Joanna Stern Reviews the Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook

Joanna Stern:

“Ugh, this keyboard!” That may not have been the very first sentence I typed on the chiclet panel, but it was surely amongst the second or third. As I mentioned before, the plastic deck feels shockingly cheap, and the matte keys sprouting out of it are no different; they are flimsy, mushy, and grossly flat. The spacing on the keyboard is perfectly adequate, but why Acer had to make the arrow keys smaller than a peanut (literally) is beyond me. Yes, the panel will get the job done and the keys themselves actually have a bit more height than those on the VAIO Z, but it can in no way compare to the backlit keyboards on the Samsung Series 9 and the MacBook Air in terms of build. In fact, I’ve seen Acer make better quality keyboards on its cheaper Timeline and Ethos series.

Looks like Intel’s “ultrabook” class is off to a great start.

★ Saturday, 15 October 2011