Acer Announces Aspire S5, "World's Thinnest" Ultrabook, First to Feature Thunderbolt

Posted 06/14/2012 at 6:11am | by Paul Lilly

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Acer is laying claim to the "world's thinnest Ultrabook" with the launch of its Aspire S5, available soon in the U.S. The Aspire S5 measures a scant 0.44 inches at this slimmest point, and only 0.59 inches where it's the chunkiest, if you can call it that. Wrapped in an "Onyx Black" magnesium-alloy and brushed aluminum metal chassis, the Aspire S5 barely budges the scale at a mere 2.65 pounds.

Not only is the Aspire S5 purportedly the world's thinnest, it's also the first Ultrabook to feature a Thunderbolt port, which sits behind a MagicFlip I/O panel just beneath the hinge that also hides other connectivity options, such as USB 3.0 and HDMI. A press of the MagicFlip key pops open the panel.

Despite its thin and light stature, Acer managed to cram some hard hitting components inside. A 3rd Generation Intel Core i7 3517U handles the CPU chores, while storage duties are relegated to a 256GB solid state drive. It also has a 13.3-inch widescreen LED backlit display with a 1366x768 resolution, 1.3MP HD webcam, and Dolby Home Theater v4 sound technology. It will be available in the last week of June starting at $1,400.

On a related note, Acer said it refreshed and expanded its Aspire S3 Series to include Core i3 and Core i7 Ivy Bridge processors, along with certain models configured solely with a 256GB SSD. These will land in the U.S. next week ranging in price from $648 to $1,000.

Image Credit: Acer

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