Intel Having Problems Getting Those Ultrabooks Under $1000

Status
Not open for further replies.
G

Guest

Guest
well well, now that there's competition on the horizon, looks like Jobs is letting the ole Apple premium drop a little
 

nebun

Distinguished
Oct 20, 2008
2,840
0
20,810
ha ha ha.....get used to it....quality and form factor is going to cost...most companies don't know this...and the same goes for a majority of the people out there
 

enewmen

Distinguished
Mar 6, 2005
2,247
3
19,815
I like the basic idea of having large notebook power in a smaller package at a price near $1000. Hope Intel, Asus, Acer, and others can pull it off - but with more ports than the photo suggests. An 11" Llano Ultrabook will also be great.
 

jacobdrj

Distinguished
Jan 20, 2005
1,475
0
19,310
There are people who work, and travel, but have a hard enough time lugging around their own luggage, and LOVE the idea of carrying '1kg less weight...'

There is a market for this, even if some of the more vocal Tom's Hardware posters are hardcore performance buffs, and therefore don't understand this...

I love my desktop. I pimp it out with the latest and greatest, no matter how much copper I have to strap on to my silicon to keep it cool... But I want battery life and portability (small weight/size) when I am on the road... Every ounce of spared weight counts...
 

ojas

Distinguished
Feb 25, 2011
2,924
0
20,810
i hope to be able to buy something like this or the samsung series 9 notebook (which is sort of like an ultrabook at a high price) at around 1K about 4 years from now, when intel get their 10/14mm processors going. Hopefully SSDs would have become cheaper and more reliable by then as well.

What i really hope ultrabooks manage to do is have gesture support like macbooks (and the samsung 9 series) do, because that + win8 (or whatever)+ 1kg weight + great performance would be really stiff competition to Apple.

I think a 13+ inch ultrabook with all this would just be sooo cool. And they'll be much more than just a fancy thing, they'd be bang for buck for a lot of people, imo.

Keep innovating bitches! :D
 

CoffeeDrinker

Distinguished
Oct 11, 2010
70
0
18,640
I think Acer or Asus will be able to get the pricing down only if Intel stops making a huge profit on there products. Intel always has been overpriced. That is why they can try make demands of a lower priced laptop.
 

amdwilliam1985

Distinguished
Mar 30, 2006
390
0
18,780
[citation][nom]greghome[/nom]I still ain't paying the premium so I can carry 1kg less weight.....I mean, seriously? over 1k for a Core i5 mobile system ? I can get one in "standard form factor" at just over half that price..[/citation]
You're getting more than that.
I just got my MacBook Air 13", it gives me aluminum uni-body that doesn't feel cheap. It gives me some of the best screen on the market. It gives me up-to 7 hours of battery. It gives me the cool-hand-gestures.
Most importantly, it boots up in 15 seconds and shuts down in 2 seconds, that made all my other windows machine jealous(btw, I got like 5 windows machine at home and 1 Mac).
 

jacobdrj

Distinguished
Jan 20, 2005
1,475
0
19,310
[citation][nom]amdwilliam1985[/nom]You're getting more than that.I just got my MacBook Air 13", it gives me aluminum uni-body that doesn't feel cheap. It gives me some of the best screen on the market. It gives me up-to 7 hours of battery. It gives me the cool-hand-gestures.Most importantly, it boots up in 15 seconds and shuts down in 2 seconds, that made all my other windows machine jealous(btw, I got like 5 windows machine at home and 1 Mac).[/citation]

And for the working professional, those start-up/shutdown times are critical... Those and the battery life/weight/screen quality, professionals will pay a premium for, especially since there are no other competitors in this segment yet...

 
G

Guest

Guest
I recently got a Toshiba R830. It's an i7-2620M, 13", at a little over 3 lbs with the 6 cell battery (although it has a ODD, which I could do without), but 'thicker' than a MacBook Air - and presumably, than an ultrabook.

I do look at it as a compromise, as I would rather have a 13" MacBook Air for a couple of reasons (namely the battery - this Toshiba, with this battery, does a little more than 6 hours in light office use, and the 9 cell battery adds around another lb - and the backlit keyboard), but this Toshiba cost (equivalent to) ~~650 USD plus taxes, and it's thin and light enough for me.

Right now some of us still have to compromise, yes, but look at what happened when the netbooks came to be... It will take a couple of years, but we'll get good 'ultrabooks' under 1000k soon.
 

molo9000

Distinguished
Aug 14, 2010
646
0
18,990
[citation][nom]jacobdrj[/nom] especially since there are no other competitors in this segment yet...[/citation]

There is the Samsung Series 9 and the Sony Vaio Z, but both are more expensive.
 

amdwilliam1985

Distinguished
Mar 30, 2006
390
0
18,780
[citation][nom]molo9000[/nom]There is the Samsung Series 9 and the Sony Vaio Z, but both are more expensive.[/citation]

Exactly, that's what I told my friends, MacBook Air 13" is the cheapest in it's category.
 

