Showing the motorised port access, the ports and a quick look around the device. The lighting quality was terrible at the launch event but we did what we could. Enjoy the video and look out for a better hands-on from the floor at CES over the next week. More information on the Aspire S5 here.

  This is the new Acer Aspire S5 Ultrabook. Looking a lot nicer than the original S3 in my opinion. There’s a good range of ports including, for the first time on an Ultrabook, Thunderbolt. All the ports are hidden behind an electrically driven raised panel.

In a brief Facebook update today Bluestacks, the company that makes an Android app ‘player’ for X86-based PCs, has alluded to an Ultrabook-related announcement at CES. Update: Bluestacks demonstrated on an Ultrabook at CES. No more information has been given but it wouldn’t be wrong to consider that they might have had a bit of funding from the Intel Capital Ultrabook fund and that they’re preparing an Ultrabook-optimised Android application player (Hypervisor to give it its correct term) for Ultrabooks. Take the thought one stage further and wouldn’t it be […]

We’re on our way to CES in Las Vegas! I’m traveling out today and will arrive 20+ hours later, today, with events starting tomorrow. It’s going to be a fantastic week of Ultrabooks and alternatives and hopefuly the NP350 and Galaxy Tab, Nokia N8, Clear MiFi and Lumix FZ150 will help me keep you all up to date. (More detail on the kit i’m using is available here.) Obviously i’ll be posting here but i’m also covering netbooks and tablets for UMPCPortal and Carrypad – at least as much as […]

Before we get into the detail on the Samsung NP350 I need to make it clear that I bought the Core i3 (2.2Ghz) version in the UK for a pre-tax price of about £370 (pre-tax business purchase price that equates to under $600 in the USA) In the UK, Ultrabooks start at around £680. The price differential isn’t so pronounced in other countries. E.g. In the USA, the Core i5 version of the NP350 is around $700 (where Ultrabooks start at $800) Having said that, the NP350 offers features that […]

Stepping away from the Ultrabook brand means Vizio are unlikely to get marketing support from Intel which makes us think that two laptops that will ‘exceed Ultrabook specifications’ are not true Ultrabooks. Does it matter though?

  The LG Xnote Z330 has already been announced in South Korea with confirmation that it’s coming to Europe but it looks like we’ll get our first chance at hands-on at CES next week. LG will be showing the Z330 along with a 14” version, the Z430.