Meet Acer Aspire S5, world’s “thinnest, lightest” ultrabook

Acer has lifted the lid on the Acer Aspire S5, a 1.5cm supermodel, thinner than a MacBook Pro (1.7cm). At CES, the “thinnest and lightest” laptop which “sets the bar for the rest of the ultrabook vendors” moved into the bustling ultrabook spotlight.

With a 13.3 inch screen, 15mm thickness and weighing just 1.35kg, the Acer Aspire S5 is a razors edge in a world filled with dull knives.

The Aspire S5 is wrapped in an alloy chassis, named “onyx black”, it comes with a 10Gbs Thunderbolt connection described to be twice the speed of USB 3.0, and Intel’s new Ivy Bridge CPU.

Acer CEO JT Wang is not stopping with the Aspire S5 though. “We are committed to evolving this technology. By the second quarter of this year we will have four models of ultrabook and more to come.”

Wang predicts that the new line of ultrabooks will represent 35 percent of Acer’s product line.

Running Windows 8, the Aspire S5 will ship by the second quarter of 2012, with the price to be confirmed. The late shipping date is in line with the Windows 8 release which is expected mid-2012.

Analyst Tim Bajarin says the challenge isn’t with Apple but with the various other Windows ultrabook vendors. “Apple will still do great with MacBook Air, but in the Windows world it is great news that five years after Apple set the tone the industry is finally getting something equal.”

Bajarin says that the Aspire S5 is the first viable competitor to the MacBook Air.

Acer is not resting on its laurels with the “the world’s thinnest and lightest ultrabook”. The company also has plans to launch a free of charge cloud service. Users of the unnamed Acer cloud service can download and upload documents on devices running Android and Windows 8.