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Intel mounting 'biggest advertising campaign since 2003' for Ultrabooks
Intel's betting the farm on Ultrabook PCs with its biggest-budget advertising campaign since 2003. April will see the start of a massive advertising campaign designed to convey the benefits of thin and light notebooks to the masses. Kevin Sellers, Santa Clara's head of advertising was boasting ahead of Tuesday's Intel press conference where we're expecting plenty of juicy revelations about the company's Medfield smartphone platform. We'd say "keep your eyes peeled" for the adverts, but given how deeply ingrained the Intel bunnies are on our subconscious, we'll just wait for the PR onslaught to begin.
Dell has an Ultrabook on the way... tomorrow!
Microsoft Windows and Windows Live Division CFO Tami Reller just ended her spiel during Microsoft's CES 2012 keynote by dropping this bombshell: Dell's got an Ultrabook on the way, and it'll be shown off in earnest tomorrow. And if we had to guess, we'd put a Benjamin on Dell pulling an Adamo with it. Guess we'll find out in under 24 hours!
HP Envy 14 Spectre official: 3.97 pounds, NFC, Radiance display and glass chassis, arriving February 8 for $1,400
As far as product launches go, this one wasn't very subtle. Just last week, HP's PR team widely disseminated a brief video teasing a wispy laptop called the Spectre. We couldn't parse too many details for all the shadows and quick-cuts, but we gathered this much: it seemed to be thin, and far too sleek to be just another business-centric Ultrabook. Nope, it would be arresting, bold and highly stylized. And this time, it would be meant for mainstream consumers.Well, folks: we were right (except for the thin part, anyway). HP just unveiled the Envy 14 Spectre, and is billing it as a "premium Ultrabook." Which makes sense, since the laptop starts at $1,400, making it even pricier than the 13-inch MacBook Air (to say nothing of all those $900 ultraportables hitting the market). Above all, the company is justifying that price with a daring glass design, which HP insists makes the laptop more durable, not less so. In addition to cost, though, the trade-off to all that armor is some extra heft: the Spectre weighs in at 3.97 pounds and measures 20mm thick, making it the chubbiest 13-inch Ultrabook we've seen yet.So what does $1,400 get you, aside from a memorable design? We're told the laptop comes standard with a 14-inch, 1600 x 900 Radiance Display (hurrah!), Core i5-2467M CPU, 4GB of RAM, a nine-hour battery, backlit keyboard, carrying case and -- get this -- an NFC chip built into the palm rest for transferring URLs from your phone's browser. Other bells and whistles include Intel Wireless Display, HP's CoolSense technology, Beats, HP Wireless Audio, full copies of Photoshop and Premiere Elements and a two-year subscription to Norton Internet Security. Got that, guys? Upgrade options include a 256GB SSD and an extra 4GB of RAM, but other than that, what you see is what you get (and to be fair, you get a lot).The Spectre will go on sale in the US on February 8, continuing on to Canada, the UK, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Chile and Mexico in March. For now, though, head past the break for a walk-through video and some early impressions from yours truly.
Samsung unveils 13- and 14-inch Series 5 Ultrabooks, starting at $899 (hands-on)
Depending on your point of view, Samsung was either late to the Ultrabook party, or perhaps just a bit early. Although the 2.8-pound Series 9 was a sight to behold when it first came out last year, it arrived shortly before Intel kicked off its Ultrabook campaign, and failed to match all of Chipzilla's early-stage requirements. This year, Sammy's back with a redesigned Series 9... along with two laptops it's actually calling Ultrabooks. The notebooks, both of which fall under the company's Series 5 line of products, and which recently surfaced online, include your requisite 13-incher, along with a larger 14-inch model with an optical drive.Both machines will have Core i5 processors, 4GB of RAM, eight-hour batteries and Intel integrated graphics, along with the same matte, 300-nit (1366 x 768) display that we loved so much in the Series 5 Chromebook. And though the 13-incher will have a 128GB SSD option, each comes standard with a standard 500GB 5,400RPM drive with 16GB of express cache for faster boot times and application-launching. You may recall this feature from the Series 7 Chronos laptop, except this time around, Sammy doubled the amount of flash memory paired with the HDD.Another thing the two systems have in common: they're each denser than the early Ultrabooks we saw, with the 14-inch model coming in at 3.95 pounds, and the 13-incher tipping the scales at 3.5 pounds (a full fifth of a pound heavier than the HP Folio!). At least that girth comes with an unsparing port selection: Ethernet, HDMI, USB 3.0, two USB 2.0 sockets and an SD slot. And that's just the 13-inch version: its big brother adds an optical drive, VGA output and a larger memory card reader. The pair will be available January 30th, starting at $899 for the 13-inch model and $949 for the 14-inch version. (The 13-inch configuration with the 128GB SSD will ring in at $1,099.) We expect to get our hands on final review units soon enough, but since we've already scored a few minutes of hands-on time, we've got photos and first impressions for you to peruse right this second.
