Yes it’s a bit late, but we did get our hands on some exciting devices at last month’s CES 2014 in Las Vegas and have some video for you to see.

On first glance at IFA in September [article + video] I wasn’t overly impressed with the Sony Vaio Fit 13A Flip (let’s just call it the Sony Vaio Flip 13 shall we?) The wedge shape felt quite thick in tablet mode and the finish didn’t feel like quality. I’ve got a second chance to look at this 2-in-1 now though and it feels much, much better than the first time around. If you’re looking at the Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus or even the ASUS Zenbook UX301, this is one convertible that should be on your ‘research this’ list.

I had hands-on with the new version of the ASUS Transformer Book at IDF13 this week and while it excites me to see Haswell pushing down into this form factor I’m of the opinion that, for now, Baytrail-based 2-in-1’s will better meet the average requirements in this space. Price is one factor but weight of tablet is a huge problem for consumers – the type of customers that should be targeted by 2-in-1’s to help turn round the PC business.

Having said that…

Ultrabooks with Intel’s new Haswell processors are here! We’ve had the Sony Vaio Duo 13 on hand and are ready to give you the full review. Is this one worth your hard earned cash? We try to answer that question inside.

Lenovo is taking it’s convertible Ultrabook design into the business world, today announcing the ThinkPad Yoga. The ThinkPad Yoga comes with a unique keyboard that hides away when the unit is in tablet mode to create a smooth back to the unit.

Today Lenovo is taking the wraps off of the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro Ultrabook, the successor to the successful Yoga which pioneered the 360 degree convertible form factor. The Yoga 2 Pro improves on the original in several ways, including an amazing 3200×1800 touchscreen display.

Unfortunately the Sony Vaio Duo 13 has to go back today and we didn’t have time to get a full review together but we’ve had a reasonable amount of time testing and are now able to give you a relatively detailed overview. We’re expecting a longer term loaner very soon and that one will be a retail model rather than the production sample we’ve got here.

In summary the Sony Vaio Duo 13 is a very impressive and advanced Ultrabook and a unique bit of engineering both inside and outside. Haswell shows all it’s colors with the Duo 13 but there are one or two things to watch out for before you buy and of course, this isn’t a cheap Ultrabook but read-on to find out why you’re probably going to get value for your money.

Testing power usage on Haswell Ultrabooks is difficult due to the huge range of scenarios that the next generation Ultrabooks have. They’ll stream music for days and yet if you try to do too much gaming on them, you might be out of juice in as little as two hours. What we can say though, without a shadow of a doubt, is that the battery life on Haswell Ultrabooks, compared to Ivy Bridge Ultrabooks is hugely improved. We’ve got a Dell XPS 12 with Haswell here that proves it.

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