ultrabook

Acer Aspire 7 ultrabook graced by Gorilla Glass lid

TAIPEI, Taiwan--Among the Windows 8-based devices that Acer announced at its Computex press conference are two white-clad Aspire 7 ultrabooks.

Both are extremely slim and light, with the smaller, 11.6-inch version measuring just 12mm thick. The 13.3-inch model has a glossy Gorilla Glass lid that reminds us of the HP Envy 14 Spectre.

Only the lid on the 13.3-inch model gets the Gorilla Glass treatment. The 11.6-inch version, however, is all aluminum, with a matte finish. Both models have touch-screen support, as you would expect from devices designed to run Windows 8.

More importantly, the displays on both ultrabooks are full-HD and from our limited time with it, the viewing angles are quite good despite all the gloss. Acer is the second PC vendor we know that's putting 1,920x1,080-pixel screens on its ultrabooks. … Read more

Sony's new Vaio laptops revealed

The latest refresh of Sony's iconic Vaio laptop line is dominated by the company's first entry in the growing ultrabook category.

But, looking at the new Vaio T, you might think, "Doesn't Sony already have an ultrathin laptop?" And that's true -- the high-end Vaio Z has been around for a couple of years in its present form, and certainly is as thin and portable as any ultrabook. It was even one of the first laptops to go SSD-only.

But the Vaio Z is technically not an ultrabook (and its previous $2,000-plus price made it basically an executive laptop). Much of the Z's DNA has filtered down to a brand-new line, the Vaio T, which looks and feels very similar, but starts at under $800.

Sony has updated several other laptop lines as well, most notably with Intel's new third-generation Core i-series (Ivy Bridge) CPUs, and a very nice software package of Sony's Vegas, Acid, and Sound Forge software for video and audio editing.… Read more

Fujitsu, Dell 'Ivy Bridge' ultrabooks point to hybrid HDDs

With Fujitsu today announcing new ultrabooks based on Intel's latest Ivy Bridge processor in Japan and Dell's XPS 14 Ivy Bridge ultrabook imminent in the U.S., it is becoming apparent that spinning hard drives are back in vogue for these slim laptops.

The 0.6-inch thick, 3-pound Fujitsu UH75/H ultrabook comes with a Core i5-3317U (1.7GHz) chip, a 14-inch display with resolutions up to 1920x1080, and a 500GB hard disk drive with a solid-state drive cache for the base model.

That last storage specification matches a similarly-configured Dell XPS 14 ultrabook model that is expected … Read more

Acer unveils bevy of Window 8 devices at Computex

With four months to go before the final version of Windows 8 is expected to land, the parade of devices putting its faith behind Microsoft's next operating system has officially begun.

Acer got the ball rolling Monday at the Computex 2012 trade conference in Taipei, unveiling a bevy of Window 8-enabled devices. The company unveiled a pair of ultrabooks running Windows 8 -- considered a key combination to sparking growth in the PC market.

The Aspire S7 series includes two touch screen models: a 13-incher as well as the company's first 11.6-inch Ultrabook. The company was light … Read more

Ivy Bridge-based Dell XPS 14 ultrabook debuts on Amazon

Amazon appears to have, in effect, preannounced a Dell 14-inch Ivy Bridge-based ultrabook.

The new XPS 14, which Amazon just listed on its site ("temporarily out of stock," it says), looks pretty enticing, including a thickness of only 0.7 inches, 12 hours of claimed battery life, and the latest version of Intel's Ivy Bridge processors: the most power-efficient U series. Let's check out the specs of the two models. … Read more

Intel redefines ultrabooks for the Ivy Bridge era

With the first ultrabook-friendly CPUs from Intel's third generation of Core i-series parts showing up (and being benchmarked), it may be time for a refresher course on what it means to be an ultrabook.

This trademarked Intel marketing term is generally taken to mean "a Windows laptop kind of like a MacBook Air." But, it's actually much broader than that, and we've seen ultrabooks that have 14-inch displays, non-SSD hard drives, and even discrete graphics.

The precise definition can be a bit slippery, and different standards apply to different screen sizes. With the launch of the new Ivy Bridge ultrabooks (which I'd call the third wave of ultrabooks), here's how Intel breaks down the required and recommended specs, as noted on the Technology@Intel company blog. … Read more

Dell upgrades Latitude laptops with Ivy Bridge

Along with Lenovo's ThinkPad, the Dell Latitude is the laptop brand we see most often issued by corporate IT departments. While more and more office workers are using consumer-level systems (including MacBooks), there's still a need for laptops and desktops designed around the security and corporate infrastructure concerns of big IT departments.

The Latitude line has just been updated by Dell, most importantly to include the option of the latest third-generation Intel Core i-series CPUs. The new models include:… Read more

Apple's Cook right about PC-tablet fusion fantasy

Apple's Tim Cook expounded on prior comments he has made on trying to shoehorn a PC into a tablet at the D10 conference last night. The Microsoft-Intel camp should listen.

Let's begin with what Cook said.

In my view, the tablet and the PC are different. You can do things with a tablet if you aren't encumbered by the legacy of a PC -- if you view it as different. If you say this is another PC, all of a sudden you're pulling all of the leadweight of the PC market and you wind up with … Read more

Hands-on with Intel's new ultrabook-friendly Ivy Bridge CPUs

The first batch of Intel's third-generation Core-i-series processors (also known by the code name Ivy Bridge) arrived in late April. But, those initial chips only covered the very high end of the spectrum, being quad-core Core i7 CPUs destined for high-end gaming and multimedia laptops.

While more mainstream Ivy Bridge CPUs have been expected for some time, Intel has now officially revealed new details of the Core i5 and low-voltage Core i7 chips. We've been testing systems with some of the new processors, most notably the 1.8GHz Intel Core i5-3427U. This is a low-voltage mobile processor specifically … Read more