Laptop Thoughts: Acer Aspire Ultrabook S3: Hands-On

"If you haven't heard, Acer's gone and (officially) jumped on the Ultrabook bandwagon, announcing the 13mm-thin Aspire S3. We're here live at IFA in Berlin and just got some much-anticipated hands-on time. At the press conference that just wrapped, we were treated to a raft of promises -- seven-hour battery life, 1.5 seconds to resume from sleep, two to connect to a wireless network and "no compromise" performance courtesy of ultra low voltage Core i3, i5 and i7 processors."

A bit of a Jekyll and Hyde ultraportable, with a solid magnesium-alloy unibody exterior, but a cheesy plastic-like keyboard, that, fortunately, performs better than it looks and feels. With the promise of great battery life (standby of 50 days - really?), quick response when returning from sleep, and two seconds to connect to a wireless network, hopefully the production models will live up to the hype. No word yet on availability in North America, but the European prices are said to start at €799.