Want to know the performance characteristics of the Microsoft Surface Pro? Read on.

Microsoft Surface Pro details [here] have been revealed to the point where I now have a very good idea of how it will perform. We all know It will be using a 3rd Gen Intel Core i5 ultra mobile processor and because the device design will be very mobile-focused we know that there’s a very close similarity to Ultrabooks. Importantly we know that there’s a 42Wh battery inside which gives us all the information we need to determine battery life under a number of conditions.

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The question is, What touch-enabled Ultrabook design do you prefer? The results are clear. Nearly 40% of you prefer the removable tablet design à la Surface Pro, Helix, SmartPC Pro, Q702, Transformer Book and Iconia Tab W700 (see them all here.)

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The Lenovo X1 Carbon is already available to order with Windows 8 but if you really want to outfit your Ultrabook with every option under the sun you can wait for the touchscreen that is said to be coming. We can’t find any evidence of this yet but a number of sites are reporting it…so it must be true ;-)

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Starting from 9th November in the US you’ll be able to buy a Windows 8 PC, a full Windows 8 PC, that weighs just 1.27lb / 658gm lighter than the good old handheld ultra mobile PC favorite, the Viliv X70EM and lighter than any full-size iPad.  The Acer Iconia W510, part of the Acer Iconia W5 Series, runs a dual-core 1.5Ghz Clover Trail CPU with turbo boost to 1.8Ghz, a newer GPU, 32BG of solid-state storage, an optional keyboard dock, a claimed 9hrs of battery life and a 1366×768 IPS multitouch capacitive touchscreen. The Viliv X70EX started at about $600/ The Acer Iconia W510 starts at $499. In Europe you’ll get the dock thrown in for a total of 500 Euro.

Let’s take a closer look at the W510 and think about what it says about the state of ultra mobile PCs in 2012

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This is going to disappoint many of you. We’ve just read, from a couple of UK-based reviews, that the ASUS Taichi 11.6 (and we assume.13.3″) does not have two touchscreens. Only the outside screen is touch enabled.

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The Samsung ATIV 500 and 700, also known as the SmartPC [details] and SmartPC Pro [details] haven’t haven’t been the easiest devices to track through tradeshow and launch events. First highlighted as the Series 5 and Series 7 slates the device names have been cleaned up a little now but we’re sure there’s at least some confusion remaining. Maybe that’s why Samsung have produced an infographic to guide us through the features and differences.

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We’ve just added the ASUS VivoBook S400 to the database (The 84th Ultrabook) and I note that it’s already quite the popular product. At around $700 for a touchscreen 14.1”-er, it’s not too surprising although for that price you’re not getting best-of-specs!

1366×768 resolution is almost a budget laptop specification and the hybrid hard drive won’t be as fast as an SSD. The weight is not exactly class-leading either but you do get a free RAM slot inside. We’re still trying to track down information on the battery capacity for you.

Given the current spec list and ASUS’ reputation this could be a really great entry point into some Touch Windows 8 productivity and fun.

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We saw some reports on the ASUS VivoBook X202 when it launched at an event last week but we’ve now got un unboxing of the European version of this low-cost Ultrabook-a-like via Notebookitalia.

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