Ultrabooks Of CES: Visual Tour
Check out the sleek and light ultrabook designs on display at CES, from HP, Lenovo, Samsung and more. There's more than good looks at stake: Think battery life, instant-on, and powerful Intel chips.
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HP's Envy 14 Spectre is a beautiful device with glass lid, display, and palm-rests. The company claims it fits a full 14-inch high-definition HP Radiance Display inside a 13.3-inch body. We're not sure about that claim, but the display is crisp and beautiful at 1600 x 900 resolution. HP had discontinued use of the Radiance due to supply problems, which now appear to be resolved. The sleek laptop lists at $1399, claims a 9-hour battery life, and weighs 3.8 pounds. The glass case is unique in the ultrabook field, but probably adds slightly to the unit's thickness and weight. For more on this device, including a video report from InformationWeek's Fritz Nelson, see HP's "No Compromise" Ultrabook.
Asus has become a powerhouse in tablets, notebooks, and ultrabooks. The Zenbook UX31E shown here sports an anodized aluminum case, USB 3 ports, an Intel Core i7 processor, and either 128 or 256 GB of solid state storage. The 13-inch display delivers a 1600 x 900 resolution and looks great even in the weird blue light that Intel used in its booth. Asus says its ultrabook weighs 2.86 pounds, making it one of the lightest devices we saw.
LG's SuperUltrabook Z330 looks, at first, almost identical to the Macbook Air. It's thin and light at 2.66 pounds, and its keyboard and palm rest in particular made us think of the Macbook. But with an Intel i7 Core processor and 13.3 inch screen, it's all ultrabook. One nice addition that we haven't seen on some of the other ultrabooks was WiDi support. WiDi allows the Z330 to pair with wireless displays, for times when the 13.3" display just isn't big enough.
Toshiba's entry into the ultrabook fray might seem a little ho-hum at first. At .78 inches thick it's a little bit fatter than the rest of the pack we looked at. And its 1366 x 766 resolution display wasn't the best of the pack either. Toshiba says the device weighs a bit over 3 pounds, so it's not the lightest--but all of those numbers are pretty darn good when you consider the $799 price tag.
Lenovo wowed us with a slew of new products, like the Lenovo Yoga, which took some great design turns. At first glance the Yoga is a pretty good ultrabook--which happens to be running Windows 8. But there's a twist.
The Yoga has a 360 degree hinge which allows it to keep an ultrabook's thin profile--just two-thirds of an inch--and be used as either a typical clamshell notebook, or as a tablet. It weighs in at just over 3 pounds.
To run as tablet, the Yoga relies on Windows 8, and while Lenovo says it'll release the Yoga later this year for about $1200, we're betting Microsoft's OS release schedule may slow the Lenovo release down.
If you haven't thought of Samsung as a particularly strong player in notebooks, it may be time to give the company's lineup a second look. In terms of straight design aesthetics, the Samsung Series 9 is a beautiful device. Its display resolution is 1600 x 900. This ultrabook can be had with either an i5 Core or i7 Core processor and should offer a few choices in SSD size.
At 2.5 lbs and just 0.6 inches thick, the Series 9 is definitely a contender if light is what you want . The cost will range from $1300 to $1500, depending on the configuration.
At 2.5 lbs and just 0.6 inches thick, the Series 9 is definitely a contender if light is what you want . The cost will range from $1300 to $1500, depending on the configuration.
HP's Envy 14 Spectre is a beautiful device with glass lid, display, and palm-rests. The company claims it fits a full 14-inch high-definition HP Radiance Display inside a 13.3-inch body. We're not sure about that claim, but the display is crisp and beautiful at 1600 x 900 resolution. HP had discontinued use of the Radiance due to supply problems, which now appear to be resolved. The sleek laptop lists at $1399, claims a 9-hour battery life, and weighs 3.8 pounds. The glass case is unique in the ultrabook field, but probably adds slightly to the unit's thickness and weight. For more on this device, including a video report from InformationWeek's Fritz Nelson, see HP's "No Compromise" Ultrabook.
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