CES 2012: Ultrabooks, How Do They Work?

The term I hear thrown around this CES is “Ultrabook”. Netbooks, notebooks, and ultrabooks. All different types of laptops, right? Well, kinda. I wanted to do a little research into the whole idea, to actually figure out what we’re getting if  we purchased one of these things.

Intel seems to be the one leading the charge when it comes to Ultrabooks, primarily because their new next-generation Core processor platform, the “Ivy Bridge processor”, built to deliver maximum performance while still maximizing battery life. Over 75 variations of the ultrabook design will be coming in the next year, with predictions that the laptops will be taking up a small portion of the market this year and expanding in future years. Many different laptop makers seem to be producing these Ultrabooks, such as Lenovo, Acer, and HP to name a few. But why do I want one? What makes them special?

An IGN article puts the idea of an Ultrabook into simple terms: It’s a laptop with superior computing power, but not at the cost of battery life or weight or design. Ultrabooks fall into strict size restrictions to classify, and also all have a solid state drive. Also, they must be priced around the very reasonable price point of $1,000. Intel also has the classifications for the new few years worth of ultrabooks, with all ultrabooks coming out in 2012 to be USB 3.0 compatible.

So, the way I see it, an Ultrabook is just a new hybrid version of the Macbook Pro and the Macbook Air, with the price being only a fraction of an Apple product. If that’s truly the case, then that’s something I can get behind.

Source: PCmag.com, PCmag.com, IGN.com.

Tagged do, how, how do they work, ivy bridge, solid state drive, they, ultrabook, usb 3.0, work