Ultrabook Review: The Acer Aspire S3

For the past week, I’ve been using an Acer Aspire S3 that Acer sent me to review. I actually like it–mostly. Mind you, this isn’t a perfect laptop–well, Ultrabook–in any way, but it’s nice. The keys feel good while typing on them, and the boot up is fast thanks to the OS being on the SSD instead of the hard drive. The screen is bright and I haven’t had any issues with glare while using it outside. I also learned it could possibly pass the Brent Test after it accidentally fell out of my backpack. I wasn’t impressed with the battery life, the track pad, or the fact that you need a Louis and Clark expedition to find the arrows on the keyboard.

Overall, for an entry-level Ultrabook, this is a nice one as it will do everything you want it to, and more. I had enough room to install a bunch of editing software and still had over 200+ GB of room left for other things. Booting up Adobe Fireworks was quick and speedy; however I did notice some lag while launching Photoshop 3. By the way, Acer, who thought it was a smart idea to put the speakers under the keyboard?

Hardware:

While the outer layer of the Ultrabook is beautifully designed, with a great look and feel, it’s the interior I don’t understand. Why make it nice on the outside, and not follow through on the inside? While I understand the need to keep costs down, the keyboard area where users spend most of their time is not the place to do that. Surely there is a better quality material that could be used here. You also have 1 HDMI and 2 USB 2.0 slots on back to slim it down.

Keyboard:

The keys feel good. I didn’t have an issue with it being hard to press down unless on the corners, as other reviewers have mentioned. But I did have an issue with the location of the arrow keys. Could they possibly be any smaller or harder to find? Another major issue is the lack of backlit keys. I’m not sure why so many laptops are coming out without this feature, but it doesn’t make sense.

Trackpad:

The trackpad is just plain weird. Sometimes I like it. Other times I feel like I’m fighting to get it to recognize my finger. The pinch to zoom function is worthless since it is never fully functional. The scroll feature on the right side of the trackpad is also hit and miss.

Battery Life:

While I wish the battery gave me 7-9 hours of use, what I actually got was around 3 1/2 hours. With a smaller battery, this is to be expected, and it’s nice that it rapidly recharges. The downside is that, with it being an Ultrabook, it has no removable battery. This means you can’t bring extras with you if you need to be without power for an extended period of time.

Sound:

While the Dolby Digital is a nice touch, having your speakers on the bottom defeats the purpose. It’s plenty loud enough with headphones, though, and the bass, while listening to Dubstep, is great.

Overall:

Though I found a few things that didn’t impress me, I would actually recommend this to anyone looking for an entry-level Ultrabook, or just something to use for college. Photographers might also be interested in this one because they could use Lightroom to edit in the field without having to lug a heavy laptop around or spend the thousands it would cost for an Apple MacBook Air.