Readers of this post will have at least given some thought to the word in the last minute but many of you are probably considering whether it fits into your buying plans. Let’s assume you’re looking to buy but haven’t pulled the plug yet. Why are you waiting?
Q3 and Q4 2012 bring a few changes, new models and more information about the future of Ultrabooks so we can see there’s reason to wait. Windows 8 is obviously in the mix for October. Touch and Sensors will feature among a new range of Ultrabooks that you’ll see launched during September to November. Prices will change and then there’s likely to be new information on the 2013 generation of Ultrabooks teased in September.
There are a lot of Ultrabooks available today though and prices are starting to settle. If an Ultrabook is on your list, why haven’t you bought yet?
Use the comments below to tell us about why Ultrabooks are not on your list, or what you’ve already bought. If you want to sound-off, don’t forget we’ve got a special place for you and we’ll be taking those comments to Intel in Sept at IDF.
If you want more information on the Ultrabook, start here.
[poll id="4"]
I am waiting for 1600 x 900 to become more mainstream. Currently, the higher res screens are slim picking or are priced a cut above rest.
Why couldn’t you just add ‘dedicated GPU’ to your poll options?
I know more than a few people who refuse to spend a thousand bucks without dedicated graphics of some kind.
Ultrabooks are much to expensive. I wonder who will pay so much money just for a computer? If Intel wants to sell these ultraboks they have to work on the price!
I just bought a 15″ series 9 with i7, 256gb ssd, and 8gm ram for $1800. So… here I am?
same here, but 15″ core i5, 128 GB SSD.
It perfectly fits my need (no time for gaming).
I’m paying for the battery life (7h+), portable(thin+light), look (stylish) and performance which is enough for me.
Me too!
Update: The poll wasn’t working. I’ve fixed it now. Chippy
I too am waiting for higher resolution screens as well as a matte screen with a mid range discrete gpu(nvidia 640m). There’s only one that I’ve found that is close to my “wish list”, which is the Gigabyte U2442. Delayed till mid august or possibly september.
Mainly I am waiting for my netbook to break and for $1000 to miraculously show up in my bank account :)
1. discrete graphics
2. good screen
3. doesn’t look like the Zenbook
4. Doesn’t cost arm+leg
There isn’t one that fits all four right now.
yes, too bad Acer’s 14″ M5 has a shitty display…
You know, there is some online stores where you can buy a different screen for your laptop. They have a large database of what screen fits into what laptop, and they got reflective, non-reflective, TN panels, IPS panels, whatever you like…
I’m waiting for more 11.6″ screen models with thin bezels, longer battery life and upgradeable SSD, RAM and battery.
Same here. Netbooks are too slow and ultrabooks are too big and have crappy battery life. I guess I’ll wait for the 3rd gen ultrabooks since the 2nd gens are dissappointing.
I was waiting and waiting… HP Envy was not perfect. I was waiting for Ivy Bridge Samsung Series 5, but got tired and bought Macbook Air. Good deal and very good decision.
So now I’m waiting for Windows 8 perfected tablets/ultrabooks. Probably not going to happen ;-)
I am either waiting for Samsung series 9 15″ 3rd gen, or Asus TaiChi depending on how much i need that back screen on the taichi.
I think the Series 9 is really amazing, awesome design, i7, 8 GB of RAM. I think sammy did a good job on making it light aswell.
Only minus is the pricepoint.
I’m waiting on an Ultrabook with a GT 640M-LE GPU (the 17 Watt TDP Kepler version) and an IPS panel with non-reflective surface.
The Asus UX32VD is very close, but uses the GT 620M, which actually has a higher 25 Watt TDP and less performance… puzzling choice by Asus…
I do love Dell’s space efficient, high quality and light weight XPS 13 case more than any other, but its display puts me off.
I’m waiting for the trinity (good screen, discrete graphics, ssd) to be available at an affordable price. So basically I’m waiting for the gigabyte u2442.
I’m keeping a close eye on that too. Stay tuned as i’m in contact with Gigabyte.
Chippy.
15″ screen, 1440 x 1024 (don’t need 1920 but don’t like scrolling), matt ips screen, 256 GB SSD, 9 hours of battery life without extra battery (don’t mind 200 extra grams), hdmi, vga and rj45 connector, small AC-adapter at about $ 1200.