AnUnusedUsername

Distinguished
Sep 14, 2010
235
0
18,710
There have also been quite a few in the past, Falcon Northwest makes one in the I/O, Voodoo's Envy 133 was thin and powerful when it was avaliable, There's a few lenovos that were aimed at a thin form factor, the vaios already mentioned, and many more out there. They all have been over $1000, but also under $2000 reasonably configured, so at least cheaper than the mac alternative while remaining more powerful. More is better, of course. Pretty much every "light and thin" windows laptop design so far has failed, as no one want's to pay the premium for the better build quality required for a thinner design. Those that have the money generally just buy a mac and run windows on it, probably because the better windows options aren't popular or well known.
 

sunflier

Distinguished
Jul 16, 2009
480
0
18,780
If the herds of sheeple will fork over $$ for Apple products there will be smart(er) consumers who spend $$ for devices like the Ultrabook and it won't not because they're elitist snobs. They simply have a use for them and b/c they have an alternative to similiar Apple products.
 

jungleboogiemonster

Distinguished
Aug 19, 2007
106
0
18,690
I used to be big on ultra-portables until I owned one. They make too many sacrifices and reliability has been an issue for me, so I'm sticking to normal form factors in the future. The gains from a slight size increase are worth it.
 

pcwlai

Distinguished
Jan 30, 2003
62
0
18,630
[citation][nom]AnUnusedUsername[/nom]There have also been quite a few in the past, Falcon Northwest makes one in the I/O, Voodoo's Envy 133 was thin and powerful when it was avaliable, There's a few lenovos that were aimed at a thin form factor, the vaios already mentioned, and many more out there. They all have been over $1000, but also under $2000 reasonably configured, so at least cheaper than the mac alternative while remaining more powerful. More is better, of course. Pretty much every "light and thin" windows laptop design so far has failed, as no one want's to pay the premium for the better build quality required for a thinner design. Those that have the money generally just buy a mac and run windows on it, probably because the better windows options aren't popular or well known.[/citation]

When compares component wise, I don't find Vaio or similar products from other brands really provide a lot more for the average user on a daily basis.

And when it comes to usability, Apple is the champion. It is possible to listen to music with MacBook Air speakers and do a video group chat with clear voices coming out and recorded in.

Other brands? I don't think it is worth trying (of course, tried and compared).
 

jacobdrj

Distinguished
Jan 20, 2005
1,475
0
19,310
[citation][nom]damianrobertjones[/nom]I'm sorry but we really don't need another name for what's really already available[/citation]
It is the fact that Intel is pushing this from the 'top down' that is intriguing.

They see that Apple is effectively accomplishing this. MacBook Air's can be had for under 1000 with the older Core 2 Duo setups. The challenge is doing this for companies that have not done this before, or have done this before, but never been able to do this economically at the sub 1k price point...

This is a lot like pushing fuel economy standards from the government to the auto industry. I am not sure this will work as intended, but something will be available at a sub-1k price point with the specs shown, I am just not sure it will be worth buying, as an average consumer, particularly if the specs are anything comparable to the established MacBook Air...
 

AppleBlowsDonkeyBalls

Distinguished
Sep 30, 2010
117
0
18,680
I really see no point in these laptops when you can get an AMD E-350 ultra-portable + an SSD for a lot less. For their intended use there's no need to have Sandy Bridge. You're not gonna be using processor-intensive apps on these; that's what 15-17" chassis laptops are for. They have better screens for working, and they have much more powerful CPUs, even in comparison to CULV Sandy Bridge.

Some of you will mention: "oh, it's lighter". Yeah, by 0.5 pounds. Big whoop. "OMG, it's so thin". Who the hell cares if it's 0.7" thick instead of 1.0" thick? I mean, really? You don't measure how usable something will be by if it can fit in a manila envelope like the MBA.

The main problem with them being so thin is that they have smaller batteries. As you have seen in the new MBA, the battery lasts around 4:30-5 hours on normal use. A normal ultra-portable lasts 6:30 to 7 hours.
 

cobra5000

Distinguished
Apr 14, 2008
504
0
19,010
This is just a bunch of b.s. Company's could do this easily for less than 1k, they CHOOSE not to. Greed pure and simple. $1,000 skinny laptops that perform like a $400 budget model, with less features. Trying to pull in the apple drones who care only about asthetics, price and performance be damned! All while getting kickbacks from intel. I can almost hear the cash register ringing.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.