Acer S3 Ultrabook: A Dangerous, Thin Laptop

Family Tech with Christina

January 11, 2012 at 8:53 pm
by Christina Tynan-Wood

I got an Acer S3 Ultrabook ($899) in to review a few weeks ago. And now I am wishing I had ignored it or sent it back with a cursory glance. Something. Because now I’m in deep. This Ultrabook will leave soon. And then, I will have to go back to using the laptop I actually own. Every day, I dread the email requesting it back. I’m living on borrowed time.

It didn’t seem like such a big deal when it arrived. Sure, it’s startlingly thin. Yes, it powers on instantly the way a tablet does. And it leaps speedily onto the Internet. (Unlike my own laptop that makes me wait seemingly forever while it gathers itself together –tapping a foot impatiently does nothing to spur it on — before I can jot a note or look something up on the Internet.) The folks at Acer told me all that. They also told me it was as light as a magazine (2.98 lbs.) but with a full-size keyboard and 13.3” screen. I knew all that going in. But next to the tablets and 4G cell phones that were launching at the same time and seemed so new and sexy, it was still just another laptop. Right?

Sure. Except now I’m hooked. They should have called it Crackbook. I find myself working up crazy savings schemes and looking around for things I can sell to pay for it. Before the Ultrabook, I spent a lot of time using a tablet, carried a phone for times when I didn’t have my tablet, and only brought out my laptop for serious work. Now it’s me and the Ultrabook – with a phone nearby. This is a combo I can fit into a slim bag. But with that bag, I can work at full capacity anywhere I am. Why tap at a screen with one finger when I can fly through an email using all ten? The Ultrabook slides almost as easily into my bag as a tablet yet it does everything – faster – my desktop can do.

And this one is just the beginning. The Ultrabook is being touted as the next major step in laptop design and several more were announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. In fact, Acer unveiled its next Ultrabook, the S5, on Wednesday. It is alleged to be smaller, lighter, and even cooler. It will be available in the second quarter of 2012. Here is a photo of it. Just be careful or you might find yourself jonesing for one, too.

 

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