Acer Ultrabook Spotted Early For $1,130 USD
An Italian online retailer is currently listing Acer's Ultrabook S3 – previously dubbed as the Aspire 3951 – for a non-Intel-friendly price of around $1,130 USD (€786). The base unit features a 13.3-inch screen measuring just 13-mm thick, an Intel Core i5-2467M processor, 4 GB of RAM, 320 GB of HDD space coupled with 20 GB of SDD space, and Intel HD 3000 graphics.
Tuesday Asus chairman Jonney Shih said the he expects both his company and Acer to rule the Ultrabook market for a while given that Dell and Toshiba are supposedly taking a cautious approach, and because HP is "abandoning" its PC business. Asus plans to hold a Ultrabook-themed press conference in October to reveal 5 or 6 models that are expected to ship this year alone.
By comparison, the upcoming Asus UX21 will measure 7-mm at the back and thinning out to a mere 3-mm at the front. It will be powered by Intel's 1.7 GHz Core i5-2557M processor (up to Core i7) and feature metal chiclet keys, a glass touchpad, 64 GB or 128 GB of storage, a mini-DisplayPort, a mini-HDMI port, USB 3.0 ports and more.
In related news, Samsung's upcoming Series 7 notebooks reportedly fall within Intel's Ultrabook specs, measuring less than an inch thick. Consumers will have a choice of 14-inch and 15.6-inch models which will sport an HD+ (1600 x 900) high resolution, a matte display featuring 16 million colors and 300 nit brightness.
In addition to the screen, the overall specs will include the second-generation Intel Core i5 and i7 processors, AMD Radeon HD6750M or HD6490M graphics, up to 8 GB of DDR3 RAM and up to 750 GB of HDD space. There's also 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, 3W (1.5 W x 2) stereo speakers, a 1.3MP and card reader. The Samsung Series 7 will be available starting October 2, 2011, and will retail between $999 and $1,299 USD, depending on the model.
You knew it had to be Acer.
Any 16:10 screens? That's what keeps me buying MacBook Pro's...
Yeah, I agree. Until mobile computing progresses through heat dissapation and battery power problems, I'll stick with the regular 500-750 dollar laptops. But, it is really good to see them packing that much hardware in such a small form factor. Very close till we see the next giant step in mobile computing since the laptop.
Instantly put me off.
> Instantly put me off.
Opposite for me. Guaranteed Linux support
you will have an option to choose a dedicated card from nvidia and amd
It needs to cost no more that $950
1) It is a price from Italy, many CE devices cost less in the US then they do there. This Italian website has iPads starting at 469 Euros, which would be around $670, more than 35% higher than the US pricing. Assuming that 35% is pretty close to the normal difference [I have no idea], then this $1130 notebook in Italy, might be more like $850 in the US.
2) All of that aside, did you even look at the specs? The 13.3" MacBook Air starts at $1299, not $999. The Acer has almost triple the storage, though the Mac has it all in SSD. Both have the same graphics and 4GB RAM.
So it has the same CPU that comes with the Macbook Air 11" has twice the memory and a bigger screen and still manages to be 17% cheaper. I'm not even going to mention the Macbook Air 13" because it's 37% more expensive.
Also a lot of people have barriers to seeing price tags over $1000.
Besides, HD 3000 can play a large portion of games out nowadays, just on only low settings. And older games and Source Engine games play well.
It comes with a hybrid drive. It has 320GB of HDD and 20GB of SSD.