Acer Aspire S3 UltraBook Review

By Sameer Mitha | Updated: 5 June 2012 16:23 IST

Highlights

Today we have the first Ultrabook to hit the Indian streets, the Acer Aspire S3. Does this define the birth of a new category or are you better of “aspiring” for a MacBook Air?

Steve Jobs was right: Netbooks aren't better at anything, they are just cheap laptops. With the introduction of the MacBook Air back in 2008, ultraportable laptops with great battery life and decent power under the hood seemed like a reality. It was only in 2010 that the Air achieved this status.

Now, Intel plans to take on the MacBook Air with the invention of a new ultraportable notebook category conveniently called the Ultrabook. The criteria for any manufacturer who wants to produce Ultrabooks are simple. The device needs to be thin, under 0.8-inches; lightweight, under 1.4kgs; and should have a battery life of minimum 5 hours. The price of these Ultrabooks needs be maintained around the $1000 mark, which is roughly Rs. 50,000. Remember, the bottom of the line MacBook Air 11-inch costs Rs. 56,900 and the top of the line 13-inch costs Rs. 89,900

Today we have the first Ultrabook to hit the Indian streets, the Acer Aspire S3. Does this define the birth of a new category or are you better of "aspiring" for a MacBook Air?

First Impression

The first impressions of the device are truly mixed. The device is very slim and light. It is just 1.3 centimeters (around 0.5-inches) in height and weighs about 1.4kgs. It has a greyish lid with a brushed aluminum finish, which makes it look very elegant. Open up the lid however and the result is a bit disappointing. You are greeted with a 13.3-inch WXGA display with a grey plastic border. The resolution of the display is 1366x768. This feels like a bit of a letdown considering the MacBook Air has pushed the display resolution to 1400 x 900.

The rest of the device has a plastic finish to it and the keys are chiclet style with rounded edges. The track pad has taken a leaf out of Apple's book in terms of looks. It is a single piece - plastic, unlike the Air's glass - and the left and right clicks aren't separate buttons but integrated with the track pad. The track pad is smaller than the ones found on the MacBook Air.

The power button rests on a rubber strip just above the keyboard on the hinge of the device along with the LED indicators for power and HDD use. In terms of connectivity, the device has the SD card reader on the right along with a single jack for the headphones and mic on the left.

In terms of ports, the device has 2USB ports; HDMI out and the DC charging port that are neatly laid out at the back of the device. The position of the rear ports is inconvenient and we would have liked to see USB 3.0 making an appearance on the debutant Ultrabook.

The build quality of the overall device feels very plastic and a little flimsy. The device gives the appearance of a uni-body design but isn't. The body of the device is pretty to look at but upon closer inspection feels very plastic. The keys seem to be well laid out but essential utility keys seem to have been compromised upon. Enter, navigation, page up and page down keys feel cramped together and using them is very frustrating.

Performance

In terms of raw horsepower under the hood, the Acer Aspire S3 packs in quite a punch. It has the Intel 2nd Gen Core i5 processor clocking in at 1.6 GHz with 3MB of L3 Cache memory, 4GB DDR3 RAM, a 20GB SSD (for the OS and boot) and a 320GB HDD, Intel integrated graphics, 1.3MP camera and Bluetooth 4.0. The device runs on a 3-cell lithium ion 3280mAh battery. For a device that has an SSD to boot, the device took a good 37-sec to reach the desktop screen, which in our books is a tad slow. If you just shut the lid of the machine without logging off and decide to resume work, the Ultrabook resumes to the login screen in just 1.5sec, which is fast. Acer has also added a deep sleep option on the device that ensures longer battery life for the device. This is great for those of you always in a rush and need your device to switch on in an instant. From deep sleep to the login screen, the device boots in about 6 seconds.

In the benchmark scores, the device performance was matched with the average laptop. In the 3D mark test, the device scored 3239. Don't expect all your games to run on this device but it will give you an average performance of the most popular games available today in the market.

In terms of everyday use, the device is a mixed bag. It is ultraportable with its form factor but its overall build quality is under par. Start typing on the keyboard and you will know exactly what we mean. The keyboard is well spaced apart from the exceptions mentioned earlier. The keys are springy to type on but feel cheap in their overall build. If you type for long, you will feel as though at some point the keys will break.

The track pad on the other hand is a different story. Borrowing from the MacBook's design it is easy to use and elegant in its design. It is fairly smooth to navigate on but lacks the size the MacBook Air offers. Overall, the trackpad is fairly good.

Multitasking and surfing the web on the device is good. You will face a lot of glare if you use the device in direct sunlight but otherwise it seems to be convenient enough to use in a coffee shop.

Speaking of coffee shops, you need to have a battery life to accommodate the portability of the device. Run the device to its fullest potential and it will last you for about 2 hours. That's it. Use it conservatively and you may just touch the 4-hour mark depending on your usage. The battery life isn't anything to boast about but it is better than what is found on most entry level notebooks. One of the reasons why the battery suffers is that the device has an HDD along with the SSD. The advantage is 320GB storage as the largest SSD available today is 256GB.

Multimedia

You will undoubtedly look for some entertainment on the go and the device performs averagely in this matter. It can run full 1080p videos without any hiccups courtesy the second gen Sandy Bridge processors. The colours on the device look bright but lack the overall vibrancy. The blacks look deep but the ambient light affects your viewing. The viewing angles of the device aren't the best either. We also wish the screen resolution would have been bumped up from 1366 x 768 to at least 1400 x 900. You know.... Going beyond 720p HD!

The audio from the speakers is a lackluster experience altogether. There are two speakers located on the bottom panel of the device on the left and right side. The device does boast of Dolby Home Theater v4 under the hood and this did add depth to the audio but the bass was absent and at full volume the device felt underwhelming, not to mention the distortion at very high frequencies. Even if you decide to use headphones to take advantage of the Dolby Home Theater v4 technology the quality of output will entirely depend on how good your headphones are.

The device does have a 1.3MP camera for video chatting that does get the job done adequately.

Verdict

If you were waiting for the ultimate MacBook Air killer in the form of an Ultrabook then you will have to wait a little longer (till the end of November) as this debutant is a bland performer overall. We would suggest you wait for the Ultrabooks from Asus, Lenovo and Toshiba to hit the streets before you make your purchase decision.

Pros

Sleek and slim design
Good performance
Nice track pad

Cons

Keyboard feels a bit cramped
No USB 3.0
Inconvenient placement of ports
The overall display could have been better

Price: Rs. 49,990

Specifications:

Intel Core i5 2nd gen processor clocked at 1.6GHz
4GB RAM
20GB SSD, 320 GB HDD
13.3-inch display with a resolution of 1366x768
Intel integrated HD graphics
1.3MP webcam
HDMI Out

Comments

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Further reading: acer, acer aspire s3, acer aspire s3 india launch, acer aspire s3 price in india, acer aspire s3 review, acer ultrabook, ultrabooks

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