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Monday 24 October 2011

Acer launches Ultrabook, a Macbook Air competitor at almost half the price!

Acer India has announced the launch of the Aspire S3 Ultrabook, that they claim is the “world’s thinnest Ultrabook”. The Ultrabook S3 will essentially be the Windows stable’s response to the extremely sleek Apple MacBook Air.

To enable instant connectivity, Acer have introduced two types of sleep mode with this machine- Sleep that will resume Windows in 2 seconds and Deep Sleep that will restore your last Windows session in 6 seconds. This laptop comes with Lithium Polymer batteries, and not the usual Lithium-Ion batteries that we were seeing with most devices over the last few years. Acer claims that the battery offers 7 hours of usage time and a standby time of 50 days.

Mr. W S Mukund, Managing Director, Acer India said, “In line with our corporate mission we have time and again designed devices to break barriers between people and technology. We have redefined our position in the marketplace by making India’s first Ultrabook commercially available at a mainstream price. We will continue to focus on our strengths to bring in innovative technologies that would enable consumers to experience technology and derive multiple benefits.”



The S3 comes with a 13.3-inch HD LED display, a choice of Intel Core i3 and Core i5 processors, 240GB SSD or the 320GB/500GB HDD, Intel HD graphics, HDMI out and weights about 1.4kg. The magnesium aluminum chassis and the fingerprint free metal finish offer a classy look.

The prices of the Aspire S3 Ultrabook start at Rs 49,999/-, and Croma have announced they will be selling it at all their outlets in 13 cities.



Our initial impressions about the product
The S3 does look pretty classy, and feels well built as well. Putting a MacBook Air right next to it put the critical point – the slimness, to test. Both laptops are similarly thick towards the rear, but as you come towards the front, the Air gets slimmer more than the S3. While the Air offers all the ports on the sides, the S3 offers a majority of them on the back. Quite profound are the cooling vents, since this is the thickest part of the machine. Contrast this to the MacBook Air, which hides away the vents under the display hinge.

The Chiclet keypad was quite comfortable to use. The unit on display came preloaded with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, 320GB hard drive and Intel HD 3000 graphics. Even though it is a 64-bit OS, only 3.85GB of the total 4GB RAM was available for the system. The rest has been reserved to enable the new Sleep modes. The Windows Experience Index of 4.5 does indicate a stable performance.

We believe that at a starting price of Rs 49,999 with a second gen Intel Core i3 processor and a 320GB hard drive, the S3 does seem like a good deal. What you will get is a very sleek and solidly build notebook, something that is very light to carry around and has the Windows familiarity about it. We will give you our detailed verdict when we get the laptop for a detailed review. Do stay tuned for that.

Specifications
 
Operating system1
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit2
 
CPU and chipset1
Intel® Core i5-2467M processor
Intel® Core i3-2367M processor
 
Mobile Intel® UM67 Express Chipset
Memory1, 3, 4,
4 GB of DDR3 system memory on board5
Display
13.3" HD 1366 x 768 resolution, high-brightness (200-nit) Acer CineCrystal LED-backlit TFT LCD
Mercury-free, environment-friendly
Super-slim design
16:9 aspect ratio
Graphics
Intel® HD Graphics 3000
Audio
Optimized Dolby® Home Theater® v4 audio enhancement6
Two built-in Acer 3DSonic stereo speakers
High-definition audio support
MS-Sound compatible
Built-in digital microphone
Storage
Hard disk drive:7320 GB1, 8
 
2-in-1 card reader, supporting: SD, MMC
Webcam
Acer Video Conference,1 featuring:
·      Acer Crystal Eye HD webcam with 1280 x 1024 resolution, 720p HD audio/video recording
·      Acer Video Conference Manager software with Video Quality Enhancement (VQE) technology, supporting online video calls9
Wireless and networking
WLAN:1, 10 11
·    Acer InviLink Nplify 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi CERTIFIED
·    Supporting Acer SignalUp wireless technology
WPAN:1 Bluetooth® 4.0+HS
Privacy control1
BIOS user, supervisor, HDD passwords
Dimensions and weight
Dimensions: 323 (W) x 218.5 (D) x 13.1/17.5 (H) mm (12.59 x 8.52 x 0.51/0.68 inches)
Weight: 1.35 kg (2.98 lbs.)12 for models with HDD
Power adapter and battery2
Power adapter: 3-pin 65 W AC adapter
Onboard battery: Acer PowerSmart long-life battery, supporting up to 1,000 charge cycles13
Battery life:14  6 hours for models with HDD; Up to 50 days using Acer Green Instant On technology15
ENERGY STAR®
Input and control
Keyboard: 84-/85-/88-key full-size Acer FineTip keyboard with international language support
Touchpad: Multi-gesture touchpad, supporting two-finger scroll, pinch, rotate, flip
Media keys: Dedicated volume up, volume down keys; Mute key (Fn+F8)
Software16
Productivity
·   Acer ePower Management
·   Deep Sleep Settings
·   Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1
·   Adobe® Reader® 9.1
·   AUPEO! (US only)
·   Bing Bar
·   eSobi
·   Microsoft® Office Starter 2010: Includes limited-functionality Microsoft® Word and Excel with advertising; no PowerPoint or Outlook. Buy Office 2010 to use the full-featured software. (except Japan)
 
·   Norton Online Backup
·   Windows Live Essentials1
Security             
·   McAfee® Internet Security Suite Trial17
·   MyWinLocker®1 (except China, Hong Kong)
Multimedia
·   Acer clear.fi
·   NTI Media Maker
Gaming
·   Acer Games powered by WildTangent®1 (except China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea)
Communication and ISP
·   Acer Crystal Eye
·   Acer Video Conference Manager1
 
·   Microsoft® Silverlight
·   Skype
Web links and utilities
·   Acer Identity Card
·   Acer Registration
·   Acer Updater
·   eBay® shortcut1 (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, India, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, US, UK only)
 
Option
2-pin 65 W AC adapter
Warranty
One-year International Travelers Warranty (ITW)

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