Today I’m pitting the Sony Vaio Duo 13 (third-gen Haswell Ultrabook) against the Asus UX31E (first-gen Sandybridge Ultrabook) in sleep and wake times. One of Intel’s goals for the Ultrabook platform was to eventually reach a point of instant-on, just like a tablet or smartphone, with Haswell, they’ve finally done it.

That’s not to say that the first-generation of Sandybridge Ultrabooks were slot to wake or sleep. In fact, they were a massive improvement over what came before. 2-3 seconds to wake is nothing to scoff at. But instant-on was the illusive goal that’s finally a reality.