Acer’s ultrabook has finally reached the Philippines — the Acer Aspire S3 series. Acer Philippines is the first one to launch the ultrabook in the country today with the Hummingbird.
Aspire S3 specs:
13.3″ LCD display @ 1366×768 pixels
Intel Core i5 2467M 1.6Ghz dual-core
4GB DDR3 RAM
320GB SATA HDD + 20GB SSD
Intel HD Graphics 3000 w/ 128MB RAM
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
2-in-1 card reader
USB 2.0 port
HDMI port
Windows 7 Home Premium
Acer promises up to 6 hours of battery life on the S3. It also comes with a 320GB HDD for storage and another 20GB of SSD for buffer/caching.
Suggested retail price is Php44,900 for the specs above (other variants will offer up to 500GB HDD). Not bad considering an entry level Macbook Air is Php49,990.
Hands-on, photos and videos coming up in a bit.
Note: Okay, there’s the Samsung Series 9 which technically is also an ultrabook.
A very nice looking machine. And 6 hours of battery life, not bad.
I bought mine here in Saudi for SR3499. I’ts quite impressive and I love the instant on feature. :D
Maganda sana kaso walang usb3- a downer. I hope this combination SSD + HD work well kc ginawa na to ng i think seagate, yong storage na pinagyayabang nila pero and dami reklamo unstable at nag overheating, iwan kong ano ang nangyari dun panay nga ang release nila update driver pero hindi lahat umayos. Considering acer pa to w/c is noted crackmanship…good luck..
How does the paired 320GB HDD + 20GB of SSD work? Is this entirely managed by Windows or a 3rd party app by Acer? What’s the display technology? IPS (sana)?
all is great but i see the 1 thing i dont like the video ram its better if that is 1 Gb VRM….!!
Sir Abe, how about the sound, i mean the volume. Sobrang hina ng volume ng mga Acer..ehy
My question is – how well does this run Linux?
please let it have a backlit keyboard. i don’t get why some laptops still don’t this as a standard feature, godammit!
I agree. I use a Latitude E6400 with a back-lit keyboard. That feature is a must have for me
Hi Abe, can you run a head-to-head comparison on the latest ultrabooks? like this acer s3, samsung series7/9, and the one that also just got released–asus zenbooks?
i just disposed of my 3year-old windows pc, and im looking into a new one to replace it.
thanks, will be looking forward to it.
Nice specs! unfortunately, I still can’t afford to buy this unit. XD
looks good and decent specs…
i hope that it can match the life of my fujitsu p1510, ive been using it for the past five (5) years, still no problem except for the battery…
maybe sir yuga can secure gadget discounts coupons for the fans this christmas… :D
Wait for Asus ux series instead. I think it will be launch 6 hours from now.
a nice competitor to macbook air, but i like the asus ux series more.
Awesome. If only it’s a bit less expensive.
Looks great but Acer is the one brand I stay away from. I’ve encountered so many Acer laptops gone kaput in about 6-9months of their lives. Sirain talaga to.
If I’ll ever buy an ultrabook, it’d be from ASUS.
This new one will surpass the old one, though there are some features that the previous is still better.
It’s surprising that it’s US$899 in the US and PhP44,900 here or US$1038.4023 with today’s exchange rate.
Yeah, yeah, you’ll mention the taxes, etc, but hey, aren’t Acer manufactured in Taiwan and it is closer to us, meaning the transportation cost to ship it here is cheaper than, say, the US?
I read on Engadget comments of one Chinese guy really mad when he discovered Chinese products manufactured in China are sold cheaper in the US than in their homeland!
Taxes is one thing but Government misc and logistics is another thing. Its really hard to compare prices between countries, basically you have to compute ROI as well.
In America they have ways to lessen the price due to that almost everything is through wireless transactions. But here there are still a lot of factors in the dealer / disti level that normal users won’t understand.
Like many things in this country, pinoy profit margins are just sick. Dunno if it’s greed or refusal to cooperate with global market of whatever. That ‘s why in many cases, it’s just cheaper to get stuff from other countries and have them brought in. Or, hell in many cases having them shipped still comes out cheaper.
On-topic: Neat machine, though I wonder how it deals with heat issues. Non-ulv i5 in a frame this thin seems a little…frying-an-egg-on-your-machine-burney. Combo-HDD-SSD seems interesting, wanna see how it’s implemented. They should’ve USB3.0’ed it though.
My bad. It’s not low voltage, but 6 hours is still disappointing
Too thin not enough space for more battery?
Good point, Abe. What type battery does this thing have? If it’s a 4 cell, then 6 hours is ok =)
Not that impressed with the battery life. Only 6 hours for a low voltage CPU? The Dell Vostro V131 reportedly lasts 8 hours and that’s with a standard i5 CPU plus that thing isn’t even in the ultrabook category.
Looks good, the specs, better, but one thing: A college student like me, still, CAN’T afford to buy. My life is sad. :-)))))
Nice! design, specs great! and has a reasonable price. not bad