If you’re using your laptop primarily to ‘get things done’ then you’ll have a couple of things at the top of your wish list. Large screen, perfect working fascia and battery life; You’ll probably also be prepared to take a hit on style or even weight for the right product. The Lenovo Thinkpad S531 could be just what you’re looking for. A 9hr, 15” laptop with the Thinkpad KWM fascia and Ultrabook advantage. One thing to be aware of though is that this ‘new’ Ultrabook is based on older standards.
Session is over. Information and videos available here.
Tonight, at 2100 CEST (your timezone here) I’ll be testing the Samsung Series 9 15” ultrabook with the new Ivy Bridge upgrade. It’s a stunning bit of kit but will it stand up to two hours of scrutiny? You can join in, watch the stream, chat and guide the review process by joining us here or via the ‘live’ tab up top.
We’ve just got back from the Samsung HQ in Germany with a 15” Series 9 Ultrabook under our arms. It’s a stunning bit of kit and after just an hour of testing on the train back the feeling is already very positive. The screen, keyboard, styling and battery life and speed are all looking good. Of course, more testing needs to be done and we’ll be working on that over the next week so stay with us. To kick things off we’ve got an overview video for you.
Finally we move away from Windows 8 Ultrabooks launching at Computex and get to a good ‘old’ regular Ultrabook that’s likely to be available soon. The ASUS S-Series Ultrabooks are 14 and 15 inch with an optical disk drive. This one is aimed at productivity and multimedia. Gamers take note of the Nvidia GT630M and Altec Lansing speakers. Thickness:21mm.
If Apple launches a 15” MacBook Air this spring it will send a strong message to everyone that the time for traditional laptop designs is coming to an end. A report at Apple Insider says it’s likely to happen. Personally, I’m not surprised at all. We’ve already seen Samsung and Acer launch 15” ultra-thins and if the Ultrabook methodology is as cheap as I think it is, traditional style laptops for gamers could get more niche, and more expensive. The same will be true of traditional MacBook Pro.
A launch of the new MacBook Air models hinges on Intel’s Ivy Bridge platform availability so the reported ‘April’ launch could be well towards the end of April with devices being available in May although with Ultrabooks also lining up to use the platform, it will be interesting to see who get’s the first batch.
Thin and beautiful but big and usable. The Series 9 15” is an exciting laptop to see, an exciting laptop to hold and and exciting laptop to use. The finishing on the Series 9 2012 is slightly less ‘out there’ compared to the 2011 Series 9, still a fantastic ultralight but loses nothing in terms of style. 1.4KG, 1600×900 screen, full SD card slot, Centrino 6230 Wi-Fi module and it looks like some great power consumption figures. We don’t have official figures but we think the battery capacity is a very usable 68Wh. [6200mah is given on specs and a (3×3) 6-Cell battery makes 68Wh] It would match Samsung’s claims of 10hr battery life. We measured some respectable minimum drain figures too…
We’ve just had hands-on with the Acer M3 (as I’m going to call it from now on.)
Launching soon, it’s a 15” workhorse of an Ultrabook for an interesting price. €799 starting point. Build quality seems reasonable and at 2KG it’s quite light for the size and features. A 1366×768 screen is a disappointment, a removable battery is an advantage.
More details and the press release in this post. Video below.
It’s not an Ultrabook (Samsung say it doesn’t hit pricing targets but the truth is that it’s missing a security subsystem and of course, Samsung want to position this away from the Samsung Series 5 Ultrabooks) but it’s a hot item and one that many will want, even though the pricing is way up there. $1399 for a 13”-er and $1499 for a 15”-er is not exactly small change. Both the 900X3B (13.3”) and 900X4B (15”) are up for pre-order.
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