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Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
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It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook

By | January 13, 2012, 4:02am PST

Summary: Why it’s a good idea to hold on to your money for now!

Intel is using CES 2012 in Las Vagas as a platform for showing off the first wave of ultrabooks. But is it the wrong time to buy an ultrabook?

I think it is … and here’s why.

See also: James Kendrick’s ‘Ultrabook is going to confuse buyers‘

Ultrabooks are the latest form factor to hit the PC market. They’re essentially thin and light notebooks built out of brushed aluminum featuring decent processing power and good battery life. Think something along the lines of Apple’s MacBook Air but instead of mac OS X you get Windows.

But not everyone is happy to jump onto the ultrabook bandwagon just yet. Ultrabooks have debuted at an awkward time seems that buyers are getting smarter, realizing that it they wait, they’ll get a better deal.

So why is it the wrong time to buy an ultrabook?

  • Windows 8 is on the horizon, and that will make that shiny new ultrabook seem like a fossil. While I still need convincing that Windows 8 has much to offer on the desktop, the OS will make compact systems like ultrabooks much easier to handle. Ultrabooks aren’t tablets (yet) but they’re tablet-like enough to benefit form Microsoft’s new OS.
  • Current ultrabooks are based on Intel’s Sandy Bridge architecture. On the horizon are ultrabooks powered by the die-shrunk Ivy Bridge architecture which will bring better CPU and graphics power to the platform.
  • The current lineup of ultrabooks are pretty basic when it comes to features. They’re basically thin and light notebooks. Next-generation units will not only have better hardware but also come equipped with cooler features, such as touchscreens and voice control.
  • The price will come down. Currently ultrabooks start at around $800, but Intel expects to be able to shave $100 off that by the end of the year. Doesn’t seem like much, but combine it with better hardware and it makes sense to wait.

It makes sense to wait!

Poll

Interested in an ultrabook

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Topics

Intel Corp., Ultrabook, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

Disclosure

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

All opinions expressed on Hardware 2.0 are those of Adrian Kingsley-Hughes. Every effort is made to ensure that the information posted is accurate. If you have any comments, queries or corrections, please contact Adrian via the email link here. Any possible conflicts of interest will be posted below. [Updated: February 23, 2010] - Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other actual/potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted so far on this blog.

Biography

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology -- whether that be by learning to program, building a PC from a pile of parts, or helping them get the most from their new MP3 player or digital camera.

Adrian has authored/co-authored technical books on a variety of topics, ranging from programming to building and maintaining PCs. His most recent books include "Build the Ultimate Custom PC", "Beginning Programming" and "The PC Doctor's Fix It Yourself Guide". He has also written training manuals that have been used by a number of Fortune 500 companies.

Adrian also runs a popular blog under the name The PC Doctor, where he covers a range of computer-related topics -- from security to repairing and upgrading.

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RE: It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook
m_a_simons@... 6th Feb
Had to replace my old notebook with a Samsung Series 9 (died). But did so expecting to replace it this year for Ivy Bridge version for increased battery life,performance.
View in thread
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Waiting on Windows 8...
metromalenyc 13th Jan
I'm waiting on Windows 8 & Ivy Bridge. I'd also like to see more designs. I want a laptop/tablet hybrid.
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RE: It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook
jgm@... 13th Jan
@metromalenyc I don't understand why people need to wait for Windows 8. If that's the only concern, buy now, upgrade later. There's no guarantee Windows 8's release date won't slip anyway. There's always something better coming along. Unless we're talking an interface that's about to go extinct, if it suits your needs now, go for it, or you could wait forever.
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RE: It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook
Harvey Lubin Updated - 14th Jan
@metromalenyc

Most people will opt for Windows 7 instead of Windows 8 on their desktop or notebook PC. This is because Windows 8 is really just Windows 7 with a "Metro" interface glued onto the front.

Metro (currently available in Windows Phone 7) uses large titles, and is designed to be used with multitouch on a small screen, not on a large screen using a mouse and keyboard.

Windows 8 makes you go through the Metro interface just to get to the Windows 7 interface, and to all of the applications that you use on Windows 7.

Adding this extra layer, that one must go through, in order to get to what they are using right now on their PCs is counter-productive... and why pay more to "upgrade" to this Metro add-on?