Intel partnering with Nuance to bring voice recognition to Ultrabooks
So far in the last hour, we've learned that future Ultrabooks will have NFC, possibly larger screens and touchscreens (maybe even touch-enabled palm rests). Well, we've got one more marquee feature to add to the list: Intel just announced that it's partnering with Nuance to bring voice recognition to Ultrabooks. And it sounds like Intel's vision is comprehensive: the company envisions consumers being able to launch applications, compose emails, update social networks and control media playback. During the keynote, Intel PC client head Mooly Eden even said he would one day like to speak to the computer and have this words appear in a different language. Will that be a feature in the 1.0 product? We'll have to see when it starts hitting Ultrabooks later this year. Billy Steele contributed to this report.
Intel shows off Nikiski prototype with sprawling touchscreen decking out the palm rest (video)
Is this not the craziest thing we've seen at this year's CES? Behold the Nikiski: an Intel prototype with a see-through touchpad that stretches across the entire palm rest. It's unclear who makes the laptop, but Intel was keen to gush about that sprawling touch panel. Mr. Eden demonstrated some effective palm rejection, so that if your hands brush the touchscreen while you're typing, you won't lose control of the cursor. If this seems senseless, given how spacious trackpads already are, know that this panel doubles as a secondary display that can show webpages and other content when the laptop is shut. It looks like Intel's got it on display here for the press to play with, so we'll be getting hands-on as soon as we can. Update: We snagged a quick hands-on. Hit the gallery for a peek. Update 2: Now with video!
Intel: 75-plus Ultrabooks coming in 2012, 50 percent of them will have 14- and 15-inch screens
Make no mistake: this isn't just the CES of Ultrabooks; it's the year for these thin, light, inexpensive MacBook Air clones. While speaking to a packed house here at CES, Intel PC client chief Mooly Eden just dropped a telling stat: so far, 75-plus Ultrabooks are set to launch in 2012. Of those, 50 percent will have 14- and 15-inch displays - a clear bid to win over mainstream consumers who feel they need a more screen real estate for watching movies or aren't ready to part with optical drives, discrete graphics and other specs befitting mainstream laptops. Don't say we didn't warn you. Billy Steele contributed to this report.
ASUS UX21 and UX31 laptops gain Elan Touchpad, new colors and improved resume / standby times
Not a lot new happening in the Zenbook world here at the 2012 edition of the Consumer Electronics Show, but for those thinking of splurging on a UX21 or UX31, we've a pinch of good news to share. ASUS has informed us that the UX series as a whole is now shipping with the Elan Touchpad, not to mention updated drivers that improve resume and standby times. Moreover, the range is available in Rose Gold and Hot Pink, neither of which should be possible to resist. In fact, let us know which hue's tickling your fancy in comments below.
Intel demos Ultrabooks with multitouch displays, games using an accelerometer
Well, this was probably inevitable, wasn't it? We're here at Intel's Ultrabook CES keynote, where PC client head honcho Mooly Eden just showed off Ultrabooks with touchscreen displays. No convertible form factors, just yet, but clamshells with multitouch screens -- you know, the kind of thing we marveled over when the TouchSmart tm2 came out two CES' ago. Sounds predictable enough, right? Well, get this: after he was done swiping the display, using pinch to zoom to magnify webpages, he launched a game, and used the accelerometer in the laptop to fly a plane into the horizon. That's right: you'll soon be able to game with your sub-three-pound laptop as you would with a smartphone or tablet. Let's just hope those Ultrabooks eventually stop ballooning back into straight-up notebook territory, eh? Billy Steele contributed to this report.
Confirmed: Intel's Ivy Bridge chips will support NFC
Well, looky here. We're reporting live from a keynote on Ultrabooks starring Intel's Mooly Eden, where the star exec just revealed that the company's forthcoming Ivy Bridge chips will support NFC, demoing a transaction involving a laptop and PayPass-enabled MasterCard. Suffice to say, we haven't really seen this technology incorporated into laptops, though it is reminiscent of the older TransferJet standard (not that that ever took off). Unfortunately, Chipzilla's otherwise being mum on details: it's too early to know which credit card companies, software developers and laptop makers are on board, but hopefully Intel's backing is enough to spur some innovation here. Billy Steele contributed to this report.
