Computing technology has changed. Long gone are the times of 30+tons, Eniac computer. Now is the era of Ultraportable Laptops aka ‘Ultrabooks’.
Apple started the trend of Ultrabooks with it’s range of Macbook airs. And like always it became the trend setter. But there seems to be a confusion in the web regarding whether to call Macbook Air ‘Ultrabook’ or not. It seems that ‘Ultrabook’ term was coined by Intel, yes Intel that made the legendary core i7, and it has made some criteria for the Ultrabook.
Intel’s So Called Specifications.
- Thickness – Less than 20 mms (.8 inch)
- Screen Size – Less than 13 inches
- Weight – Less than 1.4 kg (3.1 pounds)
- Battery Life – More than 5 hours
- Price – Should be under $1000 (this is the main reason for not considering Macbook Air as an Ultrabook, though the Macbook Air 11′inch falls under $1000 mark.)
- Boot time – faster than ever before, and should use Intel’s Rapid Start Technology that uses flash storage in laptop’s Motherboard. ( That means AMD based notebooks could never be Ultrabooks, and another condition not fulfilled by Macbook Air)
- Intel Sandy Bridge mobile processors that include i5 and i7 ( The second phase would have 20 nm, Ivy Bridge mobile processors set to be released on mid 2012
So it seems Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook, with a price 0f $899.99 is the first in the line of Ultrabooks. Followed by Ausus Zenbook starting at $999. And Toshiba Portege Z835 and Lenovo IdeaPad U300s are yet to be released. Intel is basically making its attempts to grow computer uses which is in serious threat by ARM based chips powering iPads and other touch gadgets that are slowing taking over the traditional computers. Future will show if Ultrabook will save the computer generation or not
