Aspire

LAS VEGAS--Well, it can only get better from here, right?

Acer informally kicked off the Consumer Electronics Show's wave of press conferences today with the unveiling of the Timeline Ultra and Aspire S5, along with a look at its cloud services.

Missing were any concrete details of its tablet, as well as any information on its planned Windows 8 products.

With its laptop announcements, Acer is doubling down on the ultrabook segment. The products underscore the company's need to find a hot new category to spark revenue, particularly with its key Netbook business cratering. The trouble is, the … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Acer unveiled the Aspire S5, which it boasts is the world's thinnest Ultrabook.

The Aspire S5 is the second ultrabook that Acer announced today at its press conference ahead of the official start of the Consumer Electronics Show. With ultrabooks looking very similar in size and shape to each other, thinness has been on the key differentiators. Acer boasts that the device is only 15 millimeters at its maximum point.

Like the Acer Timeline Ultra, it offers an instant-on connection, allowing it to turn on within 1.5 seconds. The device will also get the same access to … Read more

Ultrabooks are available for the first time this holiday season. That calls for a quick survey of pricing since models have debuted at unexpectedly low prices.

As a refresher, ultrabooks are skinny (typically under 0.8 inches thick), lightweight (three pounds or less) laptops that offer mainstream mobile performance.

In short, they attempt to approximate the portability of a tablet while offering more horsepower via Intel processors. And, of course, they run full-blown Windows--not a minor point.

Pricing runs the gamut but the most-recently-released ultrabooks all fall below the $1,000 mark at retailers like Best Buy. That's important … Read more

The latest report on ultrabooks from Asia is the typical mix of odd assertions, gossip, and a smattering of speculation that could be categorized as news.

Tuesday's Digitimes report says, "Acer, Asustek Computer and Toshiba are expected to lower retail prices for ultrabooks to below US$1,000 by the end of 2011."

Let's see, we're well before the end of 2011 and already we have three ultrabooks priced under $1,000. The HP Folio 13 starts at $899, ditto for the Toshiba Portege Z835 (Model: Z835-P330--which was priced briefly at $799), and the Acer Aspire S3 (… Read more

Earlier this year, we were bombarded with news about Ultrabooks, a new category of laptop given a new name by Intel--these machines were meant to be improvements on the laptop as we've come to know it, with smartphone-like startup speed and wafer-thin, future-sexy designs.

So far, so good: the first few laptops we've seen that categorize themselves as Ultrabooks have all been excellent products. The Acer Aspire S3, the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s, and the Asus Zenbook UX31 all lived up to expectations, and all provide valid alternatives to the MacBook Air.

And yet, there's a problem. In my eyes, at least. And it's a big one. … Read more

Are future mainstream Ultrabooks going to usher in the hybrid hard-disk drive?

Acer may have kicked off this trend with the hybrid-drive-packing Ultrabook Aspire S3, which sports a 20GB solid-state drive matched with a standard 320GB spinning hard disk. So, will others follow? Yes, says a report in Digitimes.

Though a hybrid system can't match the performance of a 128GB SSD-only laptop, an ancillary 20GB drive is a relatively large chunk of flash compared with, for example, the 4GB SSD (or flash drive, if that's what you choose to call it) in the Seagate Momentus hybrid drive.

How … Read more

Call us skeptical (please do, we like it), but the Ultrabook concept always struck us as being a bit suspect.

Intel has been pushing for several months the idea of a new class of laptops that are slim and powerful with excellent battery life, but simply putting out a list of suggested specs and coining a name isn't the same thing as creating an entire new top-level category that can stand alongside ultraportable or desktop-replacement laptops.

On paper, the Ultrabook concept seemed like just a way to pitch Windows-based versions of Apple's popular MacBook Air, but now that … Read more

Asus is due to release its Ultrabook lineup on Tuesday, as vendor momentum in this new Windows laptop category gains steam.

The Asus Zenbook line is expected to start at under $1,000 and be populated with 11- and 13-inch models ranging up to $1,499.

The UX21 model, for example, will come with an 11.6-inch display, a Core i5 Intel Sandy Bridge processor, and a 128GB solid-state drive. The high-end 13.3-inch UX31 will have a Core i7 chip and 256GB SSD.

Models are also slated to come with beefed-up sound and USB 3.0 ports. The latter … Read more

Intel has been busily promoting the Ultrabook as an inexpensive Windows ultraportable laptop that will start at under $1,000. Well, Acer delivered on that promise today with the Aspire S3 that starts at $899.99.

The S3 is truly thin and light, not like the faux "ultrathins" of years past. The 13.3-inch chassis is 0.68 inches thick and weighs 2.98 pounds. That thickness is identical to the more expensive--at $1,299--MacBook Air, which weighs 2.96 pounds.

And price is important. Intel CEO Paul Otellini promised Ultrabooks would appear priced under $1,000. That's requirement No. 1 to compete effectively with the popular MacBook Air, which starts at $999.

Acer's S3 isn't the first sub-0.8-inch featherweight Windows laptop made from metal but it's the first in this price range: an $899 aluminum-clad, half-inch thick 13.3-inch laptop is truly a Windows milestone.

Acer Aspire S3-951 salient specs:… Read more