After a ceremony celebrating the Lunar New Year chairman JT Wang talked strategy for the new year and said they would compete not on price, but on user experience. The notebook maker rose to the upper echelon in global sales a few years ago thanks to the popularity of netbooks, which put it on the map for many consumers.

Now that netbooks are no longer rising steadily, Acer doesn’t intend to let the momentum drop off. They’re going to dominate the mid market of $299 – $499 priced devices. That’s tablet and netbook country.

However, ultrabooks are the big story these days, and no one (including Acer) is selling one for anywhere near that price point. Wong claims that netbooks and ultrabooks will merge by 2014.

Does that mean ultrabooks will get down to netbook pricing by that time, as others have predicted, or that ultrabooks will also come in 10-inch sizes, thus cutting down on some costs? That would make me happy — a super thin 10-inch machine with a Core i3 CPU and maybe even Nvidia’s Kepler graphics? Sign me up right this instant.

I suspect that Wong is thinking more along price lines, not size-wise.

It’s good to know that the company isn’t abandoning netbooks completely. But i think I’ll be sad when one day they merge into the ultranetbookmachine or whatever it will be called at that point.

Thanks NebookNews!

Acer: Netbook And Ultrabook Will Merge is a post by K. T. Bradford from Notebooks.com.

While Intel is still hammering out the details of these new 3rd generation Intel Core i family of chips, Golem.de was able to run a sneaky performance test on the Acer Aspire A5 at CES 2012, and has posted the results of rhte benchmarking.

We saw the Acer Aspire S5, and you can check out the hands on video here, but we weren’t able to run any benchmarks.

The Acer Aspire S5 has an Ivy Bridge processor and Intel 4000HD graphics, which delivers an improved graphics experience. In the 3D graphics test which you can see below, the S5 was able to deliver 12.17 FPS, which is better than the 8.36 FPS that Ultrabooknews was able to achieve on the current generation of Ultrabooks.

The good news is that these results will likely be better when the Ivy Bridge processor comes out in the middle of 2012. The demo units shown at CES 2012 did not likely include final hardware and software, or optimizations which will provide better performance.

The CPU benchmark delivered by Cinebench was 2.38, an improvement of Ultrabooknews’ 2.11 result on second generation Intel Core i processors.

You can watch the Cinebench 3D benchmark in the video below.

We’re looking forward to the next crop of Ultrabooks using the new Intel Core i 3rd generation processor. Intel showed off a gaming demo at CES 2012, to highlight the abilities of the new processors, which you can see below for a more visual representation.

Sneaky Ultrabook Test Shows Off Intel Ivy Bridge Performance is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Acer is touting the Aspire S5 as the world’s thinnest ultrabook. It is super sleek and small for a 13 incher, but so are most other systems in this category.

What gives the S5 an edge is the innovative way Acer managed to incorporate the ports. It’s reminiscent of the way ports fit on the first MacBook Air and Samsung’s Series 9 — flip-down drawers — but instead of putting them on the left or right sides, it’s on the back of the device. They’ve dubbed this MagicFlip, and the drawer is controlled by a button on the deck, opening and closing smoothly.

When open, the port drawer tilts the back of the system up a bit and it will stay that way until you press the button again.

Acer Aspire S5 MagicFlip Demo

It’s not clear if keeping the port drawer open while you type on and use the notebook is good for the mechanism, but they have to expect people will do since most of the ports are back there. The S5 has two USB 3.0, a full-size HDMI, and a Thunderbolt port in the MagicFlip drawer plus an SD card slot on one side.

The notebook itself has a sturdy magnesium alloy chassis and a tapering design, but it manages not to just look like a MacBook Air clone. It’s also not too flashy, just a dark brushed finish, which we’ve come to expect from Acer laptops in general. At the thickest point the S5 measures just 0.59 inches and the notebook weighs just 2.97 pounds. Though not the lightest ultrabook on the block, it feels lighter than it is and has a nice holdability factor.

Acer Aspire S5 Hands On

Specs-wise the Aspire S5 will come in several SKUs with a range of Intel Core i processors. The one we saw today had either a Core i5 or i7. Either way it opened applications nice and fast due to the SSD inside and the 8GB of RAM. It’ll resume from sleep in 1.5 seconds; sweet. I’m also a fan of the power adapter which has a MagSafe-esque connector.