Even if some PC manufacturer comes out with a convertible ultrabook-tablet, once you have used your multi-touch on the screen to play with the Metro interface you are back at Windows 7 and all of your x86 Windows applications. It will be more productive to flip the convertible back into notebook-mode to use those applications (imagine trying to use the Windows versions of Excel or Photoshop just using multi-touch instead of the keyboard and trackpad).
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Wannabe MacBooks
kraterz 13th Jan
Face it, nearly every shiny new ultrabook is a wannabe macbook pro or air. There were super-slim notebooks before the air and new ones come out every month, but where's the innovation when every one of them pretends to be a macbook?
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RE: It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook
jamboy34 Updated - 13th Jan
@kraterz I agree with you 100% but within the hour you'll have the Apple haters telling you that ultra books in no way form or fashion resemble the MacBook Pro or Air! As a matter of fact - they'll tell you that ultra books would look exactly the same had the MacBook Pro or Air never been produced!
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RE: It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook
bmonsterman Updated - 13th Jan
@kraterz,
Sure, kraterz. Some people might like the macbook pro but want Windows and a lower price tag. It's not that innovative, but there may yet be a market for it.
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RE: It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook
Loverock Davidson- Updated - 13th Jan
@kraterz
ultra books in no way form or fashion resemble the MacBook Pro or Air! ultra books would look exactly the same had the MacBook Pro or Air never been produced!
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RE: It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook
kenosha77a 14th Jan
@Loverock Davidson-

Good one, Loverock.
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RE: It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook
opcom 13th Jan
@kraterz What about the Sony Vaio? I thought it came out before the apple designs of similar shape/profile.
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RE: It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook
rengek 13th Jan
@kraterz
Netbooks were out well before there were any airs. It was a highly lucrative product line for several years. No longer but it was. Apple missed that boat. They one up that business model line with air. The PC industry, no longer making good money off of netbooks are one uping air with ultrabooks.

And as you yourself pointed out there were super slim notebooks before air, so in fact, airs are the wannabes.
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RE: It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook
kpbpsw 14th Jan
@rengek
The market that Apple created with the 3rd generation Macbook Air's is new and different from the market for the Original Sony Vaio's, and Original Air's in that they are not Premium Priced (in the Mac World they are less than the Pro's) and they are very powerful (more powerful than 2 year old Xenon desk top machines).
The Original Sony ultra compact Laptops had major problems with Windows (their high tech stuff required unique Sony Drivers that broke everything MSFt updated Windows - I know as I owned a bunch of them and Original Air's and current Air). Both the Later Sony's and the Original Air was massively underpowered, such that you payed a premium for a wimpy machine to get portability.
Netbooks on the other thad were very low priced small laptops that could not run real software. They were cheap but underpowered (not just wimpy).
Most of the Ultrabooks so far are not in the same class as the Air as most use hard disks and do not offs the battery life of the Air (and are slightly bigger but not enough to matter in most cases), but offer a reasonable trade off in term of price / performance. Of course you have to be willing to use Windows rather than OSX which is ether a benefit or a show stopper for most people.
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Look
Hasam1991 13th Jan
Someone tell the author to look at sales of the MacBook Air, you windows folks are late to the party again LOL...
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RE: It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook
rengek 13th Jan
@Hasam1991
1+ million PCs are shipped everyday. How many are Macs and how many are Pcs..... who's late?
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PCs are ALL modeled after Macs!!
judynew 13th Jan
@rengek
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RE: It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook
Aerowind 13th Jan
Sorry, I'll take the tiny bit more thickness for a massive drop in price or massive boost in specs.
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RE: It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook
adelacuesta Updated - 13th Jan
@Aerowind

where's that like button, ah... _/
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RE: It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook
Loverock Davidson- 13th Jan
It is the wrong time. Wait until the market is flooded with them and manufacturers are forced to to lower prices, just like what we saw with the tablet market.
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Get in line, buddy.
Steve Webb 13th Jan
@Loverock Davidson- The line for the $99. fire-sale HP ultrabook starts behind me. wink
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RE: It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook
opcom 13th Jan
I used to say i'd never buy an ultrabook, and it was due to seeing physically 'broken' Sony Vaio's early on in the game. Those things were leading edge, quite delicate, and very expensive for what you got. But today's much improved features and the 'feel' of the machines seems better, better mechanically. I guess I have to be honest and admit I like what I am starting to see.
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Windows 8???? Sheesh!
ben_myers@... 13th Jan
So we shouldn't buy an Ultrabook because Windows 8 will be released real soon now.

I have to let you in on a well-kept secret, Adrian. There is ALWAYS some Microsoft Windows version aborning in the great Redmond womb.

