Ultrabooks

2012 is going to be an year of Ultrabooks

 

 If 2011 was the year of the tablet, then 2012 will see ultrabooks trying to corner its market share. The new, slim, gorgeous-looking machines will try and wrest back from the slate what it wrenched away from netbooks, laptops and PCs over the last couple of years. For some time now, laptops have languished in terms of aesthetic design. They are thick, heavy and built of plastic. No wonder the form factor easily succumbed to the svelte appeal of tablets. Ultrabooks are Intel's attempt, in partnership with PC makers such as Acer and Lenovo, to make the laptop sexy again.

In fact, at the recently concluded Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in the US, every PC manufacturer worth its salt was showing off its own version of slick ultrabooks - hard to imagine that the term was coined by Intel only in June 2011. To promote these slim machines, the microchip behemoth (whose products power more than 80% of all computers) has set aside a fund of $300 million; and analysts believe that by 2015, nearly 40% of all laptops will be ultrabooks.

Build quality and design:Ultrabooks are defined by their slim design, and-at just 0.7 inches at its thickest point and weighing 1.4kgs-the S3 meets this criteria. Add to that, a brushed aluminum lid that is impervious to fingerprints , and you have a device that is a head and shoulder above the usual black and grey laptops of yore.

Screen, keyboard and touchpad:The Acer machine sports a 13.3-inch screen with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels - a bit low for such a premium product. Couple that with poor viewing angles and colours that lack punch and vibrancy, and you have a display that leaves a lot to be desired.

User experience:The size and weight of the S3 makes it a wonderful companion for those who need to carry their laptops everywhere.And while its low-voltage Sandy Bridge processor is not as fast as standard processors, the machine does not feel sluggish whether you are launching a program, switching between tasks or even playing high-quality full HD videos.Despite lacking an SSD, the laptop wakes up from sleep mode instantly.

Specification:Intel Core i5 2467M, 4GB RAM, 320GB HD and 20GB flash storage for instant resume, 13.3-inch screen (1366 x 768), 1.4kgs