08-10-2016, 11:20 AM
[attachment=72722]
INTRODUCTION
The world of computing is in the midst of a sea change. Some might call it a “strategic inflection point.” You can see it all around, especially in the massive growth of device types — smart phones, tablets, hybrid devices, e-readers, net books, Chrome books. It’s a time of great creative ferment. The variety of all of these different devices is changing how people think about computing. For many people, the choice of portable computing devices isn't iPad 2 vs. an Android tablet. The tougher choice may be between a tablet and a new class of laptop, an ultra-light and ultra-thin laptop logically dubbed "ultrabook.". The most prominent of this new generation of ultrabooks is the Apple macBook. Intel has created Intel Core processor roadmap to enable a new mainstream line of mobile computers.
This new breed of devices will combine best in class performance, responsiveness and security in thin and light, elegant form factors. Eventually you’ll think of an Ultrabook as a tablet when you want it, a PC when you need it. This is an historic change that we believe will redefine the computing experience.
They will impact the physical shape and capabilities of personal computing devices and require substantial changes to the way Intel and its partners design, produce and market devices and their components. Laptops based on Ivy Bridge will bring improved power efficiency, smart visual performance, increased responsiveness and enhanced security. Faster I/O such as USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt technologies are also part of Intel’s ongoing work to drive the PC platform forward. Intel micro architecture code name Haswell is the third phase toward accelerating the Ultrabook and reinventing the capabilities of the laptop in ultra thin and light, responsive and secure designs. Ultrabooks are forecast to boom over the next few years in the same way that netbooks took off in 2007 -- until the iPad debuted.
HISTORY
Announced in June 2011 at Computex, the Ultrabook device specification and roadmap changes made to the Intel®Core™ processors are enabling this new breed of devices. Ultrabook systems carry thin and light with the best in performance, responsiveness, security and battery life – filling the gap between desktop/laptop and tablet. We are reinventing the PC again. The new specification means significant changes to the hardware that goes inside these new portable devices An Ultrabook device is ultra responsive and ultra-sleek. Laptops are getting thinner and lighter, faster and sleeker, and booting up quicker than they did before.
This isn’t a revolution, but rather the continued evolution of a product that once had floppy drives and modem ports. Some companies’ devices have already hit the market, while others, including Dell, are expected to introduce models at very soon. PCs will probably retain a bit more diversity. People like things bigger and smaller, cheaper and pricier. Plus, the Ultrabook doesn’t meet all needs. Those with big storage needs will likely want a bigger hard drive, for example; since flash drives get prohibitively expensive over 256 gigabytes. Making portables smaller is hardly a new idea. Backers of Ultrabooks, inspired largely by Apple Inc.'s distinctive MacBook Air, hope to take stylish designs that typically command a premium to mainstream price points.
Though Ultrabooks mostly start at roughly $899 to $1,400, hardware companies expect to soon reach more consumer-friendly prices of $699 or lower. If the processors get thinner and faster we want to see result. We want faster laptops and if this is not possible anymore we want thinner laptops. And we reached that point. The average consumer won't see a difference in a couple of computers with different processors; they all look the same and work the same
DEFINITION
The Ultrabook is a multi-year evolution from Intel's perspective. It's going to begin as a pilot program with some Sandy Bridge systems this year, it'll ramp heavily next year with Ivy Bridge and be mainstream by the time Haswell arrives in 2013.An Ultrabook is a computer in a category of higher-end thin and lightweight ultraportable laptops, defined by a specification from Intel. An ultrabook is a mobile laptop that includes processing capability and features that would normaly only be found on larger laptops and desktops.
Ultrabooks are the new “It” laptops. Running Windows and carrying the latest Intel processors, laptops in this new class are feather-light and ultrathin. The name Ultrabook is an Intel . trademark. Thin design and light weight is a core element of Ultrabooks and potentially the only visible indication of a different type of notebook. Intel isn’t saying what features are compulsory but we’re able to have a good guess at the late 2011 minimum.
