Usage Impressions, Conclusion

First, I have to address the storage arrangement in the S5. A single 256GB solid state tug would have been just fine with me just Acer went preceding and beyond with a RAID0 system consisting of two 128GB Lite-On SSDs. Sure, deuce storage drives increases risk, but for me, it's worth the reward as this is far and away the quickest reposition system I've encountered in a notebook. As a matter of fact, the just desktop apparatus I've tested that's faster is OCZ's RevoDrive X3 PCIe SSD. Simply put, this system is ridiculously spiffy.

I conducted our standard notebook computer battery tests on the S5. Our video playback test consists of iteration a 720p rip of the movie Origination at full shield with max cleverness and Wi-Fi disabled. This is a taxing test that resulted in a rather dissatisfactory 3 hours and 21 minutes of utilisation.

Intel's i7-3517U really showcases the improvements that come with Hedera helix Bridge in terms of decreased heat and subsequent tank noise. The break away has a maximum TDP of just 17 watts thus plane under full load the bottom of the system remains just moderately warm to the touch. Acer's cooling system is sounding at sounding sway but it isn't distracting or loud at all.

Our endurance test is run with five Firefox windows open with the "Reload Every" add-on refreshing each page every five minutes to simulate real-world browsing. Max screen brightness is used and Wi-Fi is enabled. This examine resulted in 3 hours and 58 minutes of life. It's Charles Frederick Worth pointing out that Genus Acer rates the S5 for capable 6.5 hours of battery life. It may equal possible to get closer to this figure past lowering the luminousness settings when not needed.

Acer's MagicFlip is a valiant effort to innovate but at the end of the day, IT's little more than a gimmicky liability that allows Acer to make a really thin notebook (when the I/O panel ISN't out, of course). There's little doubt that it would go annoying to interact with along a daily basis and the fact that it's machinelike means IT will eventually break and you might not rich person memory access to the majority of connectivity ports when it does. Acer says the panel is favourable for roughly 15,000 cycles but that doesn't eradicate the possibility of it dying sooner.

Our unceremonious YouTube 4k resolution video test pushed the C.P.U. to around the 60% range. The video was completely smooth although watching the clip was enough to prompt MagicFlip to open the access dialog box for additional cooling.

Acer uses a stereoscopic photograph speaker along the S5 with each speaker system positioned to fire downward along the right and unexhausted face of the keyboard. It's an unusual placement for speakers simply it works well enough. Audio frequency quality is average here -- not really bad, but not great either – just middle of the coterie.

I'm not a fan of the side-mounted power push and would preferably make found it happening the keyboard deck. Placing the release unofficially leaves it susceptible to accidental presses during travel or while handling the scheme, the last mentioned of which I tough once during testing.

Unfortunately, the Genus Acer S5 isn't the savior that we've been waiting for. Even with a budget exceeding Intel's $1,000 target, the S5 is a victim of compromise like so many others. Intel's i7-3517U mainframe, 4GB of RAM, the ridiculously-fast SSDs in RAID0 and a variety of connectivity options all score extremely high in my book. I'm able to smel early the lack of discrete nontextual matter but the low-quality TN display, want of a backlit keyboard and heavy use of plastic at this price distributor point all keep the S5 from truly shining. That's not to allege that this is a disobedient data processor by any means; it just falls short of what manufacturers have promised ultrabooks can comprise. I'm still waiting for someone to deliver the total package.

Pros: CPU exponent to dispense with. Blazing fast RAID storehouse on a svelte notebook. Good connectivity options including Bolt. Lightweight frame.

Cons: Body-build quality could be best at this price point. Terrible screen quality.