Inspect a gadget: the new Acer Aspire Switch 12 notebook

Life is hard for laptops. They can’t just be one thing anymore. With Windows 8 being an operating system built to work with touchscreens, they are stuck in a constant identity crisis. Unless they are a MacBook, of course.

Take Acer’s new offering. The Switch 12 is selling itself as a five-in-one notebook. It can be used as a laptop, a desktop, a tablet, a tent (huh?) and display. Personally, I would call it a three-in-one: it can be used in notebook configuration, as a (heavy) tablet that can be positioned flat, tilted or in an upright position (as any tablet on a stand might) and as a “desktop”, in that the keyboard detaches.

This is most useful for working on the Tube (or the front row at fashion shows, I’m assured). Keep everything but the keyboard in your bag and just type, type, type — without looking. You can correct mistakes later (in desktop configuration).

Trying to be all things to all people is inevitably going to mean compromise. This computer is no looker. Oddly, you also can’t just open it up clamshell-style and start using it as a laptop. The screen faces the wrong way — always on the outside when the notebook is closed — so you have to detach the keyboard and slot it in on the other side.