How about if we apply today's circumstances to today's products? And how about less free PR for Microsoft? For years, Microsoft PR flacks have made the old Communist politburo look like rank amateurs. Microsoft does not need any help from the press. Ah, but I forget. Without Microsoft, you would have less to write about, and maybe no job. Same as politics. Without stupid primaries, reporters on the political beat would be out of jobs, too.
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RE: It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook
jgm@... 13th Jan
@ben_myers@... Your first two paragraphs were spot-on. The last veered into unjustified invective and negated anything intelligent you said earlier.
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RE: It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook
kcantrel 13th Jan
Yeah, of course you can wait, but there is always going to be something better later on down the road. As with most technology purchases, you have to ask yourself, I'm I willing to pay extra, and maybe sacrifice some features, to have something really cool today, or, do I want to wait.
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RE: It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook
levinson 13th Jan
@kcantrel ... Shouldn't the question be, "Do I need something now or can I afford to wait?"
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RE: It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook
jgm@... 13th Jan
@levinson If you didn't need it now you shouldn't have been looking now.
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RE: It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook
ManoaHI 13th Jan
@levinson Exactly right. If you're in need of a new lightweight book now, then get one of them now. If you don't need one now, save up some money and wait.
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RE: It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook
levinson 13th Jan
jgm@... This is probably going to wind up out of order, but there you go... You wrote: "If you didn't need it now you shouldn't have been looking now."

But looking is so much fun!
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"Something like an Apple Air"?
trejz 13th Jan
I think what you mean is, "think a knock off of an Apple Air right down to the brushed metal, cheaper and more cheaply made, but unfortunately with Windows.
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RE: It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook
scfore 13th Jan
Didn't we use to call these subnotebooks? There was always a limited market for those as well.
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SSD is the sticking point
cquirke 13th Jan
I'd rather have a Toshiba R630 than Netbook-sized storage at a premium price. The 13" Toshiba weighs 1.38kg, has DVD writer and 500G hard drive; that's light enough for me, doesn't compromise the spec, and the price is right.

This would be the time for SSDs, as the availability crisis pushes up hard drive prices, but they're just too expensive to compete even within this opportunity. I'd rather spend the money on a spare battery, if I really have to have the longer battery life.
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Clearance Will be in 4 months
jbelkin 13th Jan
There won't be a substantial increase in sales since it will still some flavor of WIN OS. As the dozens of companies who realize that making a mock MB Air doesn't really sell any more machines since a) it's still built WIN PC components (that wire is made of rat hair but $.0001 cheaper, we'll take it!) and b) consumers realize it comes with WIN OSand C) It's not an Apple and thus way overpriced to have to use WIN OS, these machines will be $599 in a few months as they are clearanced out.

When it's something, that has be carried out and seen by the public, unless you work for MS or the 15 companies shilling WIn ultrabooks - no one would be caught dead saving a few dollars to buy a WIN OS ultrabook. That's like saying I saved a few dollars and found this wrapped Big mac at the McD dumpster.
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Windows 8 on ARM quad-core tablet+dock = Ultrabook killer
hcosma@... 13th Jan
Just imagine an Asus Transformer Prime + dock running on Windows 8 -- not too hard, eh? This is the reason why Intel is so desperate to promote the Ultrabooks, because they have realized what's coming.
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RE: It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook
xivSolutions Updated - 15th Jan
Don't you all gete tired of the pissing contest between fanboys of two platforms? Because of the work I do, I am mostly a user of PCs and Win7. However, Apple hit a homerun with the design and form factor of the Macbook Air, and the price point of the Air is following a logical curve of economies of scale.

The PC industry has taken note, and is, most definitely doing a bit of "bandwagon - jumping." Which is what happens to players in any industry.

I personally prefer using Win7. What no one mentions here is that you can simply buy an Air, and install Win7 either as a VM, or in a dual - boot configuration, and if you choose the latter, you can make it your default OS.

I am certain the PC industry will produce some attractive machines which follow the new form factor. At that point the "Ultrabook" (gawd, I shudder at the name) will be a mature technology.

Apple and the makers of PC's tend to compete differently for different market segments, and neither camp is "Right" or "Wrong". Both innovate and take risks according to the percieved direction of their various consumer base. When you weigh in with slavish, dog-like fanaticism for your chosen platform, you reveal yourself to be close-minded and ignorant.
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RE: It's the wrong time to buy an ultrabook
m_a_simons@... 6th Feb
Had to replace my old notebook with a Samsung Series 9 (died). But did so expecting to replace it this year for Ivy Bridge version for increased battery life,performance.

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