I’m writing this review of the Sony Vaio Duo on a Lenovo Yoga 13. It’s not a good start for the Vaio is it. The fact is though the Sony Vaio Duo is a really useful Ultrabook convertible and it has surprised me.

Sliders. They are in many respect a compromise. The space left for a keyboard is cramped and the hinge mechanism is complex leading to worries about longevity. In the past, I confess, sliders have always appeared to me as the show-off devices that don’t really deliver. I’ve changed my mind though because Sony have added a component to this slider which makes it the best I’ve tested so far. A Digitizer.

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You’ll be amazed at how big, fat and heavy even recent laptops look and feel after you’ve been using thin and light Ultrabooks. Here’s one my wife’s company is still using – I nearly laughed my £^$% off when I saw it!

Intel are capitalizing on this with a brilliant new ad. I’m sure it will strike a chord with many. The short video is called Kids and it’s embedded below. “Out with the old, In with the Ultrabook.” We couldn’t agree more.

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The MSI S20 is a remarkably elusive device. Chippy tracked it down for a hands-on at CeBIT 2013 this week. We first learned about this appealing looking Ultrabook convertible 9 months ago — back in June 2012. We knew we’d be waiting until at least the launch of Windows 8 in October of 2012 before the official release date, but here we are several months after that and the MSI S20 still isn’t widely available.

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I’ve had a very productive week at Mobile World Congress thanks to the Fujitsu Q702. It was worry-free, adaptor-free and charger free because for the first time, I managed to get through a long day’s work without a charger. I also learnt about things I don’t need at a conference. VPro was one (no surprises there for this independent worker) and the detachable tablet was another.

The Fujitsu Q702 has been kindly supplied by Notebooksbilliger.

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I had completely forgotten about the HP Elitebook Revolve 810 so when I spotted it at a Mobile World Congress pre-event this evening I was a little more excited than I should have been. Having had a good look at though it deserves some praise for a quality and stylish build, good set of ports, removable battery, TPM, VPro (I couldn’t find evidence of it though), optional digitizer and more.

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It’s an exciting, stylish, well-built and thought-provoking Ultrabook Convertible. The ASUS Taichi 21 contains two screens and can be used as a tablet, or a very mobile Ultrabook. Read the full review below.

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That was fun! In fact, the most fun I’ve had with an unboxing for a long time. Notebooksbilliger.de (a German PC retailer) sent over the ASUS Taichi 21 for testing and the unboxing was a real pleasure. Nice packaging aside, it’s the screens, yes screens, on the ASUS Taichi that are the headliner and because of the slightly lighter build compared to the bigger Ultrabook convertibles it feels like it’s closer to the sweet-spot for Ultrabook convertibles. There are a few issues to think about though.

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The Dell XPS 12 has caught the attention of many people since it leaked last May but that could be attributable to it having one of the coolest design features we’ve ever seen on an Ultrabook. The flip-screen is impressive. But is it useful? And how good is the XPS 12 as a laptop? Read-on for the full review.

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