Top Ultrabooks this year

Yay! Screen resolutions moving away from the meh 1366x768.

But what is with this race for wake from sleep ?
1.4 > 1.5 > 1.6 > 2 seconds. I doubt anyone would really be able to tell the difference between these times in daily use.
Really.
Pfffft.
Find some other E-peen stat that may really mean something.
 
Acer claims the device is the world’s thinnest Ultrabook, measuring only 15mm at the thickest point. However, at 1.35kg it is heavier than the Samsung Series 9 and Asus Zenbook UX31E.
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but . . .
The 13-inch Series 9 measures only 12.9mm at its thickest point and weighs 1.16kg, 28 percent smaller than the previous model.
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bwana said:
but . . .
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Well spotted !

But again... really... 2.1mm !! Does it make any sort of frikken difference to me in the real world ?
15mm > 12.9mm > at its thickest point I don't really give a feck, and does it make any real aesthetic difference ?

The race for Ultrabook E-peens!

MacBook Air has been there and done that.

/yawns

Gimme extra battery life and stick your 2.1mm !!

EDIT: I see a lot of sites are looking at the thinnest point in declaring the thinnest winner... 0.68 MacBook Air vs 0.6 Acer S5 etc...
 
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I just want decent battery life. Is it too much to ask from modern devices? Give me 4-8 hours standard on a laptop and 48hrs on a smartphone. thats all i ask dear techno gods, thats one ideal i want!
 
I think the biggest gift that cellphone manufactures can give the world is to remove all of their R&D budgets just to one thing: better batteries. Today's smartphones can do anything that we want know, but not for long enough. This can impact on many other things i.e electrical car etc.

I have a dream.....
 
Obronie said:
I think the biggest gift that cellphone manufactures can give the world is to remove all of their R&D budgets just to one thing: better batteries. Today's smartphones can do anything that we want know, but not for long enough. This can impact on many other things i.e electrical car etc.

I have a dream.....
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I have to agree.
 
That HP is looking sweet. Also comes with photoshop elements and win7 ultimate. Not sure about the 1 usb port though...carrying around a usb hub FTL.

AirWolf said:
Do any of these have dvd drives?
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Unlikely given the 13 inch form factor.

Obronie said:
I think the biggest gift that cellphone manufactures can give the world is to remove all of their R&D budgets just to one thing: better batteries. Today's smartphones can do anything that we want know, but not for long enough. This can impact on many other things i.e electrical car etc.
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If anything it'll get worse for the next year or so. Too much pressure to deliver quad cores & the battery tech advances aren't ready for prime time yet.
 
If only the Sony Z Series 13" wasn't so expensive, it would definitely be the best buy of the bunch. A tiny bit thicker than some at 15mm, but it is only 1.15kg and with a 2.7Ghz Core i7, 8GB RAM, and 256GB SSD it is a beast. Plus it has a 1920 x 1080 screen!
 
Obronie said:
I think the biggest gift that cellphone manufactures can give the world is to remove all of their R&D budgets just to one thing: better batteries. Today's smartphones can do anything that we want know, but not for long enough. This can impact on many other things i.e electrical car etc.

I have a dream.....
Click to expand...

HavocXphere said:
If anything it'll get worse for the next year or so. Too much pressure to deliver quad cores & the battery tech advances aren't ready for prime time yet.
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x86 is too power hungry. Get an ARM device and you will have MUCH better battery life.
 
kilobits said:
Well spotted !

But again... really... 2.1mm !! Does it make any sort of frikken difference to me in the real world ?
15mm > 12.9mm > at its thickest point I don't really give a feck, and does it make any real aesthetic difference ?
Click to expand...

Well it matters to me,sure 1,2-2.0 seconds to wake comparisons are just silly....but...thickness DOES MATTER TO ALOT OF PEOPLE.



zamicro said:
And not one of these so-called super ultra-books contains a swivel type touch screen to double as a tablet? That would be awesome!
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Exactly what I'm thinking,are all these pc manufacturers dum or what?!!!! First one to market with a proper product like this will make a load full of cash.

And kilobit can you now see why thickness matters?The old style laptop/tablet hybrids were just too thick and heavy to work but now the tech has caught up with the concept!

I'm waiting for a thin ultrabook/tablet hybrid with a decent GPU,then I'm upgrading.Until then meh.......they do look good however!Look at that HP and samsung!

