Just before the CES 2012, Acer unveiled the world’s thinnest Ultrabook, the Aspire A5. Measuring only 15mm in thickness, it weighs less than 1.35kg. This 13.3in screen Ultrabook features Acers Green Instant On technology for fast boot and resume and Acer Always Connect that lets users manage their multimedia and data on all their devices, even from sleep.

Acer Always Connect gets users online faster than conventional connections for better productivity and infotainment enjoyment. With their Facebook, Twitter and Outlook email accounts open, users can see updates instantly upon resuming. Furthermore, Acer Always Connect can wake up the Aspire S5 from a remote device like a smartphone. Access to all documents, music, pictures and video files is fast and always available.

The Aspire S5 is Acer’s first Ultrabook to feature MagicFlip I/O port panel concealed just below the hinge. This design feature enhances the overall slenderness and streamlined form of the S5. When needed, a press of the MagicFlip key opens the panel to reveal a selection of I/O ports: HDMI, USB 3.0 and 20 Gbps Thunderbolt.

On the performance part, the Aspire S5 is powered by an Intel Core processor, SSD storage, Dolby Home Theater sound and a PowerSmart battery pack that according to Acer provides 3 times longer life cycle than traditional batteries. The Aspire S5 will start shipping in Q2 2012.

Better late than never. Acer’s Iconia Smart S300 that was announced way back in May will finally be available in India. Consumers interested in the tall and decently spec’d device will be able to pick from stores at a price of Rs. 28,990 plus taxes.

Iconia Smart S300 is Acer’s top-end smartphone that runs Android 2.3 OS and comes with a 4.8-inch 1024×480 display with an aspect ratio of 21:9, 1GHz processor, 8MP autofocus camera and 2MP front-facing camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, FM Radio, microSD card slot, HDMI port and 8GB internal memory.

Coined as Ultrabook, Acer today launched Aspire S3 in its expanding portfolio of computing device. The Aspire S3 Ultrabook is 1.3cm thin and weighs less than 1.4kg. Powered by the latest generation Intel Core i3/i5/i7 processors, the storage options range from 240 GB SSD or 320/500 GB HDD. The 13.3in LED display adopts an open cell design to conserve materials by using the lid and bezel to form an aluminum frame for the screen. The S3 also features a full-size Acer FineTip chiclet keyboard making it easy to type. On the entertainment front, the S3 houses a Dolby Home Theater v4 speakers, a HDMI port to connect to your HD devices.

The S3 supports Wi-Fi 802.11/b/g/n and Bluetooth. The integrated 1.3-megapixel camera helps you to conduct video chats with online buddies. Acer claims a battery life of 7 hours for S3.

The most notable feature of S3 is the Acer Green Instant On and Acer Instant Connect. Acer Green Instant On provides two sleep modes from which the S3 responds with surprising speed: From Sleep the Aspire S3 will resume in a mere 1.5 seconds and from Deep Sleep it resumes in 6 seconds. With these energy-conscious innovations, Acer claims the Aspire S3′s battery life lasts up to 50 days.

On the other hand the Acer Instant Connect provides access to the Internet in just 2.5 seconds – four times faster than conventional connections. The Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook is priced from Rs.49,999 and will be available at Croma stores.

Acer has expanded its projector lineup in India with two new additions – C110 and K330. Both projectors are targeted towards mobile warriors with C110 being a pocketable pico projector and K330 being a portable one.

The 175 grams C110 measures just 110x85x25mm and its USP is the ability to power with a USB cable. Just plug the USB cable to a laptop and you’re ready to project within seconds. Despite a small form factor, C110 boasts a decent feature set like a contrast ratio of 1000:1, WVGA resolution (854×480), 20,000 hours of LED lamp life and brightness of 50 lumens. It will sell for Rs.15,000.

The K330 on the other hand resembles more of a conventional projector. The K330 is touted as the world’s first LED projector having a brightness of 500 lumens. It comes with HD (supports 1280×800 pixels) and 3D support, USB port, Office and multimedia files support, 4000:1 contrast ratio, SD card slot, VGA and HDMI ports.

