Remember back when netbooks were all the rage? They seemed impossibly small and light, not to mention cheap, compared to traditional mobile computing devices. Netbooks didn't pack a lot of grunt, but that didn't really matter to people who were just looking to tackle day-to-day computing tasks on the run.
Then Apple's iPad came along and pretty much blew the netbook out of the water, once more revolutionising the concept of mobile computing. Netbook makers fought back by adding extra bells and whistles, but all this did was drive up the bulk and the price tag. I'd say high-end netbooks lost their way once they started to rival the size and price of traditional notebooks, while still offering a small 10-inch display.
Now PC makers are having another crack at the mobility space with "ultrabooks" - an Intel trade mark referring to super-thin notebooks which aim to be highly portable without sacrificing too much in the way of functionality and grunt. They're less than 20mm thick and weigh in at under 1.5kg, opting for an SSD hard drive and ditching the optical drive. Yet ultrabooks feature Intel's low-voltage Core i5 or i7 processor, designed to push the laptop battery life out past 5 hours. They also tend to opt for 13.3 inch displays, which I say puts them in notebook territory. I think such a screen size, and the all-important corresponding keyboard size, strikes a better balance between portability and usability than a 10-inch netbook.
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Of course Apple's 11.6 and 13-inch MacBook Airs probably also fit the definition of ultrabooks, although you're unlikely to hear Apple throwing around the term. To be honest I was surprised to see Apple produce the slick 11.6-inch MacBook Air considering how determined it seem to be to avoid the netbook space.
Just like Apple's MacBooks, these new ultrabooks aren't cheap. So far we've got Australian pricing on the Toshiba Portege Z830 ($1399 - pictured above), Acer Aspire S3 ($1199) and Asus Zenbook ($1399) - but we're still waiting to hear about the Lenovo IdeaPad U300S. At these prices you're paying almost a 100% premium for portability and style, considering you can find plenty of similar spec'd, bog standard 15-inch notebooks for under $700.
At these prices ultrabooks are designed for road warriors and fashionistas, not people looking for a basic notebook to live on their desk or kitchen table. Even so Intel hopes that 40% of consumer notebook sales with be ultrabooks by the end of 2012, but we've heard such bold predictions before.
Wedged in between notebooks and netbooks, while also fighting off the tablet threat, is there a future for ultrabooks?
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