14 DAY TRIAL // No to be outdone by its competitors, Acer has now unveiled a new version of its Aspire S3 Ultrabook that increases the ultra-thin's performance significantly thanks to an Intel Core i7 processors and a 240GB SSD drive.
The new version of the Acer Ultrabook should already be available for purchase from several retailers including Amazon, NewEgg, TigerDirect and BestBuy.com, who will sell it for $1299 (961.5 EUR).
This is quite a departure from the $899 Core i5 version of the Aspire S3 announced just the last month, but the 1.7GHz Core i7-2637M should offer slightly better performance that the 1.6GHz Core i5-2467M fitted in the cheaper version of the ultra-thin.
In this new Aspire S3 version, the Intel CPU is paired together with the same 4GB of system memory as before, but the regular hard drive and SSD combo has now been replaced by a roomy 240GB SSD.
On the connectivity front things are just as interesting as the Aspire S3 comes with a full set of features including 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0+HSR as well as an HDMI port and a pair of USB 2.0 connectors.
The rest of the features list includes a 1.3 Megapixel webcam, an SD card reader, a single headset jack and a 13.3-inch display with a native resolution of 1366x768 pixels, all packed inside a 13mm (about 0.5-inch) thin chassis.
Of course that if you want to spend a little less you can always go for the Core i5 model that comes with a hybrid storage solution and retails for $899 (roughly 665.5 EUR).
However, before making up you mind be sure to check out the Toshiba Portege Z835 and the recently unveiled Folio 13 from HP as both of these offer some pretty nice specs, including a backlit keyboard, for about the same price.