On the morning of the 22.11.2012 Aldi Sud in Germany is probably going to sell over ten thousand Ultrabooks. The new Medion AKOYA S4216 (MD 99080) includes a 1TB SSD-supported hard drive and a removable DVD that can be replaced with an included extra battery. We highlighted the Medion S4211 recently and the S4216 is exactly the Ultrabook variant we were expecting. Yours, if you’re in Germany and standing in line, for €599

Update: Medion Akoya S4216 Specs now in the database. We’ll add info links, videos and reviews as we find them so keep it bookmarked!

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After climbing steadily in search queries over the last 12 months, Ultrabooks as a term is just about passing the threshold into true mainstream consumer territory. The launch of Windows 8 and a number of eye-catching convertible Ultrabooks look to be helping in a big way. The latest evidence comes to us in the form of a new Ultrabook ad from Best Buy, the largest consumer electronics retailer in the U.S. The retailer is also offering a $100 discount on an Ultrabook when you turn in a working laptop.

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Intel has made live a significant refresh of the Ultrabook section of their website. If it wasn’t already clear from their $300 million Ultrabook fund, Intel is serious about Ultrabooks; the redesign of their site’s Ultrabook section is quite significant next to the old version and reinforces their commitment to the segment. The launch of Windows 8 and a wave of new devices provides an great opportunity that Intel is using highlight some of the most interesting new devices to hit the PC market in several years, most of which are Ultrabooks.

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Toshiba has made available their only Windows 8 touchscreen Ultrabook, the Toshiba Satellite U925T. This is a hybrid slider which also goes by the name U920T depending upon the region. Chippy got a great hands on of the U925T back at IDF 2012 in September and the design seems unchanged since then. This is one of a few hybrid Ultrabooks currently shipping with NFC.

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Asus was teasing with a countdown to the official reveal of their touchscreen Windows 8 devices and has finally gone live with some content that explains the rather confusing lineup. We’ve prepared a breakdown of the products, pricing, and release dates below.

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We’ve got our hands on the Sony VAIO T13 Ultrabook which has so far been quite impressive. In addition to having one of the the most unique designs in the Ultrabook market, the T13 is also one of the cheapest 13″ Ultrabooks you can get your hands on. The build quality is quite impressive  and it resumes nearly instantly from sleep. The T13 will soon be launching with a touchscreen and Windows 8 making this a better time than ever to see if it’s worth waiting for.

Sony has announced that it will be adding a touchscreen option to the company’s first Ultrabook, the Vaio T13. According to Engadget the ‘T13-2’ can be speced up quite nicely — up to a Core i7, 256GB SSD, and 8GB of RAM. Pricing doesn’t seem to be confirmed yet, but Sony mentions somewhere in the $1600 range for the aforementioned top-end model. The non-touchscreen Vaio T13 now starts at the fair price of $739; it is unclear how much the touchscreen base model will add to this starting price. The touchscreen T13 is expected to go on sale as Windows 8 launches later this month on the 26th.

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Though not a particularly popular brand in the US, Gigabyte has earned some loyal fans (one of them being our very own Chippy!) thanks to their ability to make quality computing products. Now Gigabyte has entered the Ultrabook segment with the U2442 “extreme Ultrabook”, as they’re calling it. There are two variants of the U2442: the U2442N and U2442V (which is the one that we’ve got); the only differences is the processor (Core i5 vs. i7). There’s also talk of a non-Ultrabook version which is likely to be referred to as the U2440 — be sure not to mix them up! Does Gigabyte’s first entry into the Ultrabook realm stand up to their prior products? Step inside to our full U2442V review to find out.