Requirements for an Ultrabook are straightforward. Ultrabook has Sizing that enables ease of portability. 11.1″-13″ being the main target screen sizes. 1-1.5KG being the target weight. Intel say that Ultrabooks could be available with 15″ screens. It has SSD storage. In order to enable fast-boot and resume (see below) a fast SSD storage is needed. This reduces power and increases ruggedness too. A ‘hybrid’ hard drive with traditional spinning disk and a smaller flash memory module is also available on some Ultrabooks. Ultrabook offers Fast boot, long standby, and fast resume.
An ultrabook similar to ARM-tablet world where devices are rarely turned off. It means having very low power idle states and the ability to resume from standby and connect to Wifi in under 5 seconds. In the future, you’ll see devices even waking up to update email, Twitter and other clients. It has the Processing power to cover nearly every business usage scenario.
Aside from the biggest video rendering operations, compression processes, large or batch image editing operations and most complex spreadsheet calculations the Ultrabook will be able to operate just as you would expect from a desktop. Multiple applications in the background with multiple flash-enabled browser tabs, fast decompression of compressed packages, 720p video editing and almost careless use of the operating system.
In 2011 the Sandy Bridge architecture for Core i3, i5 and i7 processors in ‘ultra low voltage’ versions will be the main processing engine. it supports Latest operating systems. Windows 7, Windows 8 and will be the main target operating systems but we see OSX also fulfilling the user’s needs with devices like the MacBook Air. Security, graphics, video subsystems. Putting security, graphics and video decoding and encoding into silicon allows longer battery life and faster operation.
We expect more and more silicon subsystems to differentiate from the mainstream. Wireless Display, Video streaming encryption, hardware anti-virus etc.
It comes with Intel Anti theft system which enhances laptop security with immediate shutdownshutdown. Its Price should be Price should be under $1000.
Intel described three key phases in the company’s strategy to accelerate this vision, which begins to unfold today with the company’s latest 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ processors. This family of products will enable thin, light and beautiful designs that are less than 20mm (0.8 inch) thick, and mainstream price points under US$1,000. Systems based on these chips will be available for the 2011 winter holiday shopping season and include the UX21, ASUS* Ultrabook™.
ASUS introduced the new ultra-thin laptop based on the latest 2nd Generation Intel Core processor. An ultrabook should weigh less than 3 pounds, measure less than three-quarters of an inch thick at any point, and are usually wedge shaped. It has a uni-body construction usually aluminum or an aluminum alloy or, perhaps, fiberglass, with a screen less than 14 inches. There are no "optical drives" (so-called because they are read by a laser) are thick and take-up too much room.
In this age of cloud storage and downloadable software and media content, largely unnecessary. Ultrabooks has solid state memory Most laptop computers have a hard disk drive, which are copious and inexpensive, but take up a lot of physical space, are heavy and are power-inefficient because they are mechanical. Tablets and most ultrabooks use flash memory, known in the business as SSD (an acronym for "solid-state drive") that are simply a chipset with no moving parts. Most ultrabooks will pack at least a 64 GB SSD. Two other technologies may define these new ultrabooks: power-efficient yet powerful Intel Core processors and the dual-purpose Thunderbolt connectors.
Thunderbolt jacks not only transfer data at twice the speed of USB 3.0 (and Intel think they can boost that to four-times faster in a couple of years), but also can be used to connect external displays. Faster transfer speeds – say, when using an external drive to move movies or photos back-and-forth – save time and battery life. Right now, only MacBooks have Thunderbolt jacks, but the Thunderbolt technology was developed by Intel, which expects it to be widely adopted in laptops and ultrabooks to come.
It's basically a thin and light notebook that uses solid state storage in some form, has some additional security features and is available at mainstream price points. This isn't a new platform, there's no Centrino-like certification process, but Intel has trademarked the name so you won't see things that aren't Ultrabooks being called Ultrabooks (unfortunately this also likely means that you won't see any AMD notebooks being labeled as such either).
