Review: Acer Aspire S5 Ultrabook

There's no indicate commencement a examination of the Acer Aspire S5 with a deliberation of anything other than its draw close to ports.

Look at the sides and back of the S5 and you'll find roughly none: An SD card slot, headphone jack, and power dock are the usually manifest connectors to the outward world.

This isn't a few extreme draw close to slicing the cord, but rsther than the many brazen way of stealing connectors that I've seen in over a decade of reviewing laptops. Open the lid of the S5 and pull the symbol in the tip correct dilemma of the keyboard, the one with the baffling icon printed on it.

When you do this, a equipped with a motor induce opens up, dropping down from the bottom of the laptop to exhibit two USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, and a Thunderbolt connector. Press it once again and the hatch, that is called the "MagicFlip I/O dock launcher," seals back up, roughly similar to it's getting ready to lapse to the foreign world from that it came. But more on all of this later.

The Aspire S5 is a pricey and absolute access in to the ultrabook marketplace from an doubtful source. Acer is not a firm you would routinely friend with such a unique draw close to minimalist design, nor is it a firm you would regard would figure out a way to crowd in to this cover twin 128GB SSD drives configured in a RAID 0 array, giving it jaw-dropping opening is to category.

With the S5, Acer unequivocally has upped the ante on ultrabook configurations, not just with the 256GB of SSD storage but moreover with its 1.9GHz Core i7 CPU, a monument in a world where Core i5 rules. The shade - 13.3 inches and 1366 x 768 pixels - is nothing special, nor are the 4GB of RAM and integrated graphics. But Acer does succeed to fist all of the on top of in to 18mm of density and a 2.6-pound chassis, that is a great 0.3 pounds lighter than a MacBook Air. Battery life, at about 4 hours, 20 minutes, is median is to category.

The Aspire S5 is a performer. In fact, it's my new recordholder on the PCMark 7 benchmark , that notably favors swift I/O systems similar to this one. The rapid SSD drives moreover warranted the Aspire S5 other contrast record: The laptop takes just 16 seconds to chilled foot Windows. Sure, it's no great shakes with graphics, but personification with the MagicFlip is more fun than Skyrim anyway.

By right away I've probably outlayed hours messing with the MagicFlip induce and sojourn as bewildered as when we initial unboxed the machine. Generally, it works, but the inauspicious harsh sound it creates when bit by bit creaking open and shut instills 0 confidence. Acer says it's been rigorously tested, but we still had lots of difficulty with it. When keeping the laptop at a few angles, the induce just doesn't open reliably. And if your battery is low, the induce can turn even more problematic, infrequently getting stranded with one side open and one side shut , reminding one a bit of the capsized Costa Concordia. "What if it breaks?" is a great question, and one that Acer has not entirely answered.

The cost reward here is eventually what may be the bigger mountain to climb. The $1,400 cost label is fit since the additional storage capacity, but it's still difficult to swallow when competitors' ultrabooks may be had for beneath $1,000. Now if usually that induce would open and close as swift as the Aspire runs Excel….

WIRED Best ultrabook opening allowance can buy. Solid audio (courtesy Dolby). Double the storage contra many SSD-equipped ultrabooks.

TIRED Loud, harsh fan. Small keys, as well at large spaced. Arrow keys are so petite they're scarcely unusuable. Two USB ports isn't enough.