What are Ultrabooks?

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dot com slash tech Stuff. That's Audible podcast dot com slash tech Stuff. Hello again, everyone, and welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulette and I am an editor at how stuff Works dot com. Sitting across from me as usual using a pretty typical looking corporate laptop, is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. It was a wrong number that started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice on the other end asking

for someone. He was not all right then, yea, so today, thank you? Yes, Well, I don't know why I'm thanking you. It's a quote that I did not write, so I just just quoted. Um, we are today talking about ultra books and what the heck are they? And do you want one? Um? I figured it was a a computer that it wore a silver suit with a flashing light on its chest, that took on big rubbery monsters. No, no, sadly not. Uh. I'm still waiting for the gigante or a computer that it can only be controlled by a

little child. But they know that the ultrabook is a new class of notebook style computers marketing. But no, it really is. It's just like just like how netbooks were marketing. That was a thing, right, And in a way you could say that the ultrabook is sort of reaction to

two things. One is the netbook movement, which kind of got took a hit when tablets started to get popular because people were saying, well, I could get a tablet device which is a really cool form factor and has a fun touchscreen interface, or for around the same price, I could get a netbook, which is essentially an underpowered computer. Uh And and there were a lot of people who said, well, if between those two choices, I will go with the tablets.

So the netbook sales with netbooks were a big thing. Just a couple of years ago, netbook sales started to take a little bit of a of a depth, and so computer manufacturers started to look around and a well, what can we do about this? Do we keep pushing netbooks or do we get into a different market. The other thing that really really I think launched the ultrabook

movement was Apple with the MacBook Air. Now, the MacBook Air is a super slim MacBook, right, and it's it gets that slim form factor through um lots of different ways. One thing is, you know you remove the optical drive. Yes, so there's there's there's no DVD drive in it. Yeah, So once you remove the optical drive, you now conserve a lot of space and use a solid state hard drive so you don't have to have platters in there

or anything like that. So the MacBook Air is this really thin, beautiful computer, like it's you know, it's aesthetically it's very pleasing. Uh. And it's also a fairly powerful computer, you know, for its for its form factor. Uh. And so also it's a premium computer. It's you know, you're paying a premium price, partly because it's Apple, and partly

because of the design of the computer itself. So, um, yeah, the the the MacBook Air um sort of got a lot of attention just because of the way it looks and because it has that solid state drive, which you know,

they're they're naturally more expensive than the platter hard drives. Now, um, if you look at the specs, uh, simply looking at a a you know, Apple computers, if you put a MacBook versus a MacBook Air, you'll notice that the the processors generally a little slower, and the drive is smaller because it's a um solid state hard drive, and it's

you know, sort of more expensive for what you're getting. Uh. It may be less expensive than the MacBook, but then you go, well, but you know, for a couple hundred dollars, So you have to decide what you want. But for for some people, for a set of people who wanted UM an Apple laptop, they said, you know what, I really like the fact that it's lighter, it's smaller, UM,

and you know, look how sleek it is. I remember Steve Jobs unveiling the thing and you pulled it out of Manila envelope, which which got a pretty big reaction. I mean, you know, before that, you just didn't see computers at that that were thin enough to be able to do that. Now, UM, other manufacturers started making thinner laptops. I remember Sony came out with a couple of of the bio laptops that were really slender. UM. Samsung came out with its Series nine in particular, with a great

thin one. And that's one of the lines that will probably talk about in this podcast. But the idea of the Ultra book really really comes from Intel. And it's funny because Intel has actually set forth some standards they UM, they announced standards for what would become the Ultra Book, and they actually named it the Ultra Book, and they said, if you're going to make an ultra book, whatever that is,

this is what it. Yeah, you have to meet these bare minimum standards like, for example, it can be no thicker than twenty one millimeters which is point eight three inches thick. If it's thicker than that, then technically it should not be called an ultrabook. UH. It also should have a very fast startup UH and should in fact go from sleep mode to full interaction within seven seconds.

