Acer Unveils World's Thinnest Ultrabook; But For How Long?

The ongoing Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas will no doubt see a number of interesting launches. One of these came in the form of the new Ultrabook from Acer called the Acer Aspire S5, which the company claims is the world's thinnest Ultrabook as of now. The Ultrabook has a 13.3inch display (34cm) and is only 15mm thick at its thickest point (even Apple's 11inch and 13inch MacBook Air's are 19.2cm and 22.7cm thick). The device will be made available in the second quarter of this year, although the exact launch date and price is not available at the moment.

The device will run on the Windows 8 operating system (OS), whenever Microsoft releases the new version of its OS this year. It will be powered by an Intel Core processor and have a solid state drive (SSD). The Ultrabook will include a chiclet keyboard and have extended battery life. There is also a 'MagicFlip' port panel in the device that includes a USB 3.0 port, an HDMI port and a Thunderbolt port. The weight of the device will be 1.35Kg (slightly less than three pounds)

The Taiwan based company has also announced that it is planning to launch a free Cloud service (must have taken cue from Apple's iCloud) which will allow users to store documents, videos, photos and music in the Cloud which they can then access from either a Windows 8 or an Android device.

Apart from the Aspire S5 Ultrabook, the company also introduced Aspire Timeline Ultra laptops which should be available in Q1, 2012. These will be available in 14 and 15 inch screen sizes and will also run on Intel Core processors. They will provide the users with an option between SSD and hard disk drives and include HDMI and USB 3.0 ports. Additionally, the devices will also have a DVD drive, a feature that is not available in some of the Ultrabooks, for example Apple's MacBook Air and offer up to 8 hours of battery life.

Although a direct comparison is not possible since the prices of the Ultrabooks are not available as of now, the prominent Ultrabooks in the market include ASUS ZENBOOK UX31, Sony VAIO S Series (SB), Dell XPS 15z Laptop, Apple MacBook Air and Acer's own Aspire S3.

But the question is, with the CES just starting, how long can Acer actually keep the 'World's Thinnest' tag, and will we see an even thinner offering from one of its competitors before the end of this week.