Lenovo quietly outs the IdeaPad U300e, a $799 Ultrabook with a hybrid hard drive
We thought we'd seen everything Lenovo had to show here at CES. We thought wrong. In a tour of the company's showroom / trailer today, we spotted that gray laptop up there, hiding amid the X1 Hybrid, T430u Ultrabook and S200 netbook. That, friends, is the IdeaPad U300e, a cheaper, lesser-specced version of the U300s we reviewed last fall. Check our gallery below: it has the same aluminum chassis, comfortable keyboard and sprawling trackpad, though the ports appear to have played musical chairs. The only differences? For one, we're seeing the U300e (top, above the U300s) adds an Ethernet jack, something the U300s is missing. More importantly, though, the U300e costs $799, not $1,200, and instead of an SSD it sports a hybrid drive pairing a 500GB HDD with 32GB of flash storage -- essentially, the same setup you'll find in the $800 Acer Aspire S3. We're also told it'll run "next-generation" Intel processors, though Lenovo's stopping short of calling it Ivy Bridge, which Intel has yet to reveal. Not a bad deal, though we might still prefer the new U310, which has the all-important SD slot the U300s was missing, but still costs a hundred bucks less than this here U300e. Disagree with us? The U300e is expected to go on sale this month.
Toshiba shows off 14-inch Ultrabook, we go hands-on
It might not be obvious this early on in CES week, so forgive us for dropping a spoiler: you're going to see lots -- and we mean lots -- of 14-inch Ultrabooks. Big-screened things, some of them making room for optical drives and discrete graphics -- the sorts of systems we'd sooner call thin-and-lights than Ultrabooks. (Potato, potahto, are we right?) It's clear that overgrown Ultras going to be a thing, regardless of whether you buy into the marketing hype, and as of today you can count Toshiba as a proud member of the welcome wagon. The company is showing off a 14-incher here at CES, and though it's not ready to confirm specs, pricing or even the model name, we did get to spend a few quality minutes poking around a pre-production unit. So far, we know it will cost "well under" $1,000, and go on sale in the June time frame, just as the back-to-school shopping season kicks off. If you want the short story, you can skip straight to those hands-on shots below and check out our first impressions after the break. %Gallery-142764%
Lenovo's IdeaPad U310 and U410 Ultrabooks start at an inexpensive $699, weigh a little more than the competition
If there's one thing we don't like about the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s, it's that it's missing an SD slot, and starts at $1,200 -- a steep price when you can find many an Ultrabook for under $1,000. (Okay, that's two things.) And while the company isn't ready for a complete do-over just yet, it's clearly trying to fill some gaps in its lineup: the outfit just introduced the 13-inch IdeaPad U310 and the 14-inch U410, which will start at a relatively inexpensive $699. On paper, the IdeaPad U310 bears a strong resemblance to the U300s we reviewed two months ago, with 4GB of RAM, 1366 x 768 resolution, an eight-hour battery, Intel Wireless Display and a choice of Intel Core processors. But, it adds an extra USB 3.0 port, along with that all-important memory card slot. In exchange, you'll have to make some tougher choices regarding storage: you can opt for a 500GB hard drive or an SSD that tops out at 64GB of space. The 14-inch IdeaPad U410 offers more of the same, though instead of Intel's integrated graphics offering, it packs an NVIDIA GeForce 610M card with 1GB of video memory -- unsurprising, given that the new ThinkPad T430u Ultrabook also has discrete graphics at a similar price. All in all, not too shabby for $700, though the trade-off for the extra ports and lower price is some extra padding: the 13-inch version tips the scales at 3.7 pounds, versus 2.95 for the U300s. (The U410 weights 4.2.) Then again, when these go on sale in May, we suspect they'll be plenty light for students looking to get a jump on back-to-school shopping. For now, we've got hands-on shots below and some impressions after the break.
Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra series hands-on
Ultrabooks aren't necessarily just for those that want tiny ultraportables -- Acer also thinks the mainstream consumer is going to be keen on the extended battery life and slimmer profile afforded by Intel's latest mobile platform. The Aspire Timeline Ultra series is an extension of the beloved Timeline... line, in the 14- and 15-inch sizes that attract the vast majority of buyers. We went hands-on with the two larger Ultrabook models which you can check out in the galleries below. Update: We've since had a second chance to get hands-on with the Timeline Ultra series and have refreshed our gallery with brighter, clearer photos and also subbed in a new lead shot.