Low-res, low battery capacity and to small screens are real turn-offs. I’m looking for a laptop that I can use for several hours without the constant need to find the nearest power plug immediatly. I’m an office worker i don’t need full HD or an i7. i5 will do.
I’m with you on the low battery capacity thought.
I’ll be questioning Intel and their partners on this at IDF in Sept.
Chippy.
I’m waiting for the end of my exams :D
Seriously I’ll buy the UX32VD afterwards with ram and SSD but 256go is too expensive so 128go only I think ;)
But the battery isn’t perfect and they are soooo many complains about the computer..
1. Actual 8 hour battery life
2. > 1″ thick (EASY)
3. 3.5lbs or less weight
4. $699 price or less
5. 13.3″ or larger screen
(Same specs as my Acer Aspire Timeline 3810T)
I really don’t think this is going to happen until Christmas 2013, though and I need an upgrade in the meantime.
Adam
Should be <1" thick obviously
I’m waiting for a Dell XPS13 with a good IPS screen (proper HD), Ivy Bridge and 8GB of memory capability.
Also wanting to see what Windows 8 brings to the table, e.g. touch screens, and hoping that prices will come down a bit.
My main problem with ultrabooks is battery life. Of course, I’m coming from a Thinkpad X230 with a 95 Wh battery and, on occasion, a secondary 57 Wh slice battery. It really does give all day battery life with a 5.2 W idle power consumption with 25% screen brightness and WiFi on. With the non-ULV CPU the notebook can get back to idle quicker too.
Too bad that kind of battery life in ultrabooks will probably take years to come. It’s going to take more than just PC builders and Intel to get that kind of battery life in an ultrabook form since all the other power hungry components are made by other companies. I wonder if any useful agreements came out of those meetings on August 2nd.
-more HD IPS displays (in 13-15″ variations)
-more keys on keyboard (home, pgup, pgdown, etc)
oh, and prices that aren’t rediculous. Asus has the right idea, but Samsung needs to get that memo also.
Im waiting for one that’s got same fancy design as Mac Air
Fancy design? really? Fanboi much?
Mac Air 11 wastes way too much space. The display bezel is so thick, you could fit a freaking 13″ screen in it. And the display is a reflective mess outdoors, cause Apple deigns the Airs ‘consumer models’. So you get a glare type panel with a crappy resolution. And Apple has actively, purposely made them impossible to upgrade or service yourself… if you call that fancy, go knock yourself out and buy one.
I am waiting for an Ultrabook with good screen and displayport/thunderbolt.
Currently there is none with both. Y allways that stupid hdmi, who wants to connect a notebook to a tv anyway. And there would be also a passive adapter from displayport for that…
VGA the same, no one needs that and since you usually need an adapter for that, why not displayport in the first place?!
What were they thinking?
And i thought Ultrabooks are considered to be ultraportable and stuff… so why are most of them 14″ and obove? I dont get it. There are almost none in 11″
The Acer S7 looks interesting, I hope they dont fuck up the internal display.
Oh, and btw. Here are comments about high prices. I agree: most Ultrabooks are totaly overpriced. I would pay much if everything is finest quality, but it’s not. You get crappy screens or slow Sandisk SSDs, small battery and mostly pay more than $1000.
If everything is perfect I would pay even more, but it is just not there.
Sometimes I connect my notebook to my tv so I can watch anime on my tv :P
My ultrabook requirements:
15″ Full HD IPS matte screen
Opens to 180 degrees
i5 or i7 3rd gen CPU
8 GB RAM
256 GB SSD
3 USB 3.0, VGA (back), HDMI (back), Wired Ethernet (back), SD
< 4 lbs
I’m waiting for a model with a decent screen (IPS) and resolution.
1366×768 on a 13″, 14″ or 15″ display is late 1990s.
I can only congratulate manufacturers on this brain-dead decision. They can only whine when they see Apple sales figures but seem unable to get the whole feature set together well.
The Samsung 900x3c would be perfect for me (black, beautiful, thin&light, great display), except that one of the (only 2) usb ports is only 2.0, turbo is disabled when running on battery (why do i pay for an i5 then?), i can’t attach a 2560×1600 display because it lacks a diaplay port, the ssd is a slow sandisk (why not samsung 830?) and they won’t sell it with 8g ram, 256g ssd and without useless ms windows license (i install gentoo linux). The pls display is the best i’ve ever seen, with great colors and viewing angle and real matte. The cursor keys are too small (50% high), like apple; i’d prefer them 75% high like dell and lenovo do it.
