ 500 more , and that ’s not even including the keyboard , which Acer throw in for liberal .

For the last workweek , I ’ve exchange my normal work laptop — a Macbook Air — with Acer ’s Switch , and it completely holds up . With 8 GB of RAM and a sixth - generation Core i5 central processing unit , the Switch never hangs up and makes working with gobs of tabs ( a necessity for my job ) no problem at all . Granted , video editing would still be a task with just 8 GB of RAM , but then again you really should n’t be considering a hybrid in the first home .

William Duplessie

Acer also fits in a 12 - column inch IPS LCD panel with 2160×1440 firmness of purpose and it does n’t shun port like most loanblend . It maintain one USB 3.0 port for all your “ older ” peripherals , and a Type - 100 porthole for next - gen clobber . you could also charge the Switch via USB - C , though it comes with its own proprietary charger ( and extra power port ) . If you want to get some work done , which for me means powering an external mellow - Re show , you ’ll ask a Type - C sorrel .

In many way , the Switch Alpha 12 is the first cross I did n’t become almost forthwith frustrated with . That ’s because the Core i5 C.P.U. could really handle the work load . In fact it was so good , I could forgive some of Acer ’s quirkier design choices . The gadget ’s uneven bezels in particular go down off the OCD alarm in my psyche . Because Acer packed in all the ports on the right side of the equipment , it likely ask the extra internal blank space . In landscape painting orientation , the left bezel is about 16 millimeter and the right wing is 20 mm . Remember Acer : There is peach in symmetry .

Luckily , that uneasy tone melting away with time , but some other painful sensation spot do n’t melt so easily . Like almost every hybrid laptop out there , Acer has n’t quite work out the keyboard job . With 1.4 mm of locomotion , the typing experience is n’t a squishy mess like the Macbook or the Surface Pro 3 for the matter . But Microsoft ’s advance keyboard for the Pro 4 is much better . Acer ’s keyboard also has an annoying propensity to rattle when you type on it with any variety of force-out ( I ’m a bit of an … aggressive … typist ) . Listen to the difference between the Alpha 12 and the Surface Pro 4 ( in that club ):

Starship Test 9

Although not horrifically different , you may hear a charge plate - y rattle when tapping on the Acer keyboard that just is n’t there on the Surface Pro 4 or HP ’s Spectre X2 . you could easily solve this by just laying the keyboard plane of course , but it ’s not nearly as comfortable .

This might sound nit - finicky , but it show the “ decease by a thousand cuts ” that affects the Switch ’s full design . For another example : Acer uses an arm kickstand that ’s great for setting up in several positions on a desk , unlike Huawei ’s Matebook or Samsungs TabPro S , but a nightmare for lapability . Yes , it ’s even worse than the Surface .

Also , this matter is just heavy . approach 2lbs ( without the keyboard ) , the Alpha is almost a half - pound heavier than the iPad Pro in pad of paper mode . This is where you may see Acer sacrificing maybe a little minute too much while seek to make a piece of work political machine that ’s also mobile . One of the with child draws of hybrids are that they ’re conjecture to be less cumbersome than lugging around a full laptop computer . For the Acer Switch Alpha 12 , that ’s not really the caseful , consider some laptop computer , likethe ridiculously light Samsung Notebook 9 , are really light — keyboard and all .

Lilo And Stitch 2025

But it ’s really shelling life where the Switch Alpha falls deplorably short . When I ’d take the Alpha off the battery charger and keep working like normal ( running Slack , Spotify , and Chrome with a dozen or so tabs ) , I ’d be favourable if I made it an average of four to five 60 minutes . It ’s good to front at the Alpha 12 as powerful laptop that can make brief roving excursions for that meeting uptown , to shape at a coffee shop for a couplet hours , or to see a full picture show on the sofa . More often than not though , you ’ll be sticking that smutty brick charger in your bag wherever you go . bombardment lifetime is the Alpha ’s full-grown flaw .

Problems aside , the carrying into action you get with the Acer Switch Alpha 12 at just $ 800 is surprisingly impressive . But like most crossbreed , it ’s not for everyone . For the passionate laptop rooter the thin Samsung 9 is better — if devoid of touchscreen input . But if want a pill that actually serve as a fantastic laptop — if you may appear past its less - than - stellar battery living — the Alpha 12 is the budget - year Jagannatha you ’re looking for .