ultrabooks

With Intel's annual conference just around the corner, its next-gen silicon is always a hot topic.

And this year, that's Haswell. Why should you be interested in Haswell? Well, it's going to be inside some of the thinnest, lightest, most powerful ultrabooks, MacBooks, and tablet-ultrabook hybrids to date. (And throw Microsoft's next-gen Surface tablets into that mix too).

Haswell's marquee feature -- besides being a new microarchitecture -- is that versions of the processor will put more of the PC's core functions inside one chip package than any Intel processor to date. And that … Read more

During an event at New York's Museum of Modern Art, PC maker Lenovo has announced new details about upcoming laptops, as well as a new ThinkPad-branded Windows 8 tablet.

The event was to mark the ThinkPad brand's 20th anniversary. Originally IBM's PC line, Lenovo bought the brand in 2005. The three new products profiled have all been spotted before, at CES 2012 or later in the year, including the flagship ThinkPad X1 Carbon ultrabook.

ThinkPad X1 Carbon First spotted in May 2012, we've already given this 14-inch ultrabook an extensive hands-on look. It starts at $1,… Read more

Video game publisher/developer Valve created the Steam distribution platform to offer easy downloads and installation for Windows and Mac games. The Steam app and online store work for both Valve's own games, including Half-Life and Portal, and games from other publishers, including both hits such as Skyrim and indie games like Torchlight. Now, the company plans to add nongaming apps, starting in September.

In a brief online statement, the company says: "The Software titles coming to Steam range from creativity to productivity. Many of the launch titles will take advantage of popular Steamworks features, such as easy … Read more

Analysts are not kind to ultrabooks. Add Tim Bajarin to that long list.

Though the Creative Strategies president offers plenty of reasons for ultrabooks' woes, one of the more intriguing is that Apple products are boxing ultrabooks into a pricing dead zone.

The mid-range, between $799 and $899 -- where an increasing number of ultrabooks are priced -- "may be going away," Bajarin wrote in a recent post.

That's the upper end of the pricing range of Apple's very popular iPad. And above that, it's a MacBook market -- which Bajarin says consumers will pay … Read more

Ultrabooks are currently limping along on Windows 7, but Windows 8 and "Haswell" should put some spring in their step.

While Windows 8 is obviously a hot topic, less is being said about Haswell, Intel's next chip design that will underwrite the third stage of ultrabooks.

That's because Intel hasn't been talking about Haswell, except on the QT in NDA sessions in Asia this week.

Haswell is probably the first mainstream PC-class chip from Intel designed with really thin, small PCs in mind from the get-go. It will also probably pack a mean graphics punch (… Read more

One pleasant surprise from the past couple of months has been the number of good-to-great laptops we've reviewed that can be had for $1,000 or less. That price range is usually Compromise City, with cheap-looking systems that may have decent CPUs, but skimp on a lot of other stuff. And, of course, no one wants to be seen in the coffee shop with a hunk of molded plastic while every other table sports a metal MacBook.

Whether you're gearing up for the fall semester or you're just ready for a pre-Windows 8 upgrade, the systems below all strike a good balance between price, design, and features.… Read more

Hewlett-Packard is having a tough time fulfilling orders for its newest high-end ultrabook.

That would be the Envy Spectre XT, a 13-inch, three-pound, sub-0.7-inch-thick laptop sporting a mostly metal design and Intel's newest "Ivy Bridge" processors.

The model, announced in early May, had been expected to ship as early as June 8 but orders have been backlogged.

"HP Envy SpectreXT orders are taking longer to fulfill than HP expected," an HP spokesperson told CNET. "We are contacting all customers who have placed orders to provide updated expected delivery dates."

An order for … Read more

Dell will sell its sleekest ultrabook with a version of Ubuntu Linux this fall.

The Dell XPS 13 ultrabook will be offered with Ubuntu 12.04LTS preloaded in select geographies, the company said in a statement.

The initiative is an extension of Project Sputnik, a pilot project aimed at creating an Ubuntu-based developer laptop.

Dell is taking the project "from pilot to product this fall" and allowing developers "to create 'microclouds' on their laptops...and then deploy that environment seamlessly to the cloud." … Read more

An ultrabook six months from now will make today's designs seem so last year. You can thank Windows 8 and the Metro interface for that.

The next Windows operating system -- which we now know is slated for release October 26 -- will bring touch screens to laptops. So, the standard ultrabook today sans a touch screen may seem a bit frumpy by comparison when new designs hit for the holiday season.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini said yesterday that "more than 40" touch-enabled Windows 8-based ultrabooks are in the pipeline. That would include designs like the Acer Aspire S7.… Read more