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Acer Aspire S5 Ultrabook arriving this month for $1,400, S3 gets updated with Ivy Bridge and new color
It was only last week that Acer unveiled its first touchscreen Ultrabook, so you'd be forgiven if you forgot about the company's other pinch-thin laptop -- the one that was announced back in January at CES. That would be the Aspire S5, and now, five months later, it's finally going on sale. We just got word that it will hit shelves the last week of this month, with a starting price of $1,400. To recap (in case you've been overwhelmed by all the Ultrabooks on display lately), this is the one with the motorized, drop-down door hiding HDMI, USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt ports. If fourteen hundred bucks seems expensive, remember that these specs (a Core i7 Ivy Bridge processor and 256GB SSD) are actually pretty standard for the money. And, at 2.65 pounds, it's lighter than almost every other 13-inch Ultrabook we've seen. Still, at that price we'd expect something a little crisper than a 1366 x 768 display. For what it's worth, too, the S5 is the first product to ship in the US with the company's free AcerCloud service baked in. In brief, you get unlimited storage for backing up your stuff, all of which you can access remotely using an Android app (Acer has said iOS and Windows Phone versions are on the way). As with other syncing services, your computer needs to be asleep, not powered-off, in order for you to retrieve your files, so avoid shutting down if you think you'll need to reach into your PC later. In other news, Acer is refreshing its first-gen S3 Ultrabook with a new champagne color, and will now offer it with an Ivy Bridge Core i7 processor and 256GB hard drive. The starting price has dropped to $648 with a Sandy Bridge CPU, with the highest-end models fetching about $1,000. Look for these upgraded models sometime next week.%Gallery-158067%
Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook with Intel Core i7 can be yours now, SSD in tow
If we got your Spidey senses tingling when we put the Core i5 powered Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook through the wringer, you can now snag an i7 model. Need a quick refresher? The 13.3-inch beaut tips the scales at just about 3 pounds, awakes from naps with haste (in about two seconds) and features a 240GB SSD. Should you splurge for this speedy Intel Core i7 model, prepare yourself to part with $1,299. If you're looking to spend a little less -- it is the holidays, after all -- you can opt for the version we reviewed for a mere $899. Head on over to your favorite retailer to grab yours now, but don't go far without your charger... that battery life is nothing to write home about.
Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook review
Until now, Windows fans have had precious few alternatives to the MacBook Air. Sure, there's Samsung's Series 9, but just like the original Air, it's far from cheap. Since then, of course, Apple has cut the Air's starting price to $999, while the Windows options -- now marketed as Ultrabooks -- are about to mushroom in number. And so far, they're all starting in the (more reasonable) neighborhood of a thousand bucks, making these pinch-thin, long-lasting laptops accessible to the budget-conscious masses. Acer's Aspire S3 was the first to hit the market here in the States, and with an entry price of $899, it's currently the least expensive. That it's skinny (just 13mm thick, to be exact), should be a given, but it also claims to wake from sleep in two seconds flat and reconnect to known networks in two and a half. But, as the least pricey Ultrabook on the shelf, it also forgoes some specs you might have liked to see -- namely, all-flash storage and USB 3.0. But does that matter much when you're potentially saving hundreds of dollars? Let's find out. %Gallery-136411%
Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook opened up for the FCC, should have showered first
Dark stains aside, it looks like the S3's WiFi and Bluetooth credentials are all in order so we'll hopefully see its skinny 17mm (0.67-inch) form stateside before too long. The regulatory teardown pics don't tell us a great deal, but then we already know plenty from our earlier hands-on: a choice of Core i3, i5 and i7 processors, a 13.3-inch (1366 x 768) display and a competitive €799 European price tag, not to mention some heavy expectations from the Ultrabook promoters at Intel.