Acer is also touting their new Always Connect technology with this ultrabook. It promises to get users online faster than “conventional connections” giving information from Facebook, Twitter and Outlook presented right away upon resume. It will also allow users to wake the S5 from sleep using their smartphones, so you can grab data even if you turned the machine off before you left home or the office.

No pricing has been announced yet but Acer reps pegged it to be “around $1,000.” It ships in the second quarter of this year, so not until April at least.

Acer Aspire S5 Ultrabook Hands-On Video is a post by K. T. Bradford from Notebooks.com.

The Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra comes in a 14 inch or 15 inch model, which Acer is aiming at the mainstream consumer. If you are looking for a super thin notebook, you’ll want to check out the Acer Aspire S5, which is billed as the “World’s Thinnest Ultrabook.”

The Timeline Ultra is 20mm thick and boasts 8 hours of battery life. The notebook uses a yet unannounced new Intel Core i processor with dedicated graphics, capable of 3D gaming, according to Acer. You’ll also have a DVD Super Multi-Drive inside the small chassis, allowing you to keep your old media around.

Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra Hands On

Check out a quick look around the new Timeline Ultra at CES 2012.

Acer has packed in the Acer Always Connect, which is part of the new Acer Cloud service that allows you to reach your media and data files from anywhere, even if your notebook is off. Acer Always Connect can even wake up your Timeline Ultra from your smartphone or tablet to get to your documents and music.

The Timeline Ultra has Dolby Home Theater v4 audio, two USB 3.0 ports and a new thermal technology which Acer claims will keep your notebook cooler while you use in your lap.

Acer has not announced any pricing for the Timeline Ultra, but it will ship in Q1 in the U.S.

Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra Hands On Video is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Sadly, you’ll have to enter every day for your daily shot. Though that can get tedious really quick, your chances may increase if you hit it up on days when others are busy doing things like eating Thanksgiving dinner, opening presents, or getting really drunk in anticipation of midnight.

The grand prize is pretty sweet. The 13.3-inch Acer Aspire S3 is thin and light, making it great for road warriors or people who commute every day. Unlike other ultrabooks there’s a spinning hard drive, so you get more room for everything from documents to movies.

Inside is an Intel Core i5 processor and 4GB of RAM. The computer boots fast, wakes up in less than 3 seconds, and should last you for 6 hours on a charge.

Interested yet? If so, head over to Facebook and enter.

Acer Giving Away Aspire S3 Ultrabook Every Day Until 2012 is a post by K. T. Bradford from Notebooks.com.

The Aspire S3 (full model number: S3-951) comes with two drives, one 20GB solid state drive (SSD) where the operating system lives and a 320GB hard drive (spinning) for saving programs and files. The idea is to still offer speed where it counts plus a fast boot up time but also keep costs down. SSDs are expensive.

Granted, traditional hard drives aren’t as fast as SSDs. Even though the operating system will reap the SSD benefits, apps and files will still live on the slower hard drive. The tradeoff here is for space. An ultrabook with a 320GB hard drive is not likely to cost under $1000. If this is going to be your main computer, the space might be necessary.

Even with a hard drive inside the notebook itself is still very thin and light — 0.51 inches thick and 2.98 pounds — and worthy of the ultrabook moniker. It will resume from sleep in 2 seconds, according to Acer, and even when it goes into a deeper sleep (not quite Hibernation) it should only take 6 seconds to resume.

Other specs include an Intel Core i5 processor, intelgrated graphics, 4GB of RAM, a 1366 x 768 13.3-inch display, HDMI out, memory card slot, and Bluetooth 4.0+ HSR. Check out our hands-on for more.

The Acer Aspire S3-951 is available starting this week.

Acer Announces $899 Price For Aspire S3 Ultrabook is a post by K. T. Bradford from Notebooks.com.

Design

The 15.6-inch Ethos still feels like a large machine even though it’s not as massive as its 18.4-inch counterpart. It measures 15.0 x 10.6 x 1.2 inches and weighs 7.3 pounds, so it’s still not the most portable laptop on the shelf. Thanks to its slick lines and slimming black frame, the Ethos doesn’t come off as bulky. Since it’s not made to tote around easily, who is this laptop for?

