Review of Acer Aspire S5 / Timeline M3 Ultrabook
Space at a premium? Trying to look “hip” with one the latest trends coming from notebook and laptop manufacturers? Then an Ultrabook may be what you’re looking for! A whole host of companies have got in on the act and are now producing a range of notebooks under what Intel are calling Ultrabooks. Ultrabooks have been designed with the aim of reducing the size and weight in relation to the regular notebook, whilst extending battery life and still providing great performance for the end user. Obviously, with Ultrabook being the brainchild of Intel’s development crew, the notebooks all contain Intel Core processors in addition to a wide range of other, low power components such as Solid State Drives. These have been brought in in favour of their mechanical cousins for their versatility on the move (own up, who’s dropped their laptop before?) and extremely low power usage, which when you’re trying to get weeks of battery life out of your machine (as Acer are claiming with the specific Ultrabook we’re going to look at today) is extremely helpful.
Let’s start off with letting you know what exactly is inside the incredibly thin Acer Aspire S5 (it’s only 15mm thick at it’s thickest point!) and what will be powering it!
Main Components
CPU: Intel Ivy Bridge 1.7GHz
RAM: 8GB DDR3 (Up to)
HDD: SSD (Varying sizes)
Graphics: Intel HD4000
Additional Features
Built in microphone and webcam
1x HDMI – 2x USB3.0 – 1x ThunderBolt
13.3″ LCD Screen @ 1366×768
Weighs just 2.97lbs
MagicFlip I/O Ports
Dolby Home Theatre Audio
Chiclet Keyboard
Aesthetically, this specific Ultrabook is amazing. It looks extremely slick and the way it’s put together is very pleasing on the eye. Reports from users that have had hands on experience with this item have reported that it doesn’t feel “plasticy” and has a good feel about it, so on top of it’s great tech specs, this seems to be an all-together well thought out range from Acer. The Thunderbolt port that this Ultrabook has is an unusual but welcome addition, generally being found on MacBook Air/Pro’s, offering a very impressive up to 20Gbps data transfer rate, whilst Thunderbolt accessories are rare at present they will no doubt increase in popularity over the coming years.
Pleasant to look at AND packing a punch?
In addition to the Aspire S5, Acer have released the Aspire Timeline M3 which is being targetted at those who need a bit more “oomph” from their notebook. Being a 15 inch Ultrabook, it gives you a larger screen, although it is still stuck with a rather unimpressive resolution of 1366×768 and really, we expected something a bit more. One bonus however, is a dedicated graphics card in the form of a an NVIDIA GF640M which is more than adequate for a wide range of graphics work, as well as being able to handle a handful of the newer games! This is the first Ultrabook released that could really be considered as a main desktop replacement with the larger screen and improved graphics, yet it’s still extremely portable with a 20mm thickness. Wrapped in a magnesium alloy similar to the S5 it’s extremely durable and feels very solid.
All in all, the Acer range of Ultrabooks are looking impressive and I’m excited to see what the rest of the year will bring for competing manufacturers and to see what the future holds for this Intel led brand of notebooks.