Seven seconds is the maximum amount of time it should take to go from sleep mode too ready to go, which is that's that's pretty fast, especially if you've ever had like an older computer and older notebook computer and had to go into sleep mode and then try to wake it up. Sometimes you're you know, you start the wake up process and you think, all right, I'm gonna go make some coffee, maybe make a couple of phone

calls before I get back. Part of that, I think is the information being fragmented on the hard drive and all the stuff that you install on the computer and you haven't running, and you know, it's not like it's brand new. I think that's what they're saying. The seven seconds is you know, when you get it from the manufacturer. Yeah, other things that it needs to do. It needs to have at least between five and eight hours of battery life. Um, it needs to have features in it that protect consumers

against theft. So a lot of these devices have have have software and hardware in it that can help consumers track down where the computer is should it ever be stolen. It's very useful. And then ultimately, while it's Intel, so an ultrabook has to have an Intel Core processor. If it doesn't have an Intel Core processor, technically it is not an ultrabook, at least according to Intel. Now, ultra book I think will end up becoming shorthand for very sleek,

fast computers. I don't know that they will necessarily remain the domain of Intel. Mean, even if Intel trademarks that, I imagine that that terms is going to be used pretty loosely. I've heard people talk about the MacBook Air as an ultrabook, although definition it's not. Um Yeah. So they also usually have a solid state drive because that does conserve space, uh, physical space, not not digital space, but physical space. And they often won't have things like

optical drives. You'll have to use digital downloads to get access to software. And of course the price point under a thousand dollars well supposed to be. Yeah. You a lot of the ultra books that I saw. I recently went to If you've listened to our episode about my consumer electronic show Visit Cees, Visit of UM, you probably heard about me talk about some of these these ultra books will find out because we haven't actually recorded it yet, but it's going to publish before this one. It's like

a time travel thing. Uh. Anyway, Yeah, there's several computers that were falling under the Ultra book name that topped a thousand dollars. It's sort of this is looser than the other definition, right, Like like the Samsung Series nine computer that I mentioned that's technically book if you if you want to go with the price, and it's not. It's because it's but it's point six four inches thick, which means it's one point six centimeters and it meets

the the minimum requirement for thickness. It's absolutely gorgeous designed, by the way, it was very pretty. I liked it a lot. But yeah, it's that's one that was often being lumped in with the other Ultra books. Other ones included the hp n V fourteen Specter, Yes, which that was uncoming that was on the thick side for ultrabooks. It was still a very thin computer, but it was thicker than most of the other Ultra books are on display.

The interesting thing to me about the HP n V was that it has um gorilla glass on the computer itself, So the back of the computer is coated in gorilla glass, and the the base of the keyboard where the touch pad is, that whole section is coated in gorilla glass, which helps it protected from scratches things like that. Also has a near field communication technology built into it. Okay, so you know, if you want to go and, uh, say, by a drink from a soda machine, you can hold

up your laptop and pay for it with that. Tom Meriti of Tech News Today made the same point, and I think that that misses the applications you can put. You can use n FC par Okay, let's let's take the opportunity to clear that up, because I I can understand that being the first reaction saying, why would you put NFC in a laptop? If NFC is what you're using to use your cell phone to purchase stuff at

a vendor, why would you put in a laptop. Okay, NFC is a communications protocol, so it's bluetooth, so you don't it's not necessarily payment. Let's say that you pull up some information on your laptop computer and you want to transfer it to your phone. NFC might enable that to happen. So, for example, let's say that you're typing in a map thing on your computer and then you think, oh, I should put that in my phone so that way I can navigate to wherever it is I'm going. NFC

could allow you to transfer that very seamlessly, right. You wouldn't have to go into your phone and also pull it up. It would just come up on your phone. Or let's even say that you are shopping, but you're shopping online and you already have all your credit card information programmed into your smartphone with whatever service you're using, like Google Wallet. Let's say, and then you have an NFC chip in your laptop and you just wave your