Multimedia rigs like this are for consumers looking to create a multitasking entertainment center yet still want the ability to carry the laptop in a normal-sized bag. The Ethos fits into this niche nicely due to the detachable touchpad/media remote (more on that in a bit). It’s good for dorm rooms, small efficiency apartments or bedrooms where having a TV is impractical or not desirable. And thanks to the black, fingerprint-resistant aluminum and magnesium lid, it will make a nice centerpiece to the room.

As is fitting for a multimedia powerhouse, the Ethos comes with a wide array of ports, many of which offer speedy connectivity to peripherals, such as hard drives, so you can play media without a hitch. There are three USB 2.0 ports, a USB 3.0/Super Speed port, an eSATA/USB 2.0 port, and a Firewire 400 port plus a memory card slot and an Ethernet port. For display output there are both VGA and HDMI ports, so you can play Blu-ray movies from the optical drive on a much larger screen.

Keyboard

The Ethos sports a full size keyboard and number pad. The island-style keys are flat and slick, but not so much that I made many mistakes typing. Tactile feedback isn’t super springy, nor is it mushy. Overall, it’s a middle of the road keyboard that won’t get in your way, whether you hunt and peck or touch type. The best feature is the backlit keys, which you can turn on and off via a button on the upper left of the deck.

Touchpad / Media Remote

The star of the Ethos line is the detachable touchpad, which also acts as a media remote. It’s bigger than you’ll find on most laptops — 4.25 x 2.25 inches — and very slick on the surface. Due to this I encountered a lot of friction, keeping me from moving my finger smoothly across the screen.

When docked in the machine the touchpad isn’t always super responsive. I had a hard time pulling off multitouch gestures even though it should have been easier with a wider surface. Underneath there’s a single mousebar that’s the same width as the touchpad. It’s thick, so using it without looking presented no problems.

The touchpad has three modes that you can activate whether it’s docked or used as a remote. To toggle between them, tap the button on the upper right.

Touchpad with the second mode active

Normal touchpad mode is what you’d expect and active by default. Press once to activate the Acer clear.fi Music and Video launch icons. In this mode you can still use part of the touchpad surface for moving the cursor, presumably to choose your media. There are also two other icons for navigating the clear.fi library.

Touchpad with the third mode, media controls, active

Press a second time to activate the media controls — forward, back, play/pause, stop, volume up and down – which disables touchpad functions, giving the entire surface over to multimedia. This third mode will activate automatically when you play music or a video.

If you’re used to using your laptop to watch videos, you know annoying it can be to have to get up and go over to the computer when you want to pause, skip, or even select the next video. It’s like the days before TV remotes all over again. So the idea here is a good one. The execution could use some work – this setup isn’t quite as elegant or streamlined as it could be. There are either too few options or too many; the balance isn’t right yet.

Plus, the controls won’t work universally (except volume). They’re designed to work with clear.fi, obviously, and can control Windows Media Player, but not Quicktime or web-based media like Netflix.

The Media Remote / Touchpad will work up to 20 feet away

I was able to use the remote from up to 20 feet away, both as a touchpad and as a media controller, with no signal problems. In small rooms the couch or bed probably won’t be that far away. I wish that Acer offered a way to tap a button to make the cursor much bigger to make is easy to use when a few feet away. Also, the ability to right-click while in remote mode would be nice.

Display

The 15.6-inch LED backlit display has a 1366 x 768 resolution, which is disappointing. A multimedia machine with a Blu-ray drive and a 15-inch screen should have at least 1600 x 900 to take advantage of all that space.

The glossy display offers nice, popping colors and deep blacks. It definitely has the chops to display beautiful video. However, the viewing angles aren’t as wide as I’d like. To get the best angle, especially if you’re a few feet away, you need to position the screen precisely, else you might encounter a darkening/distortion.

Sitting up close this isn’t a problem – three people can comfortably share the screen. But if you’re lying on the couch or bed, you’ll likely have to tilt the screen forward close to a 90 degree angle instead of leaving it slightly tilted back as you would for normal use. Also, make sure to turn off any lights you don’t need, as the gloss reflects light.

Audio

A long speaker bar runs across the deck above the keyboard, aiming sound right at you if you’re sitting in front of the Ethos and up to the ceiling if you’re not. The Dolby Audio enhancements make the audio quality a cut above the average laptop, but the speakers don’t achieve a very deep or rounded sound. Certainly not as good as the Dell XPS 15z.