All of today’s ultrabooks, including the Samsung Series 9 and the Apple MacBook Air, feature the Intel HD 3000 integrated graphics card. While this isn’t exactly poor or slow, it is integrated and doesn’t necessarily add up to ensure the perfect gaming machine An integrated graphics card utilizes a portion of a computer’s system RAM and is integrated into the motherboard. In other words, when running graphically-intensive applications, a computer with integrated graphics will use some of the system’s RAM to try to play them correctly.
However, in some cases, like 3D games, for example, a computer with integrated graphics will be unable to play the application correctly and will either crash or will not offer a great image quality. A dedicated graphics card, on the other hand, has RAM dedicated to the card’s use and, depending on the amount of memory, should run pretty much any kind of app correctly and smoothly.
While most of you might look at ultrabooks and see them as either tablet or netbook direct competitors, you should understand that these are actually very, very different from both slates and netbooks. That is why if a computing system with either a touchscreen or a convertible display, none of the released or due to be released ultrabooks are a solution for you. If you want something with a touchscreen, you could go for one of the very capable and strong 10-inch tablets from Asus ( Transformer or Slider), Apple (iPad 2) or Samsung (Galaxy Tab 10.1). However, these don’t all feature physical keyboards and are therefore not as functional as a regular laptop. There are also a couple of netbooks and mini-laptops with that kind of feature and at least three names come to mind right now.
There is the 10-inch Samsung NB30, the 13-inch Toshiba U500 and the 15-inch Acer Aspire 5738PG. As for convertible displays, On the other hand, the convertible display wasn’t exactly the brightest idea in the industry, creating unnecessary problems in terms of build quality and sturdiness. When you decide to design an 0.6-inch thick portable computer, it’s pretty clear from the beginning that you will have to make a couple of compromises and cut a few corners.
One of these compromises has been the backlit keyboard, a feature that can only be found on the Toshiba Z835, Samsung Series 9 and MacBook Air. The lack of optical drives has been the number two compromise and none of the ultrabooks’ producers have managed to fit either a CD or a DVD drive on their gizmos’ super-slim body. On the other hand, I honestly don’t think that they have tried very hard to introduce such a feature on their devices, giving that practically no one uses CDs and DVDs nowadays, when all the content is stored internally on hard drives and solid state drives or found online. While pretty much all of today’s ultrabooks sport pretty great displays, capable of crisp and clear images, as well as bright colors and nice viewing angles, there is a feature that I personally would have liked to see on more devices when talking about the screens.
People like things bigger and smaller, cheaper and pricier. Plus, the Ultrabook doesn’t meet all needs. Those with big storage needs will likely want a bigger hard drive, for example; since flash drives get prohibitively expensive over 256 gigabytes. Making portables smaller is hardly a new idea. Backers of Ultrabooks, inspired largely by Apple Inc.'s distinctive MacBook Air, hope to take stylish designs that typically command a premium to mainstream price points
I’m referring to the non-glare, or matte, feature, a function that makes the display anti-reflective and therefore easier to see in difficult lighting conditions or in direct sunlight. The Samsung Series 9 features a matte screen and the top version of the Toshiba Portege Z830 is also set to sport such a display. Other than that, though, if you will buy an ultrabook today Intel's roadmap is a 3-year transformation of the PC that will bring the Ultrabook™ category of PCs to the mainstream.
First: Ultrabooks™ are available with Sandy Bridge, our 2nd Gen Core Processor, starting now. First out of the gate is the Asus UX21 Ultrabook™. It's a formidable little machine, and it gives a taste of things to come. The mainstream market can expect a huge boost in system response time—an absolute must, if you must ask.
Second: In 2012, the next evolution of the PC occurs, bringing the Ultrabook™ to the mainstream. With Intel's new Ivy Bridge processor, better encryption and protection will be automatically built-in, ensuring a safe and secure PC experience. Thunderbolt™, an extremely fast data transfer system, should also be widely featured at this stage.
Finally: The final part of Intel’s PC transformation will be in 2013, when we introduce “Haswell,” a dynamic processor that will entirely reinvent the notebook, while giving the Ultrabook™ that final nudge into the mainstream market. Power consumption will decrease by 50%, thereby allowing manufacturers to experiment with thinner, sleeker designs and more compact Ultrabooks™, while simultaneously dropping the price, too.
