Acer Aspire S5 Ultrabook Review: The Steady March of Progress
by Dustin Sklavos on July 9, 2012 7:40 PM ESTSystem Performance
The Intel Core i7-3517U is the second fastest ultrabook processor Intel offers, behind the i7-3667U capable of going all the way to 3.2GHz on a single core. That, coupled with the pair of 128GB SSDs in striped RAID, should allow the Acer Aspire S5 to produce some fairly impressive performance numbers. Intel's HD 4000 graphics are also finally capable of DirectX 11, allowing us to run 3DMark11 and produce comparison results with slightly heavier ultraportable gaming systems.
For the most part, the SSD solution in Acer's notebook does indeed seem to be the fastest we've yet tested. That gives it a slight edge against the otherwise comparable ASUS Zenbook Prime UX21A. For reference, even in Microsoft's Performance Advisor, the striped SSD maxes out the score at 7.9.
PCMark Vantage tells the same story, favoring faster SSD solutions against virtually anything else.
Unfortunately, 3DMark performance remains less than impressive. Pay attention to 3DMarks Vantage and 06 in particular; the faster, standard-voltage CPU in the Sony Vaio Z2 gives the last generation HD 3000 more breathing room and allows it to outperform the otherwise substantially faster HD 4000 graphics core.
More fundamental CPU performance is about where it ought to be. The S5 and ASUS UX21A tend to trade blows, and I suspect this largely has to do with how each notebook manages its own thermals. For testing, the trap door of the S5 wound up being open the entire time, allowing the S5 to run its processor a little harder.
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StevoLincolnite - Tuesday, July 10, 2012 - link
If only I could have a dollar for every potentially decent notebook that had a crap display.SteveTheWalrus - Tuesday, July 10, 2012 - link
I just don't understand how they can justify the $1,400 dollar price tag with this display. and not just resolution, but color and contrast are probably just as dismal.The inclusion of a TB port isn't even a factor for the vast majority of people, and i have a feeling most Ultrabooks out later this year ( like around when windows 8 launches) with have one anyways( and some of those will have better screen, with the added possibility of having touch screens)
Malih - Thursday, July 12, 2012 - link
funny how these manufacturers send their laptops to AnandTech, but doesn't seem to read/understand a single word from the conclusions and/or comments...or probably in 2010 somebody thinks this is the display of the future and decided to produce 7 years worth of 768p displays.
wetwareinterface - Sunday, July 15, 2012 - link
they can justify it because most people don't honestly care or understand about screen resolution vs. size of the panel. I sell laptops for a living at a fairly large retailer and only one cutomer out of untold thousands has ever asked me for a quality display as a must have. they do it because they can and as a whole the industry is also not offering high res panels. there's the ips 1080p in the ~$1000 sony (which has crap specs otherwise) and the new asus prime...why should acer (a manufacturer who's whole laptop business is built around cutting every corner they can to squeeze profit from a piece of crap machine) put a high res panel in a laptop? further why is the reviewer even going on about acer not doing so? they never put good anything in a product except for the few items they produce simply as showcase pieces for trade shows, which end up nearly impossible to get in retail due to limited supply...
bennyg - Tuesday, July 17, 2012 - link
a) your average person who shops at a retailer (!! people still do that?) wouldn't read tech sites like anandtechb) fair enough that Acer costcut but this isn't a bargain basement model, its more $$ than the prime.
c) why would Acer even bother sending a review unit to a site full of people who bag out every crap 768p TN panel ever reviewed.
Chewbacca.
processinfo - Tuesday, July 10, 2012 - link
Exacly. I stopped reading at "13.3" LED Glossy 16:9 768p". Sad.magreen - Tuesday, July 10, 2012 - link
Stopped reading at 768p.Also a big "huh?" over the 4GB memory maximum.
Voldenuit - Tuesday, July 10, 2012 - link
Truth. And that's a 1280x768 *TN screen*.In a $1,400 laptop.
What.
The.
Fudge.
AT needs to call out manufacturers for fobbing junk on users.
Dustin Sklavos - Tuesday, July 10, 2012 - link
If you stop reading the article, then you miss the part where we call out manufacturers for fobbing junk on users.Voldenuit - Tuesday, July 10, 2012 - link
A conclusion heading of 'Almost There' counts as calling out Acer?'Overpriced crap' or 'Not even close' might have been a more appropriate epithet.
The conclusion page also seems to have difficulty deciding where it lands. On the one hand, you state that it is the most impressed you have been with an Acer product (admittedly not a company held to, or expected of high standards). Yet despite the numerous bad marks against it (lousy display, high price, poor build quality, soldered components), you refrain from calling it the overpriced piece of junk that it is.