I’ve had a chance to go hands-on with the slick looking Acer Aspire S7. Everyone loves the looks, the screen, the weight but I question the battery life. A sub 40Wh battery means 4hr average battery life. It’s mobile and fun, but the Acer Aspire S7 might be sacrificing too much battery life for the thin aesthetic. Video demo below.   In the video you’ll hear me talk a bit about the keyboard. It has a strange feel to it but it seems to be accurate.  The screen is glossy […]

HD 3000 in Intel’s second generation Core ‘Sandy Bridge’ processor was a pretty big step forward for integrated graphics — it adds significant gaming capabilities to thin, light, and efficient Ultrabooks, without the need for discrete graphics. HD 4000, introduced with the third and current-gen Core ‘Ivy Bridge’ processor took things one step further by doubling the performance over Sandy Bridge. With the fourth and next-gen Core ‘Haswell’ processor, slated to launch in Ultrabooks and other systems in 2013, Intel is once again doubling performance over the previous generation.

My new favorite thing – perceptual computing. Actually it’s hand gestures, object tracking and finger tracking hardware, voice recognition and an SDK we’re looking at here and Intel are pushing it hard. There’s a dev kit a free SDK and I think it’s going to be an important part of computing control in the future – Minority Report style. The hands-on demo here is shown on an Ultrabook.  

This Ivy Bridge based IdeaPad U510 is a big Ultrabook with 15″ screen; Lenovo is targeting it as a budget Ultrabook which combines the benefits of an Ultrabook with the utility of a standard laptop — a somewhat shallow sentiment which is apparently fulfilled with the simple addition of an optical disk drive. Still, the U510 is going to bring Ultrabook responsiveness at the impressively low price of $679. Lenovo has been really quiet about the upcoming U510 Ultrabook that they are adding to the U-series lineup, but we’ve managed to uncover […]

I hadn’t intended to write about Atom-based devices while at IDF this week but the HP Envy X2 caught my eye in a very good way and after a hands-on I came away thinking how far Atom has come and how this device represents something for those wanting the full flexibility of a modular PC and a focus on battery life.

We’ve been banned from photography and video here at the first Haswell tech talk, IDF 2012 which means there’s bound to be some interesting slides up on screen. Here are my notes from the session – these focus on very deep features of the architecture.

This one slipped by us during IDF last week, probably because of how little attention Lenovo payed to it. Lenovo is stepping into the large end of the Ultrabook Spectrum, the 15″ class. The IdeaPad U510 Ultrabook seeks to “combine the best features of a tradition laptop with the sleek aesthetics and desirable qualities of a tablet”, according to Lenovo.

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Ultrabook from Lenovo is certainly shaping up to be a great choice for a premium business laptop; it weighs in at 1.36kg with a 14″ screen and ample enterprise options. Now the anticipated Ultrabook is available for purchase. With good marks from early reviews, the lightweight X1 Carbon’s only downside might be the price!