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Acer Aspire S13 – A More-Affordable Shot at MacBook Air

We have seen numerous devices that are aimed, at one time or the other, at competing with Apple products, especially on the basis of price. Acer Aspire S13 is one of those. Launched at an event in New York earlier in the year, the ultrabook is designed for those who desire a laptop that bears some level of semblance to Apple’s ultra-thin MacBook Air. It looks to offer impressive performance as well with an Intel Core i7 CPU on board, backed by ample RAM.

Acer Aspire S13

Acer

Design and Build

One thing that will first strike you on setting your eyes on the Aspire S13 is its elegantly slim and lightweight design. Ultrabooks in this Acer range have been widely known for their slim factor. This one has a thickness of just about 15 millimetres and a weight of approximately 1.3 kilograms, beating the MacBook Air in both regards.

However, you are likely to find it disappointing that the lid of an elegant notebook like this one is made of plastic, just as you would find on budget laptops. Acer appears to hope the Nano-imprinted cover on the ultrabook would help buyers overlook the less-than-premium build. The Acer Aspire S13 features an embossed aluminium hinge and diamond-cut chamfered edges.

Display

The 13.3-inch display uses In-Plane Switching (IPS) technology and boasts Full HD resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels for sharp images. You will be right to expect crystal-clear, wide-angle viewing experience on this laptop. The screen will also be available in a touch option. It supports its maker’s BlueLightShield feature which helps to reduce blue light emission.

Hardware

The Acer Aspire S13 is available in different configurations. It is powered by a sixth-generation Intel (Skylake) processor. You could choose a unit driven by Core i3, i5 or i7 CPU. The processor is paired with an integrated Intel HD Graphics 5200. This is no laptop for gamers, but it should still fare decently well for playing older game titles. There should be no serious hitch if you intend using this for just your regular computing needs at work or school. Performance is also boosted with support for up to 8 GB of LPDDR3 RAM. The use of solid-state drive (capacity up to 512 GB) also helps as well.

Miscellaneous Information

As would be expected, the Aspire S13 runs on the latest operating system from Microsoft, Windows 10 (64-bit). It has power supplied to it by a juicer said to be capable of delivering runtime of up to 13 hours. There are three USB 3.0 ports, one of which is a reversible USB Type-C. One of the ports enable you charge your devices even with the ultrabook turned off. Available interfaces include an HDMI port and an SD card slot. An HD webcam, Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11ac with MU-MIMO are also part of the package. There is also support for Dolby Audio for decent sound.

Pricing

At launch, the starting price for the base model of the Acer Aspire S13 was about $700. But it is possible to get it from some online sources around $670 at this time. Although it may still appear rather costly, but you should remember this is an ultrabook. Comparable MacBook Air costs significantly more – between 40-50 percent more. With the current state of exchange rate, you are looking at a price in the range N285,000-N395,000 in Nigeria for the Aspire S13. The Aspire S13 also comes in cheaper than the similar-size Dell XPS 13. It is not cheap to get an ultrabook with latest Intel Core i series processor, you know.

Acer Aspire S13 at a Glance

– Ultra-slim design
– 13.3-inch Full HD IPS display
– Intel Skylake (6th-gen) Core i CPU
– Up to 8 GB of RAM
– Up to 512GB SSD storage
– Windows 10 (64-bit) OS
– Up to 13-hour rated battery life
– Wi-Fi 11ac with MU-MIMO
– USB Type-C

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