Want to know the performance characteristics of the Microsoft Surface Pro? Read on.

Microsoft Surface Pro details [here] have been revealed to the point where I now have a very good idea of how it will perform. We all know It will be using a 3rd Gen Intel Core i5 ultra mobile processor and because the device design will be very mobile-focused we know that there’s a very close similarity to Ultrabooks. Importantly we know that there’s a 42Wh battery inside which gives us all the information we need to determine battery life under a number of conditions.

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Those of you that have been following me for a while know that I also have my finger in another pie…

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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.

Intel is ready to take the lid off of Clover Trail, the newest member of the company’s Atom low-power processors. Along with Clover Trail info comes official announcements from seven Intel partners showing off hybrid Windows 8 devices that will soon be available. Intel is promising three weeks of ‘connected standby’ and up to 10 hours of HD video playback possible from Clover Trail devices.

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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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