The good news is that it looks like touch panels aren't placing such a price premium on Windows 8 clamshells — the 14-inch M5 ultrabook with touch starts at $799.99, while the 14-inch V5 costs $749.99 and the 15.6-inch version cost $50 more. For comparison, the non-touch 15.6-inch Aspire A5 has a $499.99 starting price. The Aspire M5 (officially called the M5-481PT) comes with a 14-inch, 1366 x 768 display, dual core, 1.7GHz Core i5 processor, 6GB of RAM, DVD drive, and 20GB SSD + 500GB hard drive combo. Despite the low-res display, what's primarily missing here from the non-touch versions is discrete graphics — don't expect to get much gaming done on this machine. Thankfully there is a backlit keyboard, the top casing is made of aluminum alloy, and Acer estimates eight hours of battery life. The system squeezes into ultrabook specifications at 4.6 pounds and 0.81 inches thick.
