The Acer S3 isn’t the best looking Ultrabook. I think most agree on that but this Champagne-coloured version is a step in the right direction, especially with the high-contrast keyboard which fixes one of the minor complaints I had about the original S3. In this video I give you a quick overview of the changes. I’m assuming the  S3-391 is available immediately.

In tracking some availability and prices this morning I found that the Acer Aspire S3 price has dropped from $999 to $799, a 20% drop, at Amazon in the USA.

The Acer S3 tested out well when we reviewed it and although it’s not the top of the class, there are no show-stoppers and, for the price, you’re getting a full Core i5 solution unlike the Core i3-based Toshiba Z835 that pops up at $799 now and again.

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A lot of people have been asking the very sensible question – Why Ultrabook when you can get a 1.5KG notebook that delivers the same battery life and runs at a higher clock rate?

Update: A follow-up test, focussing on CPU power only, has now been published.

In nearly all comparison cases, the ‘lower clocked’ Ultrabook is based on an Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) 1.3-1.8Ghz Core i3, i5 or i7 CPU and is being compared to a laptop running a standard mobile equivalent of 2.2-2.5Ghz. With Intel Turbo Boost some of the clock rates can go higher but it’s not important for the comparison.

What’s the difference?

From the day that the Acer Aspire S3 was launched  everyone knew that it would be coming in as a ‘value’ option in the Ultrabook field. We’ve tested it extensively over the last week and can say that it’s not only a ‘value’ option offering Core i5 performance where others in the price category are only offering capped Core i3, but it’s also an honest Ultrabook too. It doesn’t show-off, doesn’t have any outstanding features but it does everything well. From screen to keyboard to performance and battery life it works well as an all-round 1.3KG 13” Ultrabook. Read on for our full review of the Acer Aspire S3 320GB HDD, Core i5 Ultrabook. (Model MS2346 with Finnish keyboard layout being tested here.)

It looks like Intel got themselves a nice little mod done on the Acer S3 and having seen it, we think there’s going to be more of this going on next year. Personalisation was always an important aspect for car manufacturers, why not with Ultrabooks? The casing paint-job is based on a CPU design and there’s an interesting I keyktop too.

The modded Acer S3 appeared at a mini review by Design Milk and you can check out their thoughts on the Acer S3 here.

We’ll have a full review of the Acer S3 up tomorrow. It’s been better than expected and has turned out to be an honest Ultrabook with no showstoppers. Meanwhile, this article is being typed on a Toshiba Z830 and although its packed with specs, there’s an issue with fan noise that means we’re likely to switch to the S3 for the next article! Join us on Friday 16th at 2100 CET for a live review of the Toshiba Z830.

[Live session over – details removed]

Thanks to everyone that turned up at the Acer Aspire S3 Live Review this evening. It was another great detailed session of testing and Q&A. The videos are now on our YouTube channel and embedded below.

Thanks also to @morganmobile who sent his personal Acer S3 over for Ultrabooknews to test. He’s doing tests on Ultrabooks himself so make sure you follow him on Twitter to keep up with his latest thoughts.

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The Acer Aspire S3 is just about the lowest cost route into sub 1.5kg (3.3lb) laptopping there is, at least if you want an unrestricted Core processing platform. The 1.6Ghz Core i5-based Aspire S3 with Turbo Boost to 2.3Ghz, a hybrid (fast boot, fast resume) 320GB drive, 13″ screen, ultra-fast resume and a good suite of full-size ports, including a full+size SDHC card port,  is significantly cheaper than other Ultrabook and Ultrabook-like options. Over the next week I’ll be giving it the full suite of Ultrabooknews tests for you. You won’t find this detail anywhere else: Unboxing and overview, first impressions, battery power analysis, live review with Q&A and of course a full  detailed review.

I want to publicly thank Morgan, @morganmobile who’s just packaged up an Acer S3 and shipped it off from Finland to us here in Germany. Who needs PR people when you’ve got contacts like that! He’s been busy testing a number of solutions and I plan to get his thoughts here in text soon.

We’ll be running the Samsun 900X1B live review on Saturday [details here] and finalizing a written review over the next 3 or 4 days. After that we’ll be getting it together with the Acer S3 for a week. I’ll let you all know about the live session for that.

Once the S3 is out the way we should be lined-up with the Toshiba Z830. I know a lot of you have been waiting for a review of that so my apologies about the delay. It’s expected within the next 2 weeks. As for the Lenovo U300S, I’m working on it. [Any Lenovo PR people out there?]

It’s going to be a busy few weeks…but fun!