Acer Aspire S3-391-6423 Review

Acer has provided for quite some time some very good MacBook Air alternatives. I am taking a look today at the 3rd generation Intel Core i3 powered Acer Aspire S3-391-6423 13.3-Inch Ultrabook.

The exterior

The Acer Aspire S3-391-6423 13.3-Inch Ultrabook comes in a champagne colored exterior case. The top cover is also brushed aluminum and the inside is shiny plastic. The black raised tile keyboard makes a nice contrast with the surrounding plastic cover and the big toutchpad in the middle ensures easy usage. Overall the entire design is very clean.
As mentioned in the beginning the Acer Aspire S3-391-6423 13.3-Inch Ultrabook is a very good MacBook Air alternative with just 0.69 inch height, compared to the Air’s 0.68 inch. Both of them have 13.3 Inch displays, with the Air having a slightly better resolution. The main difference is the price point, witch is the Acer’s main advantage. If you want a very thin Laptop with a very clean design and are not ready to pay the price of a MacBook then this is a very good alternative.

Connectivity

The Acer Aspire S3-391-6423 13.3-Inch Ultrabook has most of the needed ports available. While it has 2 USB 3.0 ports, HDMI out, a card reader, and headphones out, because of it thin design it doesn’t feature an Ethernet port or a VGA out. The VGA port can be made available by using an adapter on the HDMI port.
The memory card reader and the headphones out are the only ports on the side of the device, all the rest of them, including the power adapter are located at the back of the device. In my experience having ports at the back of a Laptop is a sure way of barking them when you least expect it.
This Ultrabook also comes with 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 as standard.

The Performance

Performancewise the Acer Aspire S3-391-6423 has the most powerful 3rd Generation Intel Core i3 Mobile Ultra low voltage Processor available on the market at the moment. This, combined with the integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics card makes gaming on this device possible, but not guarantied. It will be able to play most games on minimal to medium settings if you want. Because of the very low energy needs the battery life should also be very good.
The 4GB DDR3 RAM are enough for most users and is a good match for the Intel Core i3 Processor. Users doing a lot of multitasking and running memory intensive applications will, unfortunately, have to look to a more expensive model, as this one can not support more than the preinstalled 4 GB RAM.
The best feature for this device is the 128 GB SSD. It’s really surprising that you can get an Ultrabook with a SSD priced so low. The SSD has no moving parts, like an HDD would have, and thus can offer far better writing and reading speeds. This also means that the Acer Aspire S3-391-6423 comes with Intel’s Rapid Start Technology making it start up and ready to use in mere seconds. Also, the SSD uses less energy than a HDD and this can be seen in the declared battery life of up to 6.5 hours. The installed battery is a 3-cell Li-Polymer 3260 mAh unit. Although it doesn’t sound like much, thanks to it’s Processor and the SSD it can manage very well with it.
The 128 GB of storage will probably not be enough for most people and buying either an external HDD or going for the models with HDD is recommended.

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Who is it for? discussing who would benefit most from this laptop...

Student
In general Ultrabooks are a very good choice for students. They offer the mobility, design, and enough performance for their needs. The Acer Aspire S3-391-6423 fits all those criteria very good. The only thing I think a student would like to have on this device is maybe more storage capacity for all the music and videos they may have. The 13.3 Inch Display, and the 6.5 hour battery life means that you can take it to class with you without needing to charge it until you get home.
Casual User
The performance needs of a casual user are relatively small. The Acer Aspire S3-391-6423 fulfills them very good, but considering the price and the relatively small storage space, I think a cheaper model would better suit the needs of a casual user.
Business User
Ultrabooks are the business man's best choice in mobile computing. They offer grate mobility, good performance, have rapid response times and are also small, thin and light, so they can carried with you everywhere you go. The Acer Aspire S3-391-6423 doesn't disappoint in any of these categories. The SSD makes this device incredibly responsive and I don't think that the 128 GB storage space will be a problem for a business user. The lack of an optical drive might be though, and as usual with most Ultrabooks this model also doesn't have one. You can purchase a USB powered optical drive and use it when you need it.
Power User
Power users looking for an SSD powered Laptop around 600 dollars will not be disappointed with the Acer Aspire S3-391-6423. I think this is the only thing interesting to a power user about this device. Other than the decent processor, the 4GB RAM will most likely not be enough for serious multitasking and memory intensive applications and the 128GB storage will also become a problem later on. A power user is better off buying a cheaper, normal sized laptop and installing a SSD in it.

PROs Vs. CONs

The Acer Aspire S3-391-6423 is a very capable Ultrabook for the price, and also comes with a SSD. The 6.5 hour battery life are no surprise because of this. The very thin design is both a very good thing and a bad thing. The more powerful and pricier variants can make for very good MacBook Air replacement for Windows users.

Because the Acer Aspire S3-391-6423 13.3-Inch Ultrabook has such a thin design, it could not have possibly accommodate either a VGA out, or an Ethernet port. Other manufacturers have tried integrating an Ethernet port using a spring loaded flap witch has proven to be unreliable. This is the price you have to pay if you want a thin laptop.

Summary

The Acer Aspire S3-391-6423 13.3 Inch Ultrabook is a very good package for around 600 dollars. It is a full fledged Ultrabook, having both a high battery life and a SSD.

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