However, in small rooms it will provide enough volume and quality to satisfy most users when listening to music or watching video. If the room is bigger, opt for external speakers. Thanks to the sound drivers the output is good enough for anyone who’s not a serious audiophile.

Other Features

• Acer includes several media-focused programs with the Ethos. The company’s own clear.fi app is a nice enough media player, but doesn’t offer much that’s different from Windows Media Player (except a better UI. One nice aspect is that it will easily connect to other Acer devices running clear.fi, such as an Iconia Tab, to share media. This only works with Acer products, though.
• The company expects owners to do a lot of reading on the Ethos, so they pre-loaded the New York Times Reader, newsXpresso digital newsstand, and Barnes & Noble’s Nook for PC.
• For extra security (very useful in a dorm room situation), Acer includes a fingerprint reader so users can log on with a swipe.
• The webcam above the display captures images with noticeable noise but not much blur. Good enough for Skype or ooVoo chats but not for those YouTube reaction videos (those need more clarity!).

Specs and Performance

The Ethos may be built for media, but users will need it for more than that to justify the $1399 price tag. Under the hood it’s powered by a 2-GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 2630QM CPU, 6GB of RAM (max 16GB), an Nvidia GeForce GT 555M graphics card, 2GB of graphics memory, and a 750GB hard drive.

This amount of power meant that the Ethos easily handled everything I threw at it. I did some mega-multitasking by working with over two dozen tabs open across Firefox 6 and Google Chrome while playing a Blu-ray movie in the background and editing images with Adobe Photoshop CS5. While editing video with Adobe Premiere Elements 9 I didn’t have to wait for the laptop to catch up to me when I wanted to make a cut, move around, or add an effect. And rendering the final product didn’t take long at all.

While playing Batman: Arkham Asylum both cut scenes and fast movement/fighting moved smoothly without no dropped frames or hitching. The Ethos nicely rendered details on clothes and the environment.

Battery Life

The 8-cell battery is rated to last for 7 hours. However, it lasted for just 5 hours and 10 minutes while surfing on Wi-Fi continuously with the display set at 40% brightness. Granted, you likely won’t carry this around somewhere you might need longer battery life, so this isn’t a big drawback.

Value

For $1,399 the Acer Aspire Ethos AS5951G-9694 isn’t a bad deal given the powerful components inside. However, the Dell XPS 15z has quite a few advantages over it, including a more portable design, better audio quality and speakers, and a better display available with a 1080p resolution. The unit we reviewed cost $1,499, just $100 more, but doesn’t come with a remote or a Blu-ray drive, only DVD. The XPS 15z is configurable, though, and starts at just $999.

If you’re really looking for a multimedia laptop that stays in place most of the time, why not go for something bigger? The Aspire Ethos AS8951G-9600 is $1,599 (less at many stores), just $200 more, and has a big, beautiful 18.4 inch display. You get all the same specs except 2GB more RAM and full 1920 x 1080 resolution.

Conclusion

If you want a multimedia laptop that offers a sliver of portability, the Acer Aspire Ethos AS5951G-9694 is a decent choice, but not the best one in this price range. The detachable media remote is a good idea, but it’s not a very good touchpad, meaning users will need an external one for real productivity. Combine that with the lackluster display and the 15-inch Ethos only gets a so-so from me. Look into its big brother if the media remote intrigues you or the Dell XPS 15z if you want your media with more portability.

Pros

• Powerful overall and graphics performance
• Remote media and touchpad control
• Large port spread

Cons

• Heavy and big
• Underwhelming touchpad
• Narrow viewing angles
• Display needs higher resolution

Acer Aspire Ethos Gallery

Acer Aspire Ethos 15.6-inch Review – Multimedia Chops In A Flawed Package is a post by K. T. Bradford from Notebooks.com.

Acer claims they have the first ultrabook with a traditional hard drive option, which should make a nice difference in pricing. But even the hard drive models will have an SSD inside where the operating system resides. Users won’t be able to write to that, but the notebook and OS will. Due to this addition, the S3 will remain speedy even if you opt for the hard drive. The manufacturer claims the notebook will wake from sleep in 1.5 seconds and connect to the Internet in 2.5 seconds, getting to to your precious LOLCats with little delay.

Like other ultrabooks, the S3′s thin profile tapers down from back to front. Here almost all of the ports are on the back, with the headphone jack on the left and the SD/MMC slot on the right. Unlike the Toshiba Portege Z830, there’s no USB 3.0 here. Just two USB 2.0 ports and an HDMI out.

