ACER has kicked off the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas by announcing what it claims is the world’s thinnest Ultrabook, some 15mm thick at its widest point.
Acer’s media conference, held two days ahead of the official CES show, sets the scene for tough competition in 2012 between manufacturers readying to pump out Ultrabooks, which are small, thin yet powerful notebook computers with form factors similar to Apple’s MacBook Air.
Unlike regular notebooks, Ultrabooks have special Intel dual core processors coupled with inbuilt graphics, capable of performing many of the functions of high-end computers such as video editing and gaming.
Acer’s Aspire S5 weighs less than 1.35kg, has a 13.3-inch LCD, claims an instant-resume functionality of 1.5 seconds and battery life that Acer says will last several weeks in sleep state.
It has a black magnesium-aluminum alloy cover and looks less like the MacBook Air than other Ultrabooks so far. The Aspire is due to ship in the second quarter.
Acer today did not reveal the price of its Ultrabook, however general pricing of less than $1000 will be crucial if the Ultrabook is to be successful, given that powerful notebooks weighing a little more that are not technically Ultrabooks can be bought for about $500.
Analyst Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies told AFP the S5 was “quite significant”.
“It looks like the thinnest and lightest, and it sets the bar for the rest of the ultrabook vendors,” Mr Bajarin said.
Intel’s Ultrabook form factor also faces competition from high-end tablet computers and a new line of “Ultrathin” notebooks — rival AMD’s version of the Ultrabook that are due for release in Australia early this year.
Acer also announced 14-inch and 15-inch models of its Aspire Timeline Ultra notebooks with eight hours of battery life, dual core Intel processors, around 20mm thick, dedicated graphics for 3D gaming, and a slim DVD optical drive.
Acer also will roll out a cloud service — AcerCloud, which will allow users to retrieve multimedia and data files on any Acer mobile device. Acer said it would include AcerCloud on all new Acer consumer PCs without additional cost. By: Chris Griffith, The Australian