2012 has been an exciting year for the Ultrabook. With the launch of Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors, and a little help from Windows 8, Ultrabooks gained massive momentum. There’s now Ultrabook offerings from every top PC manufacturer, and even many from second-tier manufacturers. Some, like Asus, have more than 10 Ultrabook models available! And there’s more to come with CES just around the corner (stay tuned January 8-11!). But before the year comes to an end, it’s time to pick our top Ultrabooks.
The 15” Samsung Series 9 2012 with Ivy Bridge has been a pleasure to test. It’s a stylish Ultrabook with potentially very long battery life and a great 3D performance boost over 1st-generation Ultrabooks. The screen is good and bright and the keyboard a pleasure to use. But all is not perfect. A surprising lack of CPU Turbo under battery load, a strange touchpad action and too many ‘micro’ ports takes some of the shine from the Series 9 but despite that, it sits in a unique position in the market. There are cheaper Ultrabooks in the 15” bracket but you won’t find a 1600×900 screen for this price or weight.
Update: It wasn’t too difficult to spot the 01.04 on this right? Sony seems to have done very well with the joke though which was probably set up by a PR company. Search for a Sony Ultrabook on Google now and you’re likely to see the Series Q listed. I suspect this is just the start of a Sony Vaio Q Ultrabook campaign.
Just how do Sony manage to do this every time? They led the way with their high-powered handheld UX-series UMPCs and it looks like they’re doing it again. This time round it’s an Ultrabook.
The Sony Vaio Ultrabook looks incredible.
256GB SSD, 1080p display and discrete graphics.
You wonder just how far behind even the high-end Ultrabooks are going to look when this one launches. Video below.
2012 has been an exciting year for the Ultrabook. With the launch of Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors, and a little help from Windows 8, Ultrabooks gained massive momentum. There’s now Ultrabook offerings from every top PC manufacturer, and even many from second-tier manufacturers. Some, like Asus, have more than 10 Ultrabook models available! And there’s more to come with CES just around the corner (stay tuned January 8-11!). But before the year comes to an end, it’s time to pick our top Ultrabooks.
