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Windows 8 touch ultrabooks see price cuts at Microsoft Store

Touch ultrabooks are coming down from their rarefied pricing tiers at the Micorosft Store.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
Brooke Crothers
The Acer Aspire S7 has received high marks from CNET Reviews -- with a lofty price tag to match. But its price recently dropped more than $300 at the Microsoft Store.
The Acer Aspire S7 has received high marks from CNET Reviews -- with a lofty price tag to match. But its price recently dropped more than $300 at the Microsoft Store. Microsoft

Touch ultrabooks are seeing decent price cuts at the Microsoft Store, making these expensive models a bit more affordable.

Touch-screen laptops are generally priced significantly higher than non-touch models, as the screens have been expensive to procure.

The well-received Acer Aspire S7 has seen one of the steepest discounts, falling to $1,299 from $1,649.

The S7 features a 256GB solid-state drive, a 13.3-inch 1,920x1,080 resolution display, and a 1.9GHz Intel Core i7-3517U processor.

Next up, Sony's Vaio T Series 13 has been reduced to $999 from $1,299. That 13.3-inch touch model packs a 256GB solid-state drive, 8GB of memory, and a 2GHz Core i7-3537U processor.

And the lower-end Vaio T Series (SVT13136CYS) model has been cut to $799 from $899.

Hewlett-Packard's Pavilion TouchSmart Sleekbook (15-b154nr) is now $599, reduced from $699.

HP's Spectre XT TouchSmart (15-4011nr) ultrabook has also seen a modest cut to $1,249 from $1,349. (See CNET's Spectre XT TouchSmart review.)

The Spectre XT boasts a 1,920x1,080 resolution 15.6-inch touch display, 8GB of memory, and a 1.9GHz Core i7-3517U chip.

The Microsoft Store has also been reducing prices on tablets with some now priced as low as $399.

HP's 15.6-inch Spectre XT TouchSmart is now $1,249.
HP's 15.6-inch Spectre XT TouchSmart is now $1,249. Hewlett-Packard