FEATURES OF ULTRABOOK
Thin design and light weight is a core element of Ultrabooks and potentially the only visible indication of a different type of notebook. Higher-quality finishing and sealed batteries will also indicate Ultrabook specifications but there are a number of internal features that are also included. Thin stylish ultrabook has the following features
Responsiveness
● Rapid Start enables Ultrabooks to resume from hibernate and connect to the internet in sub 7 second times. Rapid Start technology (or other technologies that provide a quick start solution) is a requirement for all Ultrabooks.
● Smart Connect will wake-up a laptop regularly on a user-configured schedule to check for updates. E.g. Twitter, email, calendar sync. Not much detail is available on these features at the moment. This technology will not be implemented in all Ultrabooks.
● Smart Response Technology – SSD-like performance from hard drives. (Hybrid hard drives with small embedded SSDs.) All Ultrabooks will either use all-SSD configurations or the Smart Response technology to enable quick application start-up times. The Smart Response Technology will not be exclusive to Ultrabooks.
Security
● Identify Protection Technology – Not exclusive to Ultrabooks, IPT will link the PC to an online account as a second-stage authorization mechanism. This works through a software and hardware solution with IPT-enabled websites. Two-stage authorization is also available when not using the IPT-enabled laptop through the use of extra security questions or through the sending of a code via SMS. IPT is a requirement for all Ultrabooks.
● Anti-Theft – Detects suspicious activity or lack of ‘check-in’ or accepts theft notification messages send over the Internet. Can lock a PC and disable data access and offers the ability for a user to easily re-enable the device if recovered. Hard drive is non-removable. System can be restored by owner. Finally a ‘Good Samaritan’ message can be enabled on the device to alert someone that the device is lost or stolen. This is not exclusive to Ultrabooks but is likely to be a requirement for all Ultrabooks in 2012.
Media
● Intel Insider technology provides a trusted, encrypted path for the delivery of high-value HD video content. Mainly for film sales and rental. Not exclusive to Ultrabooks but available on all 2nd-generation Core notebooks including all Ultrabooks.
● Quick Sync Video / Intel Media SDK. Not exclusive to Ultrabooks, the hardware-base video encodes and decodes assists video editing rendering and format conversion. Not exclusive to Ultrabooks but available on all 2nd Generation Core platforms (including all Ultrabooks.)
● Intel Wireless Display. Aka Wi-Di and Wireless Audio. Using Intel-specified wireless chipsets the Ultrabook is able to wirelessly transmit up to 1080p content to a 3rd-party receiver box connected to an A/V system. Not exclusive to Ultrabooks.
Battery Life
● Latest generation ‘Ultra Low Voltage’ Core-family processors
● Sealed batteries for higher capacity in a given size. This is a design
● Requirement for all Ultrabooks in order to achieve thin Ultrabooks.
● Low standby drain via highly integrated design. Again, a requirement of Ultrabooks to keep the component area small
Performance
● 2nd Generation Core processors known as ‘Sandy Bridge.’ Turbo.
Core i5 and i7 processors offer thermal monitoring to allow the CPU to overclock until the system reaches a heat level that cuts the CPU speed back down again. Some Ultrabooks will come with Core i3 processors that do not have this feature.
● Gaming. Intel HD Graphics 3000 enables ‘casual and mainstream’ gaming capabilities on-chip. Not exclusive to Ultrabooks but available in all Ultrabooks
Pricing
● Prices for 1st-gen Ultrabooks (2011) start at $899 but pricing is open ended. Price drops of 25% can be expected with 2nd-generation devices in late 2012
ULTRABOOK MANUFACTURERS
The leading ultrabook manufacturers are as follows
APPLE WITH THE MACBOOK AIR
The MacBook Air is basically just a laptop, only a lot thinner. There are a couple of functionalities you miss, for instance the disk drive and some memory. A smooth, thin laptop which not only looks cool, but still has everything you need to have in front of you. Perfect for people who don't need the full power of a laptop, but do have something with the looks and light weight character of the Air.