Acer Aspire S5 Ultrabook hands-on
Acer brought it's A-game to CES, by which we mean the "world's thinnest Ultrabook." The 13.3-inch Acer Aspire S5 just launched and we got our mitts all-over its super-svelte magnesium and aluminum exterior. We've got some photos in the gallery below, with more to come -- people are literally elbowing each other in the gut to get shots of this thing. Update: We've since had another chance to play with the S5. Check out our second look for brighter, clearer photos and a walk-through video demonstrating the laptop's motorized, drop-down door cover.
Acer announces 'world's thinnest' 13.3-inch Aspire S5 Ultrabook at CES 2012 (update: pictures)
Not surprisingly, Acer's jumping on the quickly-expanding Ultrabook bandwagon here at CES 2012, with the Aspire S5 being the first out of the chute. It's a 13.3-incher that'll check it at under three pounds, offering up Instant On functionality, a magnesium-aluminum alloy cover (in Onyx Black), HDMI / USB 3.0 / Thunderbolt (!) ports and an SSD for good measure. We're told that it'll start shipping in Q2 of this year, but other details remain under wraps.
Lenovo's ThinkPad T430u Ultrabook hands-on
Ultrabooks are all the rage this year's CES, so it only makes sense that Lenovo would want to get in on the action and bring the new, slim form factor to its lauded ThinkPad line. We swung by the company's trailer to get some hands-on with the T430u -- the first such machine that we've seen packing discrete graphics from NVIDIA. At only 21mm thick and under four pounds, the first ThinkPad Ultrabook is certainly svelte and falls on the more portable end of the spectrum for 14-inch PCs. Sadly there weren't any working models on hand, but we were able to get a good idea of what the aluminum chassis (covered in a soft-touch rubberized paint, of course) will look and feel like. The iconic red nub and unparalleled keyboard are in tow, as well as a large click pad. The demo unit was sporting a glossy screen, but when it ships early in the second half of the year it'll be packing an anti-glare panel. We were also impressed with the incredibly clean bottom panel which, while incredibly difficult to photograph, does hide the required pile of stickers and licensed keys that usually pollute the laptop's exterior. Check out the gallery below to see HDMI and SIM card slots that hide around the back and the usual cadre of SD slots, USB 3.0 and Ethernet ports that populate the sides.
HP Spectre spotted on CES show floor
What's this here? It's the stuff of CES 2012 legend -- the HP Spectre. Now, granted, we had a pretty good idea that the sexy new ultrabook is headed our way soon, but hey, here it is, in the flesh, spotted by a blurrycammed tipster roaming around the Intel booth on the CES showroom floor. It's nice to know that the thing will be there waiting for us when those doors officially open on Tuesday.
Toshiba promises world's thinnest and lightest 10.1-inch tablet and 13.3-inch Ultrabook, 55-inch QFHD TV, other wonderment for CES
It's dangerous to throw titles like "world's thinnest" and "world's lightest" around at events like CES -- what was a record breaker on Tuesday morning has a tendency to look a bit portly by Wednesday afternoon. But, never mind the caution, here comes Toshiba pledging both the thinnest and the lightest 10.1-inch tablet and 13.3-inch Ultrabook (though that latter one could just be referring to the Portege Z835 we've already reviewed). We'll have to wait a few days for any further details, though. The company is also promising to show off an OLED reference tablet with waterproof construction and wireless power plus a 55-inch QFHD television with glasses-free 3D. No world records there, but it should be quite a looker.
Lenovo's ThinkPad T430u Ultrabook targets the business set with discrete graphics and 1TB in storage, arrives in Q3 for $849
While plenty of companies will spend CES showing off their first Ultrabooks, Lenovo is already going back for seconds. The outfit just announced the ThinkPad T430u, a more business-focused follow-up to the IdeaPad U300s we reviewed back in November. More than anything, though, what has us intrigued is that it packs optional NVIDIA graphics, making this the first so-called Ultrabook we've seen with a dedicated GPU. Add in a 14-inch (1366 x 768) display, up to 1TB of hard drive storage and a modest six hours of rated battery life, and it sounds more like a full-fledged laptop than an Ultrabook. Semantics aside, with a starting price of $849 this could be a tempting deal for businesses looking to outfit their employees with something portable, well-performing and inexpensive. Not to mention, it might just be a worthy competitor to the HP Folio, our favorite business-centric Ultrabook at the moment. Just make sure IT can wait patiently -- the T430u isn't slated to go on sale until Q3 of this year.
