Acer Aspire S3 ultrabook

The Acer Aspire S3 was launched in my neck of the woods. Pretty impressive, especially the price which is US$900.

Specifications:

13.3″ LCD display @ 1366×768 pixels
Intel Core i5 2467M 1.6Ghz dual-core
4GB DDR3 RAM
20GB SSD + 320GB SATA HDD
Intel HD Graphics 3000 w/ 128MB RAM
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
2-in-1 card reader
USB 2.0 port
HDMI port
Windows 7 Home Premium

Looks pretty good for the price.

Local coverage:

Mobile Raptor
Pinoy Tech Blog
Yugatech

 

Yes - seems pretty good for the price.
I pre-ordered one of these from Amazon yesterday.

Hopefully it will ship soon - then I can compare the the MBA I have.

 

What would be really nice is if the sold one without an operating system

 

first review is up by laptopmag and guess what its very bad good job acer another fail

Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook Design, Heat, Keyboard, Display, & Ports Reviewed | Ultraportables Reviewed | Laptop Reviews

 

Here is a review from Engadget: Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook review -- Engadget

The Laptopmag article seems to read like US$200 price differences don't matter and they expect it to be as good as the MacBook Air priced at US$400-US$700 more.

They also got the price difference with the Asus UX31 wrong. It is US$200 less than the UX31 with a 128GB SSD, but US$450 less than the UX31 with a 256GB SSD.

That being said, I do think that Laptopmag is correct about the Asus U36 being a better choice, but for some reason they only gave that laptop 3.5 stars in their review.

 

The Asus UX31 base model has the 1.7 ghz I5-2557, is a few ounces lighter than the S3, comes with a 2 year/1year accidential warranty, has a 400 nits, 600-1 contrast, 1600 x 900 resolution display w/full metal keyboards and 128 gb ssd. Some retailers are selling the base unit for under $1k. I don't know why anyone would pick the Acer S3 over the UX31.

Acer needs to step up its game if it is going to compete in this category.

 

As always it depends on the price. I've seen Asus UX31 for $1099 and Acer S3 for $900. That's $200 difference for virtually the same CPU, some SSD and resolution which you either like/need or not.

Acer may come on top with this one- $200 is a noticeable difference in that price-range and I don't think screen resolution or screen quality will make a difference here (people will not be able to compare them directly).

If you ask me both prices are too high for what essentially is a netbook on steroids

 

For the price of a UX31... you could get the S3 and a KindleFire

When I get to US$1,099 I start thinking... just a little more for a MacBook Air.

 

I agree with you on the 11.6" ultrabooks like the UX21. I just bought my daughter a Samsung Series 3 11.6" /w I3 SB CULV processor & decent matt HD display. Staples was selling them for $349.99. This is what Acer should have been doing with the 1830T.

I like the 13" size for my business ultralight. Business users like the ultrathin that they can squeeze into a briefcase and forget the second bag. I think the UX31 is a far better value than the S3. The consumers of this type of computer will spend the extra $ for better equipment.

 

Asus has taken the high road. It does not compete all that much with a MacBook Air on price. It tries to compete by creating a better product. I do not know if that will work. If it did, the Asus U36 should have been selling like hotcakes by now.

The Acer S3, I do not know how well it will do. But if you need more than 128GB built in storage on a 3 pound 13-inch laptop it is by far the cheapest option, being US$450 cheaper than the Asus UX31 with a 256GB SSD and US$700 cheaper than the 13-inch 256GB MacBook Air.

My guess, in this economy it wont do so bad. It works, its cheap and is easy on the shoulder. People really have other things to spend their money on. But expecting "as good" at a lower price is a bit unrealistic.

When it comes time to replacing my MBA, I for one will be happy to have lower cost options.

Would be nice to see low cost AMD E-450 "ultrabooks".

 

The Asus UX31 was released less than a week ago and it is alread sold out from the half-dozen retailers that had them at the release.