Review: Acer and Asus ultrabooks are speedy and light

ByABC News
October 19, 2011, 8:54 PM

— -- With all the attention on tablets nowadays, it's hard to get fired up over laptops. But portable computers with keyboards are still in the mainstream. And chip giant Intel is fanning the flames for a new class of light and slim consumer Windows-based notebooks called ultrabooks.

Intel predicts that about 40% of consumer laptops will be ultrabooks by the end of 2012. Acer and Asus face competition in the ultrabook space from Lenovo, Toshiba and Samsung.

At a recent conference for developers, Intel executive Mooly Eden suggested that folks "don't want to wait for the computer, we want the computer to wait for us."

In other words they want a machine that is at their beck and call. The two representative Windows 7 ultrabooks I've been testing — the Acer Aspire S3-951 and the Asus Zenbook 31E — are certainly responsive; they wake up in a blink from sleep. .

My test machines have Intel's Core i5 processors inside and run Windows 7 Home Premium software. Both have 4GB of internal memory.

But while the machines are zippy enough for everyday computing tasks, heavy-duty gamers or people who engage in high-end video editing will do better with notebooks that emphasize performance. And battery performance on both machines left something to be desired, at least under my demanding Wi-Fi streaming test.

Intel is evangelizing ultrabooks and has established standards for the notebooks. But computer makers can choose their own hardware designs, and Acer and Asus appear to be worshiping at the altar of Apple. Like the MacBook Air, both are appealingly thin and light. Both ditch the optical drive. And both have large clickable gesture-driven trackpads. What they don't have is the latest Air's backlit keyboard nor the superior software you get as part of Mac OS X.

I generally liked the two computers, but preferred the Zenbook to the Acer — even though it is more expensive. The Acer S3 comes in at $899; the Asus costs $999 for the UX21E model with an 11-inch screen and starts at $1,099 for versions with 13.3-inch displays; that includes my test model. Zenbook has an attractive circular design on the silver exterior panel that refracts a halo of light. At its thinnest point near the front, the computer is just a shade over one-tenth of an inch thick, roughly equivalent to a MacBook Air with the same size 13.3 display. At that screen size, Apple's computer starts at $1,299. Zenbook weighs 2.86 pounds compared with 2.96 pounds for the Air.

Acer is right there at 2.98 pounds. It's made out of magnesium aluminum alloy. Looks-wise, the Aspire can legitimately be passed off as the Air's long-lost twin. I like how Acer tucked the power button underneath the LCD screen and above the keyboard. Speaking of the Acer keyboard, I found it easier to type on than the keyboard on the Zenbook.

•Ports. Zenbook has a single USB 2.0 port, a single USB 3.0 port (used to recharge portable devices rapidly), an SD card reader, and a micro HDMI port. It comes with an ethernet dongle adapter. For its part, Acer has a pair of USB 2.0 ports but not the newer 3.0 type. It also has an SD slot and a full-size HDMI port.