AnandTech has their hands on a second-gen Ultrabook reference design and they’ve subjected it to a number of tests. They paint a good picture of the changes you will see from first-generation Ultrabooks (Sandy Bridge) to second-gen Ultrabooks (Ivy Bridge). If you’re interested in reading about benchmarks, thermals, and CPU details, and gaming performance, step inside and have a look at what AnandTech has revealed to get a glimpse of what you can expect from the next generation of Ultrabooks.

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Reported on ITC.ua and tipped to us by a reader today is information that ASUS maybe getting ready to update the UX21 and UX31 with some exciting new specs that include full HD displays; never before seen on an 11.6” laptop.

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This image from TechRepublic speaks a thousand words.

Just look how small the motherboard is. Look how huge the battery is in comparison to the motherboard. Look at the lack of ancillary components. Check out the heat-pipe. This is an Ultrabook exposed and it shows amazing integration.

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Ritchies Room has been doing a great job of presenting Ultrabook over the last few months and an even better job of answering user questions. Here’s a chance to watch a brief overview video showing the Acer S3 (Also arriving here for testing in the next 48hrs,) the Toshiba Z830 (with us next week) and the Asus UX21 (our full review here.)

If you’ve got questions for Ritchies I suggest dropping them in the comments on his latest article.

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‘HDR mobile computing’ is how I would neatly define the Ultrabook category. These surprisingly powerful laptops can work as efficiently as a netbook and then when you need the power, kick-in cores, turbo and other special features to give you a truly all-round solution that includes video editing, gaming and care-free desktop-style working. The Asus UX21 is one of the lightest, smallest and yet, most powerful of the Ultrabooks, at least in the Core i7 1.8Ghz version we have here. We’re impressed with what’s inside and with its weight and style but there are a couple of potential showstoppers for some people. Read-on to find out more in our detailed multimedia review of the ASUS Zenbook UX21E. Thanks ASUS Germany for the review sample.

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Thanks to everyone that joined in the live testing session yesterday evening. It was totally worth the effort because we uncovered a few more nuggets of information and a lot of data on gaming as well as confirming battery life and performance. The videos are embedded at the bottom of this article.

The bad news first. During the evening we experienced two power-downs on removing / inserting the power plug while we were in a game. It was an instant-off situation [see it on the live video here.]. Apparently others have experienced this too. I testing today, I experienced an instant shut-off while World Of Warcraft was loading (on battery mode.)

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Update: Session is finished now. A report will go up soon. is now available.

I think I’m right in saying that this is the first ever Ultrabook live review and Q&A. It happens tonight, here on Ultrabooknews.com/live

It starts at about 2100 GMT+1 (Berlin time. Your local time here)

We’ll be spending 2 hours (yes, it’s going to get detailed) testing the UX21 and we’ll include battery life testing, video video editing, gaming, web, usability and a whole lot more. There will be a chat session (already open at Ultrabooknews.com/live if you want to log in and start talking) and I’ll take general Ultrabook or UX21 questions and guidance from you. Some of the session (not all of it) will be recorded and posted tomorrow. You’ll need a flash-enabled browser and about 1mbps of bandwidth to join-in.

See you later. In the meantime, here’s a teaser and a bit of World of Warcraft on the UX21…

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Our first ‘retail’ Ultrabook review video is now live. It’s the Asus UX21. Thanks, ASUS Germany, for sending it over.

You can read a few very early first impressions on the previous article. Specifications, as always, in our database.

Our LIVE REVIEW is planned for Thursday 17th November at 2100 GMT+1 (9pm Berlin time- meet everyone here. Your local time here.) so if you have queries and want to see the results live, add it to your calendar. We’ll have a live chat and video going for a few hours. The ASUS UX21 will get a good thrashing with benchmarks, videos, productivity, gaming and much more.

A more detailed first impressions article will go out within the next 48hrs. Check back here or subscribe on Twitter or Facebook.

And now to the video. Don’t forget to support Ultrabooknews by ‘liking’ the YouTube video and please, if you have a positive or negative thought, add it to the comments. It helps us all.

Video below….

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