What changes in notebooks after the CES 2012?

CES 2012 brought much new technology. But one of the most interesting trends pointed out that the fair was the consolidation of a new format to the old notebook. The idea of ultrabooks, which Intel is the major sponsor and responsible, including financially, is here to stay and give new life to the portable PC market.

What is a ultrabook?

Lenovo Ultrabook

In summary, a notebook, but with three major differences compared to previous products in this niche: lightweight, wind and battery with more powerful hardware. Until then, consumers had two choices in terms of notebooks. The ultra-portable hardware gaunt, symbolized by netbooks, and those with much higher performance, but nothing portable and battery rarely survive two hours of use.


There is demand for ultrabooks?


It exists and that Intel identified by observing the growth of sales of Apple laptops. The line of MacBook Air even lighter, commitment to providing the best possible hardware, portability and good experience in terms of operating system. Ultrabook The idea is to position this new way of looking at mobile PCs as competitors of the MacBooks francs.

Then there's the market. To the point that Intel, which serves the MacBooks with its processors, creating a fund of $ 300 million to encourage the development of new models by the idea of manufacturing partners.

To what extent market ultrabooks will reset the PCs is something uncertain. But be assured that the conventional notebook, heavy, big and not as efficient so it is definitely close to being replaced by ultrabooks. What a great thing for the consumer.


Cost-benefit

Acer Aspire S5

Any consumer interested in purchasing a computer is always interested in acquiring the best system and the best hardware you can afford. And if the idea is that ultrabooks are so popular, a good start to ensure a good intake of the various models on the market is making sure that prices are competitive.

Intel's goal is to establish a ceiling of U.S. $ 1,000 dollars a unit. This value is more symbolic than anything. The idea is that the manufacturer can develop a good product in the range of $ 800. This has not been possible with the first generation of ultrabooks, but launches planned for 2012, Acer, Lenovo, HP and Dell will be close to this value. To do this, count on the help of Intel, which undertakes to subsidize up to $ 100 per unit.

Then think: you need a portable computer. You can buy a very cheap netbook, but limited capacity. You can buy a bigger and sturdy notebook, but you will not have the comfort to carry everywhere. You can also invest more money and bet on Apple products. Or less, you can bring everything you need in ultrabook.

Ultrabooks to keep an eye

Called Acer Aspire close attention to the S5, the world's thinnest. He is only 15 mm at the point where it is thicker. Other interesting models are the HP and Dell XPS 13 Spectre. All scheduled for release next month.

In addition to the S5, the Acer Timeline series prepares, with models that offer as the main highlight of battery life that can reach 8 hours. Other manufacturers like Samsung, Toshiba and LG showed their models.

Other directions of notebook market

Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga

The ultrabooks are the big trend, but manufacturers also showed other bets. Something common is the adoption of hybrid of a tablet computer, making use of multi-platform capabilities of Windows 8.

With the new interface Metro's operating system from Microsoft will be comfortable to type on a physical keyboard and interact with a touch screen. The idea is to offer the two experiments on a single laptop. A manufacturer that has been particularly comfortable with this concept was Lenovo, which introduced the IdeaPad Yoga with a mixture of ultrabook tablet.

Ultrabook is a term that describes a type of notebook, and netbook. But it is so strongly linked to Intel that its major competitor, AMD has created a different name for its ultra-portable notebook processors: the ultra-thin. It is estimated that over the second half of the AMD ultrathin emerge in the market betting on Fusion chips.

ARM may appear in cheaper products

Windows 8 will have versions for processors built into the design of ARM Holdings. There is much uncertainty about the performance of these processors in heavier applications and even the availability of compatible software on the platform.

This uncertainty tends to make ARM chips in laptops common input, ie, with lower price. ARM chips are notorious for low power consumption and versatility. There are two arguments that will certainly be used to accelerate sales of the devices that use ARM processors.