The Aspire S7

When Techeye was a lad, technology was for geeks, and geeks were for bullies to beat up. That was the natural order of things.

Normal people did not think cutting-edge technology like the Commodore 64, with its ginormous keyboard and arcane datasette, was cool. Highly innovative inventions like “The SunSack,” a codpiece covered in solar cells that we personally designed back in high school, were ridiculed.

Then, somewhere along the way, technology became a fashion statement, catching Techeye completely off guard. One day it wasn’t enough to love technology for its own sake – suddenly technology had to be aesthetically pleasing too. Just when we had finally lined up a financial backer to mass produce SunSacks.

But whatever. The world has changed and Techeye is changing along with it. No more high-tech undies. And we’re replacing our ugly-but-functional netbook, the one that’s missing its “m” key, with something more svelte and less “m”-asculated.

To that end, we’ve been looking at the latest ultrabooks – lightweight, high-end notebooks – to find something both fashionable and geektastic. One product line that fits that description is the Aspire S7 series, which manufacturer Acer (Acer.com) has designed as a rival to Apple’s MacBook Air.

The Aspire S7 is available in two screen sizes, 11.6 inch and 13.3 inch, both of which boast lithe aluminum unibody frames and full-HD touchscreens. The devices run Windows 8 and are powered by Intel i5 or i7 processors.

The larger model offers 12 hours of battery life; its smaller sibling offers nine hours. Other niceties include a backlit keyboard that senses (and adjusts to) the lighting in its environment, a reportedly efficient cooling system and a solid-state drive (up to 256 GB).

And how much will you pay for all of this dapper technology? Around $1,465 for an i5 version with 128 GB of SSD storage, which is more than you would pay for a comparably kitted MacBook Air.

The Series 5 Ultra Touch

And that’s it. Oh, Samsung would probably blather on about “advanced engineering” or “powerful components,” but we’ve covered the important stuff. Pricing and availability? Approximately $1,200, on offer from late October.

In today’s world of well-heeled technology, either of these ultrabooks would be a good present for a geek or a bully. But for a bully looking to beat up a geek, the Aspire S7, with its aluminum unibody, would definitely be the bludgeoning tool of choice.

After all, the natural order of things hasn’t changed that much.