The Asus zenbook is something special too!
 
The rumours are that the next Asus Zenbook has a 1920x1080 IPS display, could be in response to a because of a Macbook Air with "retina" IPS display? That's what I'm excited about!
 
Thickness has now becomes thinness.
Ultrabooks / Laptops are no longer 1.2cm thick, they are now 12.9mm thin.

The Acer is 15mm thin and the Samsung 12.9mm thin.

Get a ruler... measure that. Significant ?
What thinness is awkward to work with ?
What height is it not-thin-enough-to-be-usable as a laptop / Ultrabook ?

This is all marketing need-want generation by laptop manufacturers / marketers to define a redundancy threshold... if it is not 0.xxmm thinner, it is old and not usable.

Tablets are perhaps another issue... and here indeed lightweight thin devices make a world of difference.

A laptop / ultrabook sits on a desk.. too hot to use on the lap and needs to be light enough to commute... thinness is a misdirection of the slightness of hand.



falcon786 said:
Well it matters to me,sure 1,2-2.0 seconds to wake comparisons are just silly....but...thickness DOES MATTER TO ALOT OF PEOPLE.

Exactly what I'm thinking,are all these pc manufacturers dum or what?!!!! First one to market with a proper product like this will make a load full of cash.

And kilobit can you now see why thickness matters?The old style laptop/tablet hybrids were just too thick and heavy to work but now the tech has caught up with the concept!

I'm waiting for a thin ultrabook/tablet hybrid with a decent GPU,then I'm upgrading.Until then meh.......they do look good however!Look at that HP and samsung!

The Asus zenbook is something special too!
Click to expand...
 
kilobits said:
Tablets are perhaps another issue... and here indeed lightweight thin devices make a world of difference.
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Exactly my point,its just the right progression for the ultrabook to become the hybrid tablet/laptop....all we need now is a 12.9 mm ultrabook that has a touch screen that can flip over and I'll be a happy chappie.:D

So the thinness or thickness debate IS relevant as the engineering is being pushed to the limit,its not "JUST MARKETING".

And even now in this state i do use my laptop on my lap while watching tv etc in the lounge and it would be a lot nicer to have a lighter thinner pc on my lap (dont worry yourself about heat etc i use a cushion and I have kids to prove it lol)
 
But heat IS a problem... for the components inside too. Sacrifice the cushion for a slighter less-thin, cooler machine ;).

I just think that this thinness race is just meh.

What you "gain" in thinness you lose in portability... a bag of connectors and cables-adapters and external optical and magnetic storage.

Is a 20mm laptop really that thick ? Look at weight saving composite chassis and forget about this 12mm skinny fad to boost sales. What about a 22mm laptop ?

The iPad (3rd Gen) is thicker and heavier and better and faster and more... and it is still more than usable.

Fashion magazines have supermodels on their covers... brands need the cover girls... same with technology... but in the real world...
 
kilobits said:
But heat IS a problem... for the components inside too. Sacrifice the cushion for a slighter less-thin, cooler machine ;).
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The heat generated by newer generation low power CPU's is obviously less and aluminium construction helps to dissipate the heat quicker,and besides the cushion puts the keyboard at a more acceptable typing level. ;)

I just think that this thinness race is just meh.

What you "gain" in thinness you lose in portability... a bag of connectors and cables-adapters and external optical and magnetic storage.
Click to expand...

I also thought about it that way but besides for installing games I dont use optical media anymore so I guess I can do without it,yeah sure its not as practical anymore but for me personally I cant see it as a deal breaker.

Is a 20mm laptop really that thick ? Look at weight saving composite chassis and forget about this 12mm skinny fad to boost sales. What about a 22mm laptop ?

The iPad (3rd Gen) is thicker and heavier and better and faster and more... and it is still more than usable.

Fashion magazines have supermodels on their covers... brands need the cover girls... same with technology... but in the real world...
Click to expand...

Thinner looks better and is easier to make lighter,physics will see to that....remember for the structural integrity of a thinner laptop to be kept in check by the chassis it has to handle less shear/stress/strain than for a thicker laptop design.

I usually prefer function over form but in this case function will eventually catch up with form just as it always has in the pc world ;)

If we did not continue making pc's slicker just imagine what we'd be sitting with now.
 
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