The Acer S3 isn’t the best looking Ultrabook. I think most agree on that but this Champagne-coloured version is a step in the right direction, especially with the high-contrast keyboard which fixes one of the minor complaints I had about the original S3. In this video I give you a quick overview of the changes. I’m assuming the  S3-391 is available immediately.

The LGNote X330 is a smart-looking Ultrabook that I’d really like to get in for a review as soon as possible. In a short testing period today at CeBIT I was able to test the keyboard and screen, take a look at the build quality and ports. Unfortunately there’s a micro-sd card slot instead of a full SD card slot which limits its usability.

Overall though it seems to have some really good quality features. The keyboard feels really nice and the screen pops nicely.

Check out more in the video below.

The 11.6” version of the V5 (AKA as the Aspire One in low-end version) will launch at an entry-level price of €499. There was talk of discreet graphics, Core CPU and optical drives but this only applies to larger models with 14 and 15” screens. There will be a V5 11.6” with Core CPUs though and later this year you can expect an update to Ivy Bridge.

It’s an interesting low-cost ultrathin option although we’re seeing a rather small battery and learning that there won’t be an SSD version.  The Acer Aspire One will be targeted at the netbook market although with no Atom versions planned, it’s an indicator of price and not performance.

See this article for press release and further specifications.

Check out the video, below the images.

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The Toshiba Satellite Z830 (Z830-10J, Core i5) is here and the waiting is finally over. This is one of the most popular of the Ultrabooks out there right now due to its feature set, weight and, in the USA, an interesting price on the Core i3 version. I’ve unboxed it on video for you below.

Taking a bit longer than I originally expected after the ASUS UX31 availability last week are the first 2 reviews of the ASUS UX31 ‘Zenbook’ Ultrabook.  Both reviews originate from Chinese sources.

[UX31 Specifications, Gallery and more information here]

Overall, the initial response seems to be very good. Much better than the first review of the Acer S3 that we saw last week although I am personally disappointed at the use of convertor adaptors to provide VGA and Ethernet. They add weight, take more power than built-in components and are likely to get lost or forgotten. With the case and adaptors added-in, the UX31 weighs a very non-ultrabook 1.8KG.

In both reviews we even get a teardown of the device showing the huge battery area compared to the motherboard. The battery is 50Wh which is a lot more than the 34Wh you get in the Acer S3. As expected, the battery life figures are higher.  Battery life ranges from 129 minutes (full-power test) to nearly 7 hours.

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The Lenovo Ideapad U300s matches the ASUS UX31 almost spec-for-spec and both appear to be ready to go. Pre-order pages are up (see our information page for the Amazon affiliate links that are available) and at least one website has one for testing. The first statement from James Kendrick, the reviewer for ZDNet was that the Lenovo U300s is “already the best Windows laptop I have ever tested.” Let’s hope there’s no showstoppers as the testing progresses.

While the U300s only has a 1366×768 resolution screen against the UX31’s 1600×900 screen, there are other differences deeper in the specifications. Customers are going to have a hard time deciding between the two…

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Here’s what I hope will be the start of a series of posts on the Asus UX31 Ultrabook from Ritchies Room. Ritchie has some time with th UX31 so if you’ve got questions, head on over and ask.

Of all the Ultrabooks, the UX21 and UX31 have the most striking design and compared to the others it feels a touch more solid all-round. Ritchie praises its rigidity.

The UX31 has a full-size SD (HC or XC?) port and a USB 3.0 port making it useful for photo and video editing in my opinion. The weight, at 1.1kg, is almost too light to believe. Get it on the scales!

Ritchie echoes something I’ve been telling people too.

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