This is the feature that we’ve been waiting for low power states in Windows that match what you might see on a smartphone. Always on! Personally I  think it’s a feature that Intel haven’t promoted well enough, possibly because it makes Ultrabooks look a little old fashioned.

The new low power states have been available in hardware since Moorestown chipsets were available and you can experience them in action in Android tablets and smartphones running on Intel but in the world of Windows PCs, only the CloverTrail platform /Windows 8 offers this new level of of idle efficiency. It means you’ll get a big improvement in battery life and the possibility of always-on action.

In the last 24hrs I’ve had feedback from a user in Germany that proves it’s working.

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The UMPC was a failed 2006 attempt by Intel and Microsoft to build a market of portable, fully functional PCs. Unfortunately neither the OS or the technology was ready for consumers so the sector faded into the specialist market. In the meantime quite a bit has changed. The Atom platform has evolved and we’ve now got Windows 8.  As a result the sector is coming alive again and it’s something we should all be keeping an eye on if we’re concerned about mobility and long battery life.

Today over at our sister site, UMPCPortal.com, we are fortunate enough to have a very early owner review of the Samsung ATIV Smart PC 500T, the lighter, longer battery life but less powerful brother to the Samsung ATIV Smart PC 700T.

Hector, the ATIV owner, has written a great review with images and three detailed videos. There some really interesting information about 10hr battery life, the digitizer and performance.

Check out the Samsung ATIVSmart PC  500T Review at UMPCPortal.com

Note: We don’t track the Atom-based devices at Ultrabooknews so if you’re interested in learning about PC devices in the mobile sector, check out the UMPCPortal product database.

There’s big SEO value in being the first to offer retail information for a highly desirable product but we’re prepared to go along with this one. Notebook.de have the Microsoft Surface Pro available to drop into your shopping basket and to checkout for 809 Euros. That’s  679 Euros pre-tax and the equivalent of about $869.

The images available show a slightly thicker build. Microsoft said ‘under 14mm’ at their presentation and the image appears to match that.

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Starting from 9th November in the US you’ll be able to buy a Windows 8 PC, a full Windows 8 PC, that weighs just 1.27lb / 658gm lighter than the good old handheld ultra mobile PC favorite, the Viliv X70EM and lighter than any full-size iPad.  The Acer Iconia W510, part of the Acer Iconia W5 Series, runs a dual-core 1.5Ghz Clover Trail CPU with turbo boost to 1.8Ghz, a newer GPU, 32BG of solid-state storage, an optional keyboard dock, a claimed 9hrs of battery life and a 1366×768 IPS multitouch capacitive touchscreen. The Viliv X70EX started at about $600/ The Acer Iconia W510 starts at $499. In Europe you’ll get the dock thrown in for a total of 500 Euro.

Let’s take a closer look at the W510 and think about what it says about the state of ultra mobile PCs in 2012

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Surface is out and the reviews are in. Most reviewers seem impressed; Many worry about the  lack of apps.

From tomorrow you’ll be able to fill that app-gap with a product sector that I’m more excited about than a Chromebook on ARM, a Nexus 7 3G or a convertible Ultrabook.

Atom-based PCs don’t exactly bring up images of advanced computing but since the netbooks died a few important things have happened. A very new and very advanced power engine, a new operating system and a break-out from the rather restrictive specifications, prices constraints and designs of the simple netbook category.

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ASUS doesn’t appear to have revealed much online about the Transformer Book this evening as their events take place in London and New York but there’s enough so far to confirm it’s coming and to fill out some of the specs. A 13.3” 1080P IPS display, CPU options up to Core i7 and there’s a 128GB SSD in the tablet. Up to 500GB hard drive sits in the keyboard dock. More specs below…

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Tucked into a report on MSI’s 2012 line-up over at Digitimes today is a mention of the MSI S20 Slider that appeared at Computex earlier this month. MSI are apparently aiming for an October or November release for between $799 and $899

Launch date is obviously going to depend on Windows 8 availability but we’re expecting that to happen without delay in Q4 anyway. As for the price, it seems quite competitive.

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Launched alongside the Acer Aspire S7 this morning was the Acer Iconia Tab W510. It’s not an Ultrabook at all but it’s not an Android Transformer either and as we look forward, there’s an interesting trade-off that mobile Ultrabook fans will have to think about. The Acer W510 offers a lightweight detachable tablet, up to 18 hours of battery life (docked) and a 3G/4G option. It’s running on the future Intel Atom-based Clover Trail platform.

Some of you might argue that you’re going to need 18 hours of battery life to get things done on a ‘netbook’ style device and in some cases, I totally agree but there are a number of use cases where the low power Clover Trail processor has very little down-side; Reading and writing.

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