Also it seems that Haswell will bring much faster graphics and finally the power efficiency that i had hoped ivy would have. Plus I hope to get an AMOLED display then with real blacks and even lower power consumption.
The Zenbook UX31A is quite good, but the screen still too glossy, the bezel too thick, the touchpad created strange pointer jumps when i tried it, and i can’t stand that bright silver color.
Just like the 900x3c, it has no display port (no way to connect a 2560×1600 monitor), a slow ssd and the cursor keys are too small.
Maybe the X1 Carbon will be nearer to what i expect; had no chance to try it yet.
The dell xps13 is available with linux (project sputnik) whoch i would like to see from other manufacturers too, but the screen is glossy which i will never accept.
I am a software developer and want to work everywhere, especially when travelling on train or bus, hence i need a thin, light and fast machine with matte display and good battery life. The 900x3c is the best for now.
I’m surprised so many people require discrete GPUs. That many people here play games? How much better are the discrete GPUs that can actually be put into an ultrabook when compared to the HD4000 in terms of real world performance?
The Asus UX32VD almost does it for me, but its graphics card is low-end, the connectivity is not great, there’s no Thunderbolt, and the design leaves something to be desired. Its low memory and lack of an SSD aren’t great either, but at least these can be replaced. So, I guess these are the things I’m waiting for in an ultrabook.
The UX32VD is very nearly there, but the lack of Thunderbolt is a big letdown looking forward.
Well some of us casually game and are developers, that will need some middle of the road discrete graphics so we can play with things like WebGL or other 3D API’s. It’s seems that technology wise, we’re not too far off from being able to have a really nice, powerful, ultra-portable laptop/ultrabook that developers can use in place of a dedicated desktop system.
I’d never expect a desktop replacement in a ultrabook, but kepler sounds like a leap & bound over previous dedicated GPU’s that can at least get most of the way there to what I want to be able to do with an ultrabook/laptop.
-True all day battery life. 10+ hours of light usage, minimum. I don’t mind a slice battery or whatever, but once you get used to having true all day battery life (i.e. my X220 w/ 9 cell), you really can’t go back.
-A good keyboard. Right now the only good keyboard is the X1C. Lenovo proved that its possible, how long will it take for the rest to stop making excuses.
-VGA and Ethernet on a premium ultrabook. Right now, only budget ultrabooks (Sony T13, Toshiba Z930, etc) include them for some odd reason.
Haswell, want to see how the new GPU works for games.
I want these features:
– Ivy Bridge i5 or faster
– 1600×900 (HD+) screen minimum, preferably IPS
– 6GB RAM
– 6 hour battery
– Good keyboard
– Good trackpad
– Solid build quality
– Discrete GPU, at least GT 640M (Kepler) or faster
– Thinnish and lightish, not an Acer-esque plastic monster
– £1000
That’s it really. The closest are:
Sony S15 – expensive, screen can’t display red, flaky build quality, rebadged (I think) GPU
Gigabyte U2442N – average battery life, poor keyboard, hot
Samsung NP700Z5C – crap screen
It’s not easy to find an ideal ultrabook. On each one there’s at least one thing that I don’t like. So I guess I’m waiting for the right one :). I must admit I really like the Lenovo X1 carbon, but the price (1,3k) is too high.
I was also waiting for the info on Windows 8 and touch development, but that’s not the crucial point, not for me at least.
And in the end, I’m sure I’ll have one soon, probably on Black Friday :).
Oh, I forgot one thing. I’m looking for:
-long battery life
-ivy bridge
-SSD
-solid build quality
-low weight
-decent screen and keyboard
-$800
Asus Taichi prease
Want one but waiting for: wireless ac; bluetooth 4; usb 3. Lower prices won’t hurt either
-5.5 hr minimum battery life with moderate usage (multi-tab web browsing/music playback/Word)
-Less than 3.5kg
-Solid build quality, no flexy plasticky crap
-1600 x 900 minimum resolution for a 13/14in screen, hopefully matte
-Good keyboard and trackpad
-256GB SSD (My current 2008 white MacBook has 160GB and is too small. I don’t want to downgrade, and I shouldn’t have to swap files off my hard drive whenever I want to watch a movie. I don’t have constant access to streaming)
-6-8GB RAM would be nice but not absolutely essential
-$1200 max, preferably $1000.