Acer Ultrabook Now Aiming For September Launch

Acer's rival to the MacBook Air may launch as early as September. According to a report from Digitimes, the Taiwanese manufacturer hopes to launch its ultrabook early to compete against ASUS. Both companies are expected to release ultrabooks in the coming months, which will include Acer's Aspire 3951 and the ASUS UX21.

The Acer Aspire 3951 was first leaked earlier this month. According to an Acer exec, the Aspire 3951 has gone through at least two redesigns of its internals and the initial offering will come in only a 13.3-inch model. The Acer ultrabook is expected to be thinner than the MacBook Air at 13mm thick, but weighs slightly more at 1.4kg.

Inside, it will be powered by Intel's Sandy Bridge Core processor and will allow customers to choose between a 250GB and a 500GB HDD, or a 160GB SSD. Connectivity and ports will include WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI, USB, and a memory card slot. However, pricing is expected to be between $768 and $960.

The high price tag has largely been blamed on the costly bill of materials due to Intel's chipset. The ultrabook concept was introduced by Intel, which wanted to encourage competition in the category of ultraportable notebooks, currently dominated by Apple's MacBook Air.

[via Digitimes]