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It's hard to imagine an Ultrabook party without Acer in attendance. Like Pink, Acer decided to get this party started and today announced its first Ultrabook model at the IFA consumer electronics show in Germany, the Aspire S3. Acer's emphasizing convenience with its new notebook, and one of the company's biggest claims is a 50-day battery live via Acer Green Instant On technology.
Acer Green Instant On consists of two sleep modes, a light (standard) Sleep in which the Aspire S3 will spring back to life in just 1.5 seconds, and a Deep Sleep mode in which it takes 6 seconds to wake up from. Acer also promises fast startup and access to the Internet in 2.5 seconds via Acer Instant Connect.
"The Aspire S3 is truly designed to meet notebook users' needs, combining essential features of the smartphone and tablet PC, such as fast startup and Internet connectivity, with long battery life," said Campbell Kan, president of Personal Computer Global Operations, Acer. "Matched with its slim form, the Aspire S3 will provide a fresh experience and set a major milestone in the history of Acer's notebook development."
That's the kind of chest thumping Intel is hoping to hear from Ultrabook makers, which is banking on the new form factor to represent the future of notebooks. Acer backs up its talk with a design that measures just over 0.5 inches and weighs less than 3 pounds. Acer also managed to fit a full-size FineTip chiclet keyboard into the 13.3-inch Aspire S3.
Hardware will vary by model and include second generation Intel Core i3/i5/i7 processor options, 240GB SSD or 320GB/500GB HDD (with embedded SSD), Dolby Home Theater v4, HDMI output, 2-in-1 memory card reader, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0+HSR, and more.
Acer will begin rolling out the Aspire S3 later this month and into October (depending on region) priced between €799 (around US$1,140) and €1199 (US$1,710). We suspect (but have not verified) pricing in the U.S. will dip below $1,000 for a baseline configuration.
Image Credit: Acer
Acer sent us additional information regarding the S3's Instant On feature. As it was explained to us, if the Aspire S3 has been in sleep mode for less than 30 minutes, it will spring back to life in under 2 seconds. It will awake from a Deep Sleep in 6 seconds, which it enters into after 30 minutes of inactivity and is one of the ways the S3 is able to provide up to 50 days of battery life.
Comments are closed on this article
dramsey
September 02, 2011 at 8:23am
Hmmm...looks like a MacBook Air (right down to the buttonless trackpad), has the features and specs of a MacBook Air, and the same price as a MacBook Air. No, wait, it's actually slightly more expensive. I guess that's what they call the sincerest form of flattery...
thetechchild
September 02, 2011 at 5:53pm
$1200 MacBook? LIIIIEES. Unless you provide a direct link to a configuration of the MacBook Air with pricing under $1200 and equivalent/superior hardware for EVERY part, then I refuse to believe you. I will not visit the Apple site, because that's against my morals.
And when you find a MacBook where installing Linux is not just consequence-free but encouraged, then you can talk about what is "slightly more expensive." Honestly, have you *seen* what Apple charges for its load of proprietary stuff?
