Hardware

The right blueprints

I've never been so mad at stickers. I always hate the Intel and Ultrabook squares that adorn just about every Windows laptop, but here they're particularly offensive. They're the only pock marks on what is otherwise one of the most beautiful, well-crafted laptops I've ever used. From the white Gorilla Glass lid to the glittering silver magnesium alloy and aluminum chassis, this 0.51-inch-thick notebook is as attractive as it is well-crafted.

In a lot of ways, it’s better-designed than the MacBook Air. Every detail appears to have been considered, like the slight underbite of the lid that makes it easier to pry open (though at 2.87 pounds it's so light you'll need to hold it in both hands lest you pull it off your desk while you open the lid). From the glowing logo to the hinge-mounted fan that looks cool rather than simply necessary, it’s everything a laptop should be — and perhaps as importantly, nothing more.

Acer combined the function row with the number keys on the keyboard, which is a little confusing. The number, function, and F1–F12 keys are combined into two crowded rows, which meant I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to toggle Wi-Fi on my flight (it’s on the Q key), but it's not so bad once train your pinky to find the Fn key. It also makes the keyboard five rows instead of six, and the tray appears much smaller and more refined.

The keys are big and have much more travel than on last year's model, but they're just as responsive; this is one of my favorite keyboards to type on. The backlight is still so uneven that the keys can be hard to identify in the dark — the Sony VAIO Pro had a similar problem, and it's just ugly. But even though it's not perfect, it’s great.

The trackpad, as with any Windows 8 machine, is good and bad. It's relatively smooth, a completely usable pointer, and while I can't stand that it's not centered on the palmrest it's plenty big and clicky. Even though all too often the trackpad thinks I'm selecting text when all I want to do is scroll with two fingers, it's still one of the better Windows 8 trackpads out there — just go to Settings and extend the area on the right side that acts as a scroll bar, and you'll be fine.