Inside, the Aspire S3 will run on second generation Core i CPUs from Intel — i3, i5, and i7 will be on offer. Customers will also have a choice between a 320GB or 500GB hard drive as well as the SSD option I mentioned above. With the SSD, the S3 is rated to last for 7 hours. It’ll probably get less with the hard drives.

The 13.3-inch notebook weighs less than 3 pounds, but not less than my netbook. I dig the aluminum/magnesium alloy chassis, but I prefer black to metal colors, so Samsung’s Series 9 still gets my vote for best looking ultrabook. Still, the S3 is pretty sweet looking and it has nice lines.

Under the lid I’m glad to see Acer’s Fine Tip keyboard. The touchpad is buttonless — I like the aesthetic, but hope the drivers are good. Clickpads are tricky beasts and can ruin otherwise good laptops.

Acer will announce U.S. pricing next month. The S3 will launch in Europe sooner than that and cost between 700 and 1199 euros ($969 – $1660). Hopefully they’ll be able to get the cost under $900 for the American market.

Acer Aspire S3 First Ultrabook To Offer Hard Drive Option is a post by K. T. Bradford from Notebooks.com.

Acer accomplished this task by taking a 13.3-inch laptop and reducing the bezel size so it can fit a 14-inch screen. Thus you get the benefits of a larger display coupled with a 3.7 pound, 0.87-inch thick chassis. The only fly in the ointment being that the resolution is still 1366 x 768 — no higher options available.

The 8-cell battery will allow users to leave the power brick behind, as it’s rated to last a whopping 13 hours (with a 3,000 cycle longevity). Even if it gets only 9 or 10 that’s all day for most people, making the Timeline 8481T even more portable.

The notebook is powered by an Intel Core i5 processor, Intel HD Graphics 3000, 4GB of RAM (max 8GB), and a 320GB, 7,200 rpm hard drive. There’s one USB 3.0 port on board as well as a port that will charge devices even when the computer is off or hibernating. All of the ports give enough juice to charge USB-powered phones as well as other gadgets.

The TravelMate Timeline 8481T is aimed square at the business travel crowd, so it also has some sweet security features on board: TPM 1.2 encryption, anti-shock protection for the hard drive, ProShield Security, and BioProtection Fingerprint reader. The high definition webcam should make video conferencing less painful.

It looks like a sweet package for just $999. You can get your hands on one starting early next month.

Acer’s New $999 TravelMate Timeline 8481T Makes 14-Inch Notebooks Ultraportable At Last is a post by K. T. Bradford from Notebooks.com.

Even though Apple is suing pretty much anyone that makes a tablet, the company has yet to come out strong against companies that make look a like Macbook Air notebooks. That’s good news for consumers given the estimated cost of $770 to $960 for the Aspire 3951 ultraportable.

Acer’s Aspire 3951 has a 13.3″ display, 13mm thin design and weighs in around 3 pounds. Sahoa claims that this looker sports an aluminum case, surprising given the shortage of aluminum for notebook chassis, as well as a 2nd Gen Intel processor. Also inside the shiny case is the choice of up to a 160GB SSD, six hours of battery life.

Does the Acer Aspire 3951 look familiar?

Reportedly this notebook will go from sleep to work in 1.7 seconds, which is good news for users who love to leave their notebook on at all times. The wake to sleep time is more important to most users than the time it takes to fully boot. Speed is still important on these ultraportable notebooks, which may get used briefly during a short stop, where it would be less than ideal to open up a larger notebook and wait for it to resume.

The 3951 will reportedly arrive in October under $1,000, possibly as low as $770. If it can come in closer to the $800 mark, we’d venture to guess that consumers will be quick to look closer at this notebook on the shelves of their local Best Buy.

If Acer can deliver this notebook at an affordable price, it would be one of the first UltraBooks which manages to beat the odds and come in under budget. This is important for the overall success of portable notebooks, as there are many more shoppers willing to spend $7 to $800 on their next Windows computer than there are willing to pay over $1,000 — especially for a Windows notebook.

We anticipate a greater selection of ultraportable Windows notebooks this fall and winter as other manufacturers build out their own UltraBooks.

Acer Aspire 3951: MacBook Air Clone Coming Soon, Under $1,000 is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.