INTRODUCTION
The world of computing is in the midst of a sea change. Some might call it a “strategic inflection point.” You can see it all around, especially in the massive growth of device types — smart phones, tablets, hybrid devices, e-readers, net books, Chrome books. It’s a time of great creative ferment. The variety of all of these different devices is changing how people think about computing. For many people, the choice of portable computing devices isn't iPad 2 vs. an Android tablet. The tougher choice may be between a tablet and a new class of laptop, an ultra-light and ultra-thin laptop logically dubbed "ultrabook.". The most prominent of this new generation of ultrabooks is the Apple macBook. Intel has created Intel Core processor roadmap to enable a new mainstream line of mobile computers.
This new breed of devices will combine best in class performance, responsiveness and security in thin and light, elegant form factors. Eventually you’ll think of an Ultrabook as a tablet when you want it, a PC when you need it. This is an historic change that we believe will redefine the computing experience.
They will impact the physical shape and capabilities of personal computing devices and require substantial changes to the way Intel and its partners design, produce and market devices and their components. Laptops based on Ivy Bridge will bring improved power efficiency, smart visual performance, increased responsiveness and enhanced security. Faster I/O such as USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt technologies are also part of Intel’s ongoing work to drive the PC platform forward. Intel micro architecture code name Haswell is the third phase toward accelerating the Ultrabook and reinventing the capabilities of the laptop in ultra thin and light, responsive and secure designs. Ultrabooks are forecast to boom over the next few years in the same way that netbooks took off in 2007 -- until the iPad debuted.
HISTORY
Announced in June 2011 at Computex, the Ultrabook device specification and roadmap changes made to the Intel®Core™ processors are enabling this new breed of devices. Ultrabook systems carry thin and light with the best in performance, responsiveness, security and battery life – filling the gap between desktop/laptop and tablet. We are reinventing the PC again. The new specification means significant changes to the hardware that goes inside these new portable devices An Ultrabook device is ultra responsive and ultra-sleek. Laptops are getting thinner and lighter, faster and sleeker, and booting up quicker than they did before.
This isn’t a revolution, but rather the continued evolution of a product that once had floppy drives and modem ports. Some companies’ devices have already hit the market, while others, including Dell, are expected to introduce models at very soon. PCs will probably retain a bit more diversity. People like things bigger and smaller, cheaper and pricier. Plus, the Ultrabook doesn’t meet all needs. Those with big storage needs will likely want a bigger hard drive, for example; since flash drives get prohibitively expensive over 256 gigabytes. Making portables smaller is hardly a new idea. Backers of Ultrabooks, inspired largely by Apple Inc.'s distinctive MacBook Air, hope to take stylish designs that typically command a premium to mainstream price points.
Though Ultrabooks mostly start at roughly $899 to $1,400, hardware companies expect to soon reach more consumer-friendly prices of $699 or lower. If the processors get thinner and faster we want to see result. We want faster laptops and if this is not possible anymore we want thinner laptops. And we reached that point. The average consumer won't see a difference in a couple of computers with different processors; they all look the same and work the same
DEFINITION
The Ultrabook is a multi-year evolution from Intel's perspective. It's going to begin as a pilot program with some Sandy Bridge systems this year, it'll ramp heavily next year with Ivy Bridge and be mainstream by the time Haswell arrives in 2013.An Ultrabook is a computer in a category of higher-end thin and lightweight ultraportable laptops, defined by a specification from Intel. An ultrabook is a mobile laptop that includes processing capability and features that would normaly only be found on larger laptops and desktops.
Ultrabooks are the new “It” laptops. Running Windows and carrying the latest Intel processors, laptops in this new class are feather-light and ultrathin. The name Ultrabook is an Intel . trademark. Thin design and light weight is a core element of Ultrabooks and potentially the only visible indication of a different type of notebook. Intel isn’t saying what features are compulsory but we’re able to have a good guess at the late 2011 minimum.
