gdgt

We wanted to love the Acer Aspire S3, the same way we're rooting for all of these reasonably priced, impossibly skinny, long-lasting laptops that have the potential to give the MacBook Air a run for its money. Indeed, it's priced aggressively...It performs well enough for everyday use

The Acer S3 ultrabook is not without its shortcomings. But the company wisely chose to avoid hamstringing the non-negotiables, so the S3 one of the better ultrabooks we've used to date.

The Acer Aspire S3 is an early favorite, as it delivers on the idea of undercutting Apple's MacBook Air, while other Ultrabooks cost as much if not more. If not for middling battery life, this would be a no-question recommendation for 13-inch-laptop shoppers.

The Acer Aspire S3-391-6046 gives you a full-blown Windows 8 ultrabook at a decent price. If you want a thin, light, reasonably fast ultrabook to learn Windows 8 on, this is worth a look.

In the end, the Acer Aspire S3 attempts to be an affordable, visually attractive, and usable Ultrabook. It only partly meets those goals. Still, if you need a very thin, very light Windows PC for mostly nondemanding office and Web chores, the Aspire S3 may suit you.

it's clear that Acer is trying to undercut its Ultrabook competitors, but in doing so, it had to make a few sacrifices. For example, the Aspire S3's chassis is plastic, not metal, and it has a mechanical hard drive, not an SSD.

This machine is a great example of what the Ultrabook line is meant to be: relatively light, thin, and powerful enough to knock the netbook name out of the realm of reality.

The S3 does its job, and performance isn't called into question, but more demanding users will be left wanting a fuller experience.

le the Acer Aspire S3-951 is a well-built and powerful ultrabook, which offers good value for money, we were more drawn to the Toshiba Satellite Z830 and the Asus Zenbook.