Software and Operation

Acer's S5 ships with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit although early adopters will be able to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for just $15 when it'due south available thanks to an ongoing Microsoft promotion. Fresh out of the box, the system booted into Windows and was fully prepare to become in but 17 seconds -- one second faster than Apple'south flagship MacBook Pro with Retina display.

Within Windows I found the typical array of bloatware including McAfee Internet Security, eBay Worldwide, Bing Bar and Fooz Kids, just to proper name a few. In full, I removed 12 pre-installed programs, which was actually fewer than I anticipated. The level of bloatware on the S5 isn't outrageous similar we've seen on other systems merely information technology's a tendency I'd like to run across done away with.

Benchmarks Results

Constructed Tests Aspire S5 TimelineU Folio thirteen MacBook Air
3DMark 06
3DMark Score 5263 3DMarks 11958 3DMarks 3472 3DMarks 5785 3DMarks
PCMark Vantage
PCMark Suite 13643 PCMarks 6743 PCMarks 8594 PCMarks Due north/A
Application Tests Aspire S5 TimelineU Page 13 MacBook Air
iTunes Encoding Test 1 min xv sec ane min 19 sec i min 44 sec 51 sec
File Transfer Exam
Small files 10 sec 1 min 11 sec ane min 2 sec 22 sec
Large file 10 sec ane min 19 sec 45 sec 22 sec

The iTunes encoding tests consist of converting xiv MP3s (119MB) to 128Kbps ACC files and measuring the functioning'due south elapsing in seconds. For file transfers, we measure how long it takes to copy 2 sets of files from ane location to another on the same difficult drive. On the small files test we transfer 557 MP3s, totaling 2.56GB. For the large file, these same MP3s were zipped into a single file measuring 2.52GB.

Gaming Performance Aspire S5 TimelineU Folio 13 MacBook Air
Far Weep 2
1024x768, Medium Quality 35.ii fps 69.0 fps 26.three fps 37.iii fps
Native res, Loftier Quality 21.ix fps 55.5 fps 24.9 fps 19.3 fps
StarCraft 2
1024x768, Medium Quality 21.eight fps 39.vii fps xiv.4 fps 25.1 fps
Native res, Loftier Quality 15.ii fps 29.nine fps xi.4 fps 16.1 fps
  • xiii.3" 1366x768 LED-backlit brandish
  • Intel Core i5-3317U (1.7GHz - 2.6GHz)
  • 4GB DDR3 RAM
  • Intel HD 4000 Graphics
  • two x 128GB SSD RAID0
  • Windows 7 Dwelling Premium 64-bit
  • xv.half dozen" 1366x768 LED-backlit display
  • Intel Cadre i5-3317U (1.7GHz - 2.6GHz)
  • 6GB DDR3 RAM
  • Intel HD 4000 Graphics + GeForce GT 640M LE 1GB
  • 20GB SSD + 500GB 5400RPM HDD
  • Windows 7 Home Premium 64-chip
  • 13.3" 1366x768 LED-backlit display
  • Intel Core i5-2467M (one.6GHz - ii.3GHz)
  • 4GB DDR3 RAM
  • Intel HD 3000 Graphics
  • 128GB SSD (Samsung PM800, SATA 3Gb/s)
  • Windows seven Domicile Premium 64-bit
  • 13.3" 1440x900 LED-backlit display
  • Intel Core i5-3427U (1.8GHz - 2.8GHz)
  • 4GB DDR3 RAM
  • Intel HD 4000 Graphics
  • 128GB SSD
  • Mac OS X, Windows seven Home Premium 64-bit