We’ve got six Clover-Trail tablets/dockables on the product database right now and we’re expecting more to pop up soon. Windows 8 provides a nice boost for this category but one of  the barriers could be price. [See “Unlikely Smartbook inch] European retail prices for two of these Clover-Trail tablets have already shown up and sure enough, we’re not exactly talking netbook-level pricing. Specs are interesting though.

The Samsung ATIV Smart PC (XE500T) is showing up, without docking keyboard, for just under 700 Euros.  The Vivo Tab (FT810C) for 800 Euros. Both come with 64GB of storage, without any 3G.

If you’re looking for the keyboard dock you’ll need to add 100 Euro.

Read the full story

You know what’s coming? The biggest personal computing fight, ever.

Windows  8 and the expansion of the laptop into smartbook territory will go head to head with an important launch in the handheld computing space the iPad Mini. Following that, Windows Phone 8 and a non-desktop Windows tablet, Microsoft Surface with Windows RT, will start shipping. There has never been a month in history where the personal computer has had such an upheaval. No-one really knows what’s going to happen.

Some of these products could fail showing us again that what people want is not always what the manufacturers think. Touch-enabled sliding and convertible Ultrabooks is one of those risk areas. Windows RT, I believe, is another, at least for the time being but I think there’s a product category that has fantastic change. The SmartPC, Smartbook could finally succeed with Windows 8 on Intel Atom.

Read the full story

More and more touchscreen laptops are hitting the sales channels and they’re coming in at both ends of the spectrum. The Acer Aspire V5 Touch is a good example of an Ultrabook-alternative with touch. The ASUS S200E is another. Both of these devices are available with a Core i3 CPU which pushes them into the same processing category as an Ultrabook.  The ASUS Vivobook S200E is referred to as a netbook by Amazon in Germany today.

Read the full story

Just when you thought Asus had learned from its past experience with netbooks that launching a myriad of confusingly named devices was not helpful to consumers, they decide to do it all again with the Zenbook brand and the U500. Up until now, the Zenbook line has shared two specific things; first, all Zenbooks featured a similar wedge shaped design and metalic finish. Second, all Zenbook’s were Ultrabooks. Until now, that is. Asus has decided to throw the U500, a 15″ thin and light laptop, in with the rest of the Zenbook branded computers. While we would have preferred Asus didn’t dilute the shared features of the Zenbook brand, that’s not to say that the new U500 thin and light is not shaping up to be a solid Ultrabook alternative.

We’ve seen most of what there is to see regarding Asus’ upcoming S46 and S56 Ultrabooks except for one important piece of information: the release date. We caught a glimpse of the units at Computex back in June and earlier in August Asus officially announced them. Now they inch closer to market as Asus has revealed them on their website including a rundown of official specs. While it was once thought that the new Ultrabooks would include discrete graphics by default, the official specs indicate that an integrated graphics variant of each model will also be available. The optical drive is now listed as ‘optional’ as well.

Asus has quietly made and official announcement about their upcoming S46 and S56 Ultrabook via press release saying that the S-series Ultrabooks “are the only products in their segment to achieve a true all-in approach to features”. We saw the S46 (14″) and S56 (15.6″) during Computex back in June, but strangely Asus made no official announcements regarding their availability or even existence; it seems they were preoccupied with the exciting TaiChi and Transformer Book. Given the announcement, expect to see the S46 and S56 on store shelves soon.

Read the full story

Asus’ UX32VD is the Ultrabook you want if you want a Zenbook-styled device from Asus with gaming capabilities. Thanks to the discrete Nvidia 620M GPU, the UX32VD can handle a range of modern games (with the right settings). MobileTechReview’s Lisa Gade took the UX32VD out for a spin testing its ability to run Skyrim, Left 4 Dead 2, and Civilization 5.

Read the full story

Both Acer and ASUS now have budget lightweight notebooks with Ultrabook-like processing capability for a value price. The Acer Aspire V5 is available in many versions and available in many places, both online and off. The ASUS X401a is a little more shy. A Pentium version of the 14” 1.8KG laptop is now available exclusively from Best Buy, for $330

Read the full story