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After a lukewarm reception with its first-gen ultrabook, Acer is ready for a second round. The new Aspire S5 is being touted as the thinnest ultrabook currently available, measuring just 15mm at its thickest point. It will be interesting to see if that new benchmark holds on by the time CES is over this week, but in the meantime Acer is happy to show the S5's thin frame composed of a magnesium-aluminum alloy cover and palmrest with brushed metallic accents.
The S5 is a 13.3-inch laptop weighing in at about 3 pounds, powered by a yet-to-be-announced Intel Core processor (we suspect Ivy Bridge), it will come stock with a SSD drive, Dolby audio, and Acer's Instant On for fast boot and back from sleep times of 1.5 seconds. Acer has further refined the ultrabook by concealing much of its connectivity ports behind a push-panel below the hinge, where you will find a 20 Gbps Thunderbolt port, HDMI and USB 3.0 ports.
Acer's previous S3 ultrabook was a relatively good value, but it was criticized for being too plasticky and for not running long enough on battery. Acer seems to be specifically addressing those shortcomings and more with the S5. The ultrabook is not expected to ship until Q2 however.
Also new is Acer's Timeline Ultra which is an evolution of their previous Timeline models, or if you want, a 14 and 15-inch alternative to the sea of ultrabooks that usually come in the 13.x" form factor. The Timeline Ultra is 20mm thick, offers 8 hours of battery life, uses today's Core i processors, SSD or HDD option, HDMI out, USB 3.0, and surprisingly a slim optical drive unit. The Timeline Ultra laptops are expected to ship this quarter.
Acer is also talking about their "Always Connect" technology, present in both the Timeline Ultra and the S5 ultrabook, letting users access files and media from smartphones or tablets, even while the computer is on sleep mode.
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User Comments: 10
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Sarcasm said:
All this mumbo jumbo about thin laptops is ridiculous since it all looks the same when you look at it directly. And for some stupid reason I want one.
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cos its sexy
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So if this keeps going on and on then the final ultimate ultrabook is going to be a laptop the size of a 13,3" piece of laminated aluminum
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i wish they could make one close to the mac book air (looks wise)
sadly nothing's come close =[
going into college soon though, probably going to end up buying a mac book air and putting windows on it with a bootable USB >.<
YEAH I KNOW! wtf kind of idea is that!?
i just DO NOT get mac and dont have the time to learn it, at this moment
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The last laptop I purchased was rendered useless not far into its life from the area around the hinge cracking and splitting open. I hope this laptop is as sturdy as it is small.
As a techie, I love seeing things like this. It gets me exciting for the future of technology where our computers will be flexible and nearly weightless translucent sheets of circuitry coated in plastic.
As a large hairy man, I'm scared I'd break this thing in my large clumsy hands.
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Let me guess, all of the laptops mentioned in the article will only come with 1366x678 resolution and no option for a higher res display.
P.S. Why is it that the resolution options of today's laptops is so much WORSE than it was 5 years ago -- it is so bad that even a PHONE has almost better resolution than most of the laptops out there, and soon most premium TABLETS will DEFINITELY have better resolutions...
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Is it too much wanting it to have blu-ray in it? Then, it would be perfect and one more would be sold...
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They do make an alternative to macbook air. Samsumg series 9. I've had one for six months and it is fantastic. But just as pricey as mac.
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If they all have useless 1366x768 screens, then still not interested.
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it's great to her it...excellent work done by acer ... ihate heavy laptops...guess i have a option now....
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