Requirements for an Ultrabook are straightforward. Ultrabook has Sizing that enables ease of portability. 11.1″-13″ being the main target screen sizes. 1-1.5KG being the target weight. Intel say that Ultrabooks could be available with 15″ screens. It has SSD storage. In order to enable fast-boot and resume (see below) a fast SSD storage is needed. This reduces power and increases ruggedness too. A ‘hybrid’ hard drive with traditional spinning disk and a smaller flash memory module is also available on some Ultrabooks. Ultrabook offers Fast boot, long standby, and fast resume.
An ultrabook similar to ARM-tablet world where devices are rarely turned off. It means having very low power idle states and the ability to resume from standby and connect to Wifi in under 5 seconds. In the future, you’ll see devices even waking up to update email, Twitter and other clients. It has the Processing power to cover nearly every business usage scenario.
Aside from the biggest video rendering operations, compression processes, large or batch image editing operations and most complex spreadsheet calculations the Ultrabook will be able to operate just as you would expect from a desktop. Multiple applications in the background with multiple flash-enabled browser tabs, fast decompression of compressed packages, 720p video editing and almost careless use of the operating system.
In 2011 the Sandy Bridge architecture for Core i3, i5 and i7 processors in ‘ultra low voltage’ versions will be the main processing engine. it supports Latest operating systems. Windows 7, Windows 8 and will be the main target operating systems but we see OSX also fulfilling the user’s needs with devices like the MacBook Air. Security, graphics, video subsystems. Putting security, graphics and video decoding and encoding into silicon allows longer battery life and faster operation.
We expect more and more silicon subsystems to differentiate from the mainstream. Wireless Display, Video streaming encryption, hardware anti-virus etc.
It comes with Intel Anti theft system which enhances laptop security with immediate shutdownshutdown. Its Price should be Price should be under $1000.
Intel described three key phases in the company’s strategy to accelerate this vision, which begins to unfold today with the company’s latest 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ processors. This family of products will enable thin, light and beautiful designs that are less than 20mm (0.8 inch) thick, and mainstream price points under US$1,000. Systems based on these chips will be available for the 2011 winter holiday shopping season and include the UX21, ASUS* Ultrabook™.
ASUS introduced the new ultra-thin laptop based on the latest 2nd Generation Intel Core processor. An ultrabook should weigh less than 3 pounds, measure less than three-quarters of an inch thick at any point, and are usually wedge shaped. It has a uni-body construction usually aluminum or an aluminum alloy or, perhaps, fiberglass, with a screen less than 14 inches. There are no "optical drives" (so-called because they are read by a laser) are thick and take-up too much room.
In this age of cloud storage and downloadable software and media content, largely unnecessary. Ultrabooks has solid state memory Most laptop computers have a hard disk drive, which are copious and inexpensive, but take up a lot of physical space, are heavy and are power-inefficient because they are mechanical. Tablets and most ultrabooks use flash memory, known in the business as SSD (an acronym for "solid-state drive") that are simply a chipset with no moving parts. Most ultrabooks will pack at least a 64 GB SSD. Two other technologies may define these new ultrabooks: power-efficient yet powerful Intel Core processors and the dual-purpose Thunderbolt connectors.
Thunderbolt jacks not only transfer data at twice the speed of USB 3.0 (and Intel think they can boost that to four-times faster in a couple of years), but also can be used to connect external displays. Faster transfer speeds – say, when using an external drive to move movies or photos back-and-forth – save time and battery life. Right now, only MacBooks have Thunderbolt jacks, but the Thunderbolt technology was developed by Intel, which expects it to be widely adopted in laptops and ultrabooks to come.
It's basically a thin and light notebook that uses solid state storage in some form, has some additional security features and is available at mainstream price points. This isn't a new platform, there's no Centrino-like certification process, but Intel has trademarked the name so you won't see things that aren't Ultrabooks being called Ultrabooks (unfortunately this also likely means that you won't see any AMD notebooks being labeled as such either).