K330 will sell for Rs.54,000.

Acer has refreshed its TimelineX lineup notebook with an improved design, new processors and features. Powering the 5830T and 5830TG notebooks are choices of Core i3 and Core i5 processors and 4GB of RAM.

The 15.6-inch notebooks comes with an HD Widescreen CineCrystal LED-backlit display, Nvidia GeForce GT 540M GPU, 500GB HDD, Bluetooth 3.0 + HS, Wi-Fi, USB 2.0 and 3.0, HDMI-out, a 5-in-1 card reader, 1.3MP webcam and a multi-touch keypad.

Acer has also integrated High-definition audio support with Dolby Theatre v4 Audio and some software enhancements like clear.fi entertainment solution and PowerSmart Technology to increase battery life to up to 8 hours.

The TimelineX Series pricing starts from Rs.32,999 plus taxes.

Acer has launched an updated version of its Android and Windows dual booting netbook in India. The Aspire One Happy 2 netbook now comes in four new colours – Banana Cream, Strawberry Yoghurt, Blueberry Shake and Papaya Milk and sports textured liquid droplet graphic design to gel with the tropical fruit colour theme.

The Happy 2 netbook has got an upgrade on the inside as well. The 10.1-inch LED backlit netbook has been upgraded with Intel Atom N570 dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, 320GB HDD, webcam and usual connectivity options like Bluetooth 3.0, Ethernet and Wi-Fi.

Its priced at Rs.15749 plus taxes.

Google has announced two new Chromebooks developed by Acer and Samsung. Both the netbooks will be launched on June 15 in US and followed by five European countries like UK, Germany, Spain etc. The Samsung netbook features a 12.1-inch display with 1280×800 display, Intel’s Atom dual-core processor, connectivity options of Wi-Fi and 3G (optional), webcam, USB 2.0 ports, 4-in-1 card slot, fully clickable trackpad, mini-VGA port and up to 8.5 hours of continuous usage. Samsung Chromebooks start from $429 for the Wi-Fi-only model or will cost $499 with 3G.

Acer’s Chromebook is also powered by Intel’s dual core CPU but features a smaller 11.6-inch HD display, Wi-Fi and optional 3G connectivity, HD webcam, USB 2.0 ports, 4-in-1 card reader, HDMI port, fully clickable trackpad and battery life of up to 6 hours. Its pricing will start from $349.

Another interesting feature both these Chromebooks offer is the ability to jailbreak.

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At the Acer Iconia event, we also managed to get some hands-on time with the new Honeycomb-based tablets. The Iconia A100 is the smaller sibling of the two that goes for the consumers who want a small 7-inch display, like Samsung’s original Galaxy Tab.

However, major difference between this and Samsung’s offering is that it runs Android 3.0 out of the box, which is an optimized version of the tablets. Now most Android 3.0 tablets lack the presence of a physical Home button (including Acer’s A500) but A100 integrates it, which in my opinion could’ve worked without one.

A100 might not be as good looking as the A500 but its hardware is something to boast about. The Tegra 2 dual-core CPU and 512MB of RAM handles the Honeycomb version well. There’s a mini-HDMI-out to view videos on an HDTV, Wi-Fi, camera with LED flash, Bluetooth, 3.5mm headphone jack and more.

Starting with the Acer Iconia Tab A500, the 10.1-inch A500 runs on Honeycomb (Android 3.0) OS and features Nvidia’s dual-core Tegra 2GHz processor, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 16GB onboard memory, 2MP front-facing camera with 5MP back-facing, 1080p video playback via HDMI-out, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, clear.fi support, and microSD card slot. The tablet will also come in a 3G variant but is said to launch in 6-8 weeks from now. The Wi-Fi version will sell for Rs.27,990.

Next up is the 7-inch Iconia A100. A100 may not be as aesthetically pleasing as the A500 but it packs some decent innards and runs Android 3.0. Internally, you would find Nvidia’s dual-core Tegra 2 processor, 512MB RAM, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, clear.fi, HDMI, 8GB internal memory and more. Acer didn’t specify the price of this tablet but expects it to launch in June.

