Acer Aspire S3

The world has finally realised that disks are a stupid idea. Sony was first to capitalise on this with its PCG-Z wafer-thin laptop in the early naughties that shed its CD ROM drive. Then Apple defined the space with its dead-sexy MacBook Air and, as usual, the rest of the industry has followed suit. These super-small yet powerful laptops are known as “ultrabooks”, and Acer’s Aspire S3 is one of the latest entrants.

The great thing about the ultrabook niche is that you score on multiple fronts with powerful computers that are also super lightweight and tiny. The price you pay for this, is… well… the price you pay for this. The unit we were sent for testing retails for R16 000 – the same price as a top-of-the-line 13″ MacBook Air.

For that price you get a super-fast Intel Core i7 processor, 4GB of memory and a 240GB solid state hard drive – the new kind that’s fast and has no moving parts. You can choose from bigger hard drives and various processor configurations that will bring the price up or down.

It includes built-in Dolby Home Theatre speakers, but I wasn’t too impressed by the sound quality and volume.

Another aspect of the S3 that’s less than impressive is its casing. The base of the laptop is cheap and plasticky while the monitor is topped off with a classy aluminium finish. This makes the laptop top-heavy when open and the screen wobbles easily given its weight compared to the base.

The S3 was designed to be a budget ultrabook option, which would make all of its shortcomings, including the nasty plastic chassis, tolerable. But in South Africa it’s just simply too expensive. In teh US the same unit goes for around $1 300 (about R10 500). Charging more than that for it is criminal.

I like the S3 a lot. The battery life is very impressive and I’m willing to overlook the cheap case. But unless Acer’s greedy local representatives drop its price you’ll be much better off getting a MacBook Air for the same price.

Verdict: A cheap ultrabook sold for far too much in SA.

Complexity: No bloatware makes this a very clean experience.

Price: R16 000

Also consider: Apple MacBook Air

Value rating: 6/10