Ultrabooks are being touted as the no-compromise laptop. The biggest benefits and most desired aspects of different types of laptops all put into one design.
- Thin and Lightweight
- Secure
- Ultra Responsive
- High Performance
- Long Battery Life
- Reasonable Price!
Ultrabook has been pushed hard by Intel since May 2011, so much that they have created the Ultrabook Fund with a little over a quarter of a billion dollars to to help companies around the globe who are innovative in the aspects that benefit the Ultrabook specification.
Intel is also doing a huge marketing campaign to raise awareness of this new brand similar to what they did when Centrino was launched back in 2003. Manufacturers of laptops can use the Ultrabook name and benefit from this multi-million dollar promotional effort if they follow a few key specifications:
- It must have an Intel Core processor such as the Core i3/i5/i7
- It must be no thicker than 18mm or 0.71 inches
- It must last at least 5 hours on a single battery charge
- It must resume from hibernation in approximately 7 seconds
- It must feature Intel Anti-Theft and Intel Identity Protection Technology
Pros and Cons of an Ultrabook
This all sounds great doesn’t it! Unfortunately there has been compromises made in the first wave of laptops bearing the Ultrabook name, whether these are important to you is entirely subjective to your uses.
Thin and Lightweight – sure it looks sleek and stylish and you can carry it around rather than lug it around but what about an optical drive to watch DVD’s or burn discs or even install programs? Perhaps if you carried an external optical drive with you, but then you need to make sure there is an available port to plug it into since those have also been reduced in number.
Long Battery Life – in most cases the battery can’t be removed or changed easily. Many of them have custom made batteries that are shaped and sized to fit into as much available space as possible in the thin chassis’.
Ultra Responsive – responsiveness has been achieved primarily because of the use of SSD’s or Solid State Drives. These are still much more expensive than traditional hard drives and that means the storage capacity is far less than what is available on a regular laptop to keep the price down.
Upgrades – want to add more RAM? Good luck. Chances are the RAM that comes with the Ultrabook is soldered onto the mainboard to save space that the slots would take up. Second hard drive bay? Nope, unlikely.
Graphics Performance – gaming is only sort of possible. Most of the first generation Ultrabooks lack discreet hardware and use the on-chip Intel integrated graphics. This isn’t required so there is a possibility of 3rd party video cards from Nvidia and AMD in upcoming models.
If these issues are not a problem for you an Ultrabook may be perfect as the “go-to” laptop for your daily usage.