Moving onto its Windows-based tablets, Acer unraveled W500 and its dual-screen Iconia laptop. The Windows 7 running W500 tries to give the best of two worlds – tablets and notebooks, which can be used like a normal tablet or dock it onto USB keyboard to transform it like a notebook. On the specs front, W500 features a 10.1-inch 1280×800 display, AMD processor, 2GB RAM, clear.fi, webcam, Ethernet, USB 2.0 port and more. It will retail for Rs.32,499.

The dual-screen Iconia tablet, on the other hand, is one of its kind. Both the 14-inch displays on the notebook are touch-enabled, with the screen at the bottom adding more functionality like touching all the fingers activates the keyboard, five fingers bringing up the Acer ring, gesture support and more. Rounding up the specs are Intel Core i5 processors, up to 4GB RAM, integrated Intel graphics, HDMI-out, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, 3G, webcam, Ethernet port, USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports. It is priced at Rs.69,999.

Finally, the Iconia Smart S300 smartphone which runs on Android 2.3. Nifty, tall device that features a 4.8-inch display with 1024×480 pixels giving it an aspect ratio of 21:9, 1GHz processor, 8MP camera with LED flash, 720p HD video recording, 2MP front-facing, Wi-Fi, Dolby Mobile support, DLNA, HDMI etc. There’s no word on the price but Acer expects it to launch in June.

Netbooks were a rage couple of years back. Compact, portable, similar to a full-fledged notebook and most of all cheap. Now fast forward to this year, although the growth of netbooks has slowed down, there is still a market for the form factor for those who wants a decent computer experience on-the-go without spending too much. Acer’s eMachines eM350 netbook is a perfect example.

Design:
Before we talk about the netbook’s design, let me give you a brief about eMachines as a brand. Acer bought Gateway about 4 years back, which also included eMachines. Now a logical decision would’ve been to integrate the acquired brands with the parent one but Acer made a conscious decision to keep these brands as separate that targets different set of crowds.

This is the reason why there’s not even a small mention of Acer on the netbook. It’s good that Acer wants its brands to stand on its own but for the uninitiated, they can easily pass it thinking eMachines as an average brand and not produced by one of the biggest computer manufacturers in the world.

On the design front, the 10.1-inch eM350 comes in a non-glassy finish with plastic chassis, which may not be pleasing to the eye but has a sturdy build quality. The number of ports are limited but you’ll find a 2-in-1 memory card reader, couple of USB 2.0 ports, one VGA port, headphone and mic jacks, an Ethernet port and the charging slot.

As far as weight goes, the netbook weighs just 1.1kg making it very light and portable to carry around.

Performance:
Our eM350 came in with Intel’s Atom N450 processor clocked at 1.66GHz, 1GB of DDR2 RAM and a 250GB HDD. Now we know that we shouldn’t expect much from an entry-level netbook but the choice of operating system is where all the issues started. The netbook comes with Windows 7 Starter OS that literally took a toll on the limited power of the netbook.

Multitasking more than 2 apps looked like a herculean task for the netbook. Open a browser window and play video at the same time and you can feel a noticeable lag. The reason Acer went with Windows 7 could be a licensing issue between them and Microsoft but would have loved to see this netbook come with Windows XP option or even Linux.

On the upside, the chiclet keyboard is good to type on with a decent touchpad. However, the left and right clicks could’ve been made less stiff. The VGA webcam and the integrated mic works like a charm, making it a perfect device for a quick Skype video call.

Battery Life:
Another criteria a user looks in a netbook is its battery life. Although a 6-cell battery sold separately can give up to 8 hours of continuous usage, the eM350 is packed with a 3-cell one, which unfortunately has a mediocre battery life. A full charge will run to max. 3.5-4 hours that is variable depending on the tasks you do.

To wrap this up, I would say eM350 has its share of flaws but if you’re one who just needs a netbook to check emails or do some light office work, eM350 won’t disappoint. Another plus is its sub-Rs. 14,000 price tag which makes it more lucrative.

Rating:
Pros: Price, Portability
Cons: Feels underpowered, No other OS option

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