Acer Aspire S3

The first-generation ultrabook war is getting bloody, with the Toshiba Satellite Z830 and Lenovo Ideapad U300S emerging from the pits to take on the Asus Zenbook and this machine, the Acer Aspire S Series. This four-way battle royale should be a fierce contest, but can Acer do enough to beat down the super-thin-yet-powerful laptop competition?

The Taiwanese company certainly has experience producing every variety of laptop, from the ultra-portable Timeline range of models such as the Acer Aspire Timeline X 3820TZ to the mighty Ethos multimedia machines including the Acer Aspire Ethos 5943G.

One of its dinkiest offerings yet, the 13.3-inch Acer Aspire S3-951 is an appealing prospect for regular travellers.

The Intel Core i7 2637M version we tested is priced at £900 in the UK and costs $1300 in the US (where it has the more specific name of Acer Aspire S3-951-6432), which is enticing, considering the impressive specs list.

A less powerful Core i5 model can be bought for £700 in the UK, while in the US there are three cheaper Core i5 machines, two of which cost $900, while one retails at $1199.

At 1.38kg, the Acer Aspire S3-951 is a similar weight to the other ultrabooks and just slips in under Intel's specified 1.4kg ultrabook weight. Even a skinny eight-year-old could carry this laptop around all day, although we wouldn't trust some whippersnapper with a piece of kit like this.

With a thickness of 19mm at its widest point, the Acer Aspire S3-951 may not be as size-zero slender as the Toshiba Satellite Z830 or Asus Zenbook UX21, but it's certainly thin enough to slide into a backpack, briefcase or even an oversized handbag.

However, even though the lid is impressively slim, it's also tough enough to take a pounding. There's almost no flex in the centre, so the display remains protected even when the laptop is bumping around in a bag. The brushed aluminium surface repels fingerprints and other marks, keeping it clean and shiny.

We were also pleased to see sturdy hinges, which hold the screen still even when you're pounding the keyboard. This solid build quality continues throughout the rest of the chassis. We found no worrying weak spots, although we're not convinced that the Acer Aspire S3-951 would survive a fall from a desk.

One potential peril of compact laptops is that usability might suffer - the reduced chassis space means smaller keyboards, the nemesis of anyone with fat sausage fingers. Thankfully the Acer Aspire S3-951 doesn't suffer too much from its stunted stature.

Shift and Ctrl keys are well-sized, although the Enter key is squashed into a single row and the arrow keys are almost comically tiny. Touch typing was a breeze. We bashed out emails and articles for hours at a time without our hands cramping up, and with minimal errors. While the shallow key travel is unavoidable, it isn't as bad as the Asus Zenbook's (which feels like you're tapping on a solid piece of plastic).

The Acer Aspire S3-951's touchpad is also a decent size, but is cursed with integrated mouse buttons. Instead of having separate mouse buttons, you need to push the left and right corners of the pad down to simulate mouse clicks. Frankly, it's a horrible experience.

Anyone who's used one of these touchpads will know the deal. Often when you push the corners in to select a menu option, the cursor will skip across the screen, leading to incorrect menu selections. Considering how fiddly Windows menus can be, we came close to busting out the power tools and giving the Acer Aspire S3-951 a few new air vents.

Our advice is, stick to tapping the surface for mouse clicks. It's a little hit and miss, but might save your blood pressure.

Specifications: 

System - Acer Aspire S3

Manufacturer	Acer	Product Type	Notebook
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Motherboard	Acer Aspire S3
Processor	Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2637M CPU @ 1.70GHz
Processor ID	GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7
Processor Frequency	1.70 GHz	Processors	1
Threads	4	Cores	2
L1 Instruction Cache	32.0 KB	L1 Data Cache	32.0 KB
L2 Cache	256 KB	L3 Cache	4.00 MB
Memory	3.86 GB DDR3 SDRAM 666MHz	FSB	99.8 MHz
BIOS	INSYDE 1.15