Acer Claims Aspire S5 Ultrabook is World's Thinnest, Has Thunderbolt to Boot

Posted 01/08/2012 at 7:27pm | by Paul Lilly

Acer might be splitting hairs over a few millimeters here, but the company claims its new Aspire S5 Ultrabook is the thinnest the world has ever seen. The S5 is a 13.3-inch hunk of notebook that measures a scant 15mm at its thickest point and weighs less than 3 pounds. It has a magnesium-aluminum alloy cover and palmrest with a brushed metallic motif. Acer put considerable thought into the S5's appearance, molding it with "clean and ultra-fluid contours" that can be seen from all angles.

Aesthetics aside, the Aspire S5 packs an Intel Core processor inside, SSD storage, professionally tuned Dobly Home Theater v4, long battery life via the PowerSmart battery pack (with a 3x longer life cycle that's able to hold up to 80 percent of its original capacity after as many as 1,000 recharges, according to Acer), and a trio of high performance ports hidden behind a "MagicFlip" I/O port panel. These include an HDMI-out port, USB 3.0, and a 20Gbps Thunderbolt port, which finally makes an appearance on a Windows-based PC.

"The Ultrabook is much more than just a product segment," said Jim Wong, president of Acer Inc. "It's a new trend that will become the mainstream for mobile PCs, and customers will see the unique features gradually extended across Acer's notebook family."

Acer's S5 also includes a couple of quick-use technologies, including Acer Green Instant On (instant-resume functionality in 1.5 seconds), and Acer Always Connect, which continuously fetches Facebook, Twitter, and Outlook email updates when accounts are left open so users can see updates instantly upon resuming.

The Aspire S5 will start shipping in the second quarter of 2012 for an as-yet unannounced price. In the meantime, check out our photo gallery below.

Image Credit: Acer

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