Intel Bets 2012 on Ultrabooks

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yzfr1guy

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Ultawhat? UltraFail? There's too many darn gadgets for crying out loud,I know we humans thrive on technology but come on, another market for devices that'll soon be forgotten all in the name to replace the personal computer? Pfff
 

stryk55

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This seems like one of the riskier things Intel has done in the past few years, relatively speaking of course. Ultrabooks (like tablets and netbooks) seem to be a niche market that may or may not take off. Their Atom platform to use in netbooks was a little underwhelming and I've seen the number of netbooks at retail stores slowly begin to dwindle away.
 

RipperjackAU

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[citation][nom]vaughn2k[/nom]Ultra books with Atom... sheesH![/citation]

Unless the Ultra books come with THIS Atom:

small_Real_Steel_Atom_Header.jpg


Then yea... Not interested!
 

Device Unknown

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I would rather have an Ultrabook than a damn tablet. I like the idea, light weight, small PC that I can tote everywhere and has capabilities that no tablet can offer. Then again I don't own either, I would need to try them out for a few days to decide.
Hey Intel, can I borrow one for a week?
 

Cazalan

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UltraBooks are not Atom based. They use i3/i5/i7 CPUs.

They're just thin and sleek laptops. It's not really a gamble for Intel. That's just the way the market is heading.

Acer has a $899 UltraBook. iPad2 is $499. Add in accessories and you're getting close.
 

lp231

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[citation][nom]rottingsheep[/nom]overpriced.i'm still wishing for a day when laptops become as configurable as a desktop pc.[/citation]
There were some models, it's called a whitebook
Intel did something in the past call "Interchangeability Initiative"
which means any notebook that joins it makes notebook parts that can be interchanged with one another
 

rohitbaran

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[citation][nom]Device Unknown[/nom]I would rather have an Ultrabook than a damn tablet. I like the idea, light weight, small PC that I can tote everywhere and has capabilities that no tablet can offer. Then again I don't own either, I would need to try them out for a few days to decide. Hey Intel, can I borrow one for a week?[/citation]
Well, ultrabooks feature a strong CPU, but they sacrifice on a lot of things like a decent GPU, ports etc. It is more of a like it or not thing. I am in the not liking group, for I want a feature packed laptop even if it is 2 lbs more than an ultrabook.
 

amk-aka-Phantom

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Thank you. At least someone here understands...
 

purveyor_of_truth

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Ultrabooks are not netbook "toys" (priced under $500 using an Atom processor). There is one Ultrabook that has been on the market since July of this year...it's called an Apple MacBook Air. There's no question that MacBook Airs sell well...we'll have to wait and see if consumers can be convinced to purchase similar hardware from a non-Apple company.

The 2 main shortcomings of Ultrabooks vs. a regular notebook (as I see it) are that there is no built-in optical drive (does anyone still use these? -- you could still hook up an external one for the rare times you need it) and you are limited to Intel's graphics. So clearly it's not targeted at power users or gamers, but then that's what...5% of the consumer market at most?

Personally, I would go for a notebook (Nvidia/AMD graphics, high-res large display), but the rest of my extended family would go the Ultrabook route (possibly even netbooks, ick).


Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrabook

First phase (Q4 2011)
Thin – less than 20 mm (0.8 inch) thickness[6]
Lightweight – less than 1.4 kg (3.1 pounds)[7]
Long battery life – 5 to 8+ hours[8]
Mainstream pricing – under $1,000 USD (for base model)[9]
No optical drive
Use flash-based SSDs[10]
Use CULV (17 W TDP) Intel Sandy Bridge mobile processors
Core i5-2467M (1.6 GHz)
Core i5-2557M (1.7 GHz)
Core i7-2637M (1.7 GHz)
Core i7-2677M (1.8 GHz)
Use Intel's graphics sub-system HD 3000 (12 EUs)
 

warezme

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I think these will succeed. They are truly powerful machines at good prices and from the ones I have seen look pretty nice for the price. I can see a lot of people buying these just on looks alone but are great for travel. Most people don't like to type on screen.
 

billj214

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So the first point is that Ultrabooks are not targeting gamers and I believe most people posting negative comments are PC enthusiast gamers!

If you remember the comments about the Ipad, everyone said it was doomed to fail and nobody would buy a larger version of the iphone but they were wrong.

Myself being an owner of the i5 sandy bridge notebook, my only complaint about the PC I have is that it's large and heavier than I would like and it's actually only a 14" and 4lbs and the integrated graphics are actually very good for what I use it for.
 
G

Guest

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No one would use an ultrabook to play high end 3D games so really you don't need the heavy duty battery gobbling graphics add on. Many of us are business users and while we occasionally need workstation graphics, the integrated graphics in the SandyBridge do well in those scenarios and of course offer excellent 2D graphics rendering (which is most of what one does on a PC). Netbooks are useless for some of us because of the workload that we do (any engineering and/or software development or even video editing, web development, etc). This is the perfect platform for those of us who don't play games. It is super light and very mobile (many of us DO travel). It also has similar performance to a standard notebook. You get more battery life (super important), plus performance, plus portability. That is what MANY of us NEED!

In fact, once Ivy Bridge comes out with a graphics processor that is double the performance, any whining about graphics will probably go down the tubes as well. I will happily pay $1k for an Ivy Bridge ultrabook and can't wait until they come out. I will be extremely productive with one of those in my hands.

 
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