All of today’s ultrabooks, including the Samsung Series 9 and the Apple MacBook Air, feature the Intel HD 3000 integrated graphics card. While this isn’t exactly poor or slow, it is integrated and doesn’t necessarily add up to ensure the perfect gaming machine An integrated graphics card utilizes a portion of a computer’s system RAM and is integrated into the motherboard. In other words, when running graphically-intensive applications, a computer with integrated graphics will use some of the system’s RAM to try to play them correctly.
However, in some cases, like 3D games, for example, a computer with integrated graphics will be unable to play the application correctly and will either crash or will not offer a great image quality. A dedicated graphics card, on the other hand, has RAM dedicated to the card’s use and, depending on the amount of memory, should run pretty much any kind of app correctly and smoothly.
While most of you might look at ultrabooks and see them as either tablet or netbook direct competitors, you should understand that these are actually very, very different from both slates and netbooks. That is why if a computing system with either a touchscreen or a convertible display, none of the released or due to be released ultrabooks are a solution for you. If you want something with a touchscreen, you could go for one of the very capable and strong 10-inch tablets from Asus ( Transformer or Slider), Apple (iPad 2) or Samsung (Galaxy Tab 10.1). However, these don’t all feature physical keyboards and are therefore not as functional as a regular laptop. There are also a couple of netbooks and mini-laptops with that kind of feature and at least three names come to mind right now.
There is the 10-inch Samsung NB30, the 13-inch Toshiba U500 and the 15-inch Acer Aspire 5738PG. As for convertible displays, On the other hand, the convertible display wasn’t exactly the brightest idea in the industry, creating unnecessary problems in terms of build quality and sturdiness. When you decide to design an 0.6-inch thick portable computer, it’s pretty clear from the beginning that you will have to make a couple of compromises and cut a few corners.
One of these compromises has been the backlit keyboard, a feature that can only be found on the Toshiba Z835, Samsung Series 9 and MacBook Air. The lack of optical drives has been the number two compromise and none of the ultrabooks’ producers have managed to fit either a CD or a DVD drive on their gizmos’ super-slim body. On the other hand, I honestly don’t think that they have tried very hard to introduce such a feature on their devices, giving that practically no one uses CDs and DVDs nowadays, when all the content is stored internally on hard drives and solid state drives or found online. While pretty much all of today’s ultrabooks sport pretty great displays, capable of crisp and clear images, as well as bright colors and nice viewing angles, there is a feature that I personally would have liked to see on more devices when talking about the screens.
People like things bigger and smaller, cheaper and pricier. Plus, the Ultrabook doesn’t meet all needs. Those with big storage needs will likely want a bigger hard drive, for example; since flash drives get prohibitively expensive over 256 gigabytes. Making portables smaller is hardly a new idea. Backers of Ultrabooks, inspired largely by Apple Inc.'s distinctive MacBook Air, hope to take stylish designs that typically command a premium to mainstream price points
I’m referring to the non-glare, or matte, feature, a function that makes the display anti-reflective and therefore easier to see in difficult lighting conditions or in direct sunlight. The Samsung Series 9 features a matte screen and the top version of the Toshiba Portege Z830 is also set to sport such a display. Other than that, though, if you will buy an ultrabook today Intel's roadmap is a 3-year transformation of the PC that will bring the Ultrabook™ category of PCs to the mainstream.
First: Ultrabooks™ are available with Sandy Bridge, our 2nd Gen Core Processor, starting now. First out of the gate is the Asus UX21 Ultrabook™. It's a formidable little machine, and it gives a taste of things to come. The mainstream market can expect a huge boost in system response time—an absolute must, if you must ask.
Second: In 2012, the next evolution of the PC occurs, bringing the Ultrabook™ to the mainstream. With Intel's new Ivy Bridge processor, better encryption and protection will be automatically built-in, ensuring a safe and secure PC experience. Thunderbolt™, an extremely fast data transfer system, should also be widely featured at this stage.
Finally: The final part of Intel’s PC transformation will be in 2013, when we introduce “Haswell,” a dynamic processor that will entirely reinvent the notebook, while giving the Ultrabook™ that final nudge into the mainstream market. Power consumption will decrease by 50%, thereby allowing manufacturers to experiment with thinner, sleeker designs and more compact Ultrabooks™, while simultaneously dropping the price, too.
FEATURES OF ULTRABOOK
Thin design and light weight is a core element of Ultrabooks and potentially the only visible indication of a different type of notebook. Higher-quality finishing and sealed batteries will also indicate Ultrabook specifications but there are a number of internal features that are also included. Thin stylish ultrabook has the following features
Responsiveness
● Rapid Start enables Ultrabooks to resume from hibernate and connect to the internet in sub 7 second times. Rapid Start technology (or other technologies that provide a quick start solution) is a requirement for all Ultrabooks.
● Smart Connect will wake-up a laptop regularly on a user-configured schedule to check for updates. E.g. Twitter, email, calendar sync. Not much detail is available on these features at the moment. This technology will not be implemented in all Ultrabooks.
● Smart Response Technology – SSD-like performance from hard drives. (Hybrid hard drives with small embedded SSDs.) All Ultrabooks will either use all-SSD configurations or the Smart Response technology to enable quick application start-up times. The Smart Response Technology will not be exclusive to Ultrabooks.
Security
● Identify Protection Technology – Not exclusive to Ultrabooks, IPT will link the PC to an online account as a second-stage authorization mechanism. This works through a software and hardware solution with IPT-enabled websites. Two-stage authorization is also available when not using the IPT-enabled laptop through the use of extra security questions or through the sending of a code via SMS. IPT is a requirement for all Ultrabooks.
● Anti-Theft – Detects suspicious activity or lack of ‘check-in’ or accepts theft notification messages send over the Internet. Can lock a PC and disable data access and offers the ability for a user to easily re-enable the device if recovered. Hard drive is non-removable. System can be restored by owner. Finally a ‘Good Samaritan’ message can be enabled on the device to alert someone that the device is lost or stolen. This is not exclusive to Ultrabooks but is likely to be a requirement for all Ultrabooks in 2012.
Media
● Intel Insider technology provides a trusted, encrypted path for the delivery of high-value HD video content. Mainly for film sales and rental. Not exclusive to Ultrabooks but available on all 2nd-generation Core notebooks including all Ultrabooks.
● Quick Sync Video / Intel Media SDK. Not exclusive to Ultrabooks, the hardware-base video encodes and decodes assists video editing rendering and format conversion. Not exclusive to Ultrabooks but available on all 2nd Generation Core platforms (including all Ultrabooks.)
● Intel Wireless Display. Aka Wi-Di and Wireless Audio. Using Intel-specified wireless chipsets the Ultrabook is able to wirelessly transmit up to 1080p content to a 3rd-party receiver box connected to an A/V system. Not exclusive to Ultrabooks.
Battery Life
● Latest generation ‘Ultra Low Voltage’ Core-family processors
● Sealed batteries for higher capacity in a given size. This is a design
● Requirement for all Ultrabooks in order to achieve thin Ultrabooks.
● Low standby drain via highly integrated design. Again, a requirement of Ultrabooks to keep the component area small
Performance
● 2nd Generation Core processors known as ‘Sandy Bridge.’ Turbo.
Core i5 and i7 processors offer thermal monitoring to allow the CPU to overclock until the system reaches a heat level that cuts the CPU speed back down again. Some Ultrabooks will come with Core i3 processors that do not have this feature.
● Gaming. Intel HD Graphics 3000 enables ‘casual and mainstream’ gaming capabilities on-chip. Not exclusive to Ultrabooks but available in all Ultrabooks
Pricing
● Prices for 1st-gen Ultrabooks (2011) start at $899 but pricing is open ended. Price drops of 25% can be expected with 2nd-generation devices in late 2012
ULTRABOOK MANUFACTURERS
The leading ultrabook manufacturers are as follows
APPLE WITH THE MACBOOK AIR
The MacBook Air is basically just a laptop, only a lot thinner. There are a couple of functionalities you miss, for instance the disk drive and some memory. A smooth, thin laptop which not only looks cool, but still has everything you need to have in front of you. Perfect for people who don't need the full power of a laptop, but do have something with the looks and light weight character of the Air.