smartphone to your laptop, the transaction goes through. You don't have to type in your credit card number or anything like that, and it's all taken care of for you. That Those are applications for NFC technology. It's not just waving your laptop at a cashier, although I guess you could do that. These are thin enough, by the way, weight is not a requirement for these things, or they

can weigh everything. I just blew your mind. But no. I actually talked with an Intel non executive and Intel representative and mentioned I said, also, is there a weight limit to these two like does it have to be under five pounds for example? And she said no, So you can make one out of uranium and it'd be

nice and heavy, also radioactive. Don't recommend it. But at any rate, weight is not not a factor when it comes to what determines an ultra book now available the HP isotope uh and and at c S. Intel mentioned that there was I think sixty five ultra books and development with sixty five different ultrabooks from various manufacturers, you know, including Intel. Had one that was a little weird, the Nikishi. Did you read about the Nikishi? No, that doesn't answer

my question. Okay, so this was a particularly interesting design, and I use interesting in the most vague way possible. Um, I don't know. I go back and forth on this. It's kind of a neat idea, but kind of weird too. The so, if you look at your your typical notebook computer, at the base of the keyboard, the bottom section of the keyboard. It's where your track pad is right and you know, a place where you usually rest your wrists

or whatever while you're typing on the keyboard. Well, in the Nikishi, there's a section just below that that's completely clear, so you know it's this it's like a clear window at the base of the keyboard, so you know it's like you can see the desk beneath your computer. Well, why would you do that. That's because when you fold the computer down there within that clear window, there is an interface you can use even when the computer itself is in sleep out. There's a and it's like a

Windows eight style that's the Metro operating system. So you've got this little touch based operating system that you can use to do things like checking email message or other small apps while the computer itself is still closed. So it sort of puts in a little bit of tablet functionality into a notebook form factor without it actually being a hybrid. Yeah, and it was a completely it was a concept model. It's just a prototype. It's not something

that's necessarily ever going to go to the market. In fact, that would be shocked to see it go to the market. It was interesting, but but odd, Like I personally, I was thinking, well, that's kind of a weird take. But then really what it shows as the potential for an ultra book. And another one that did the potential for an ultra book was the Lenovo Yoga. Did you see this that? Actually I was about to ask you about that.

Did you actually get your hands on one of I didn't get my hands on one, but I did see it in person. Yeah, Now this is this is an ultrabook that I guess it's called the Yoga because the the it can flip in a in a way that actually turns it into a tablet. It's bendy bindy, you

know how a market term. You can bend the screen back, and once the screen hits about a hundred degrees, the keyboard shuts off, so you don't have to worry about accidentally typing something on the keyboard while you're converting it into its other form factor. So yeah, you you you fold the screen back, and you can fold it so that it is a stand so in other words, it's it makes a triangle with whatever surface you've put it

on and it becomes like a touch screen interface. Or you can fold it all the way back and it becomes a tablet, and then you can use it, you know, as a tablet, So the screen would be on the outside of one side, and then keyboards. Yeah, but again the keyboard shuts down after you hit a hundred eighty degree So even though you've got a keyboard on the back of this tablet, it's not like you're gonna be, you know, actidentally typing and gibberish while you're trying to

navigate angry birds. However, I would uh suggest not putting it down on that the cafe table and then spilling your coffee on the table, because then it would get in the keyboard. I never recommend spilling your coffee on the cafe table, whether you've got technology on it or not. Well, that's true, because then he can't drink it. I mean, well I have been known till never mind that's there's certain coffee shops in Atlanta I am no longer allowed into.

Let's just say that, right, Hey, you know what, sometimes you've got to have that cup of coffee. So yeah, there's but they're they're literally dozens of different ultra books that are in development. I mean, like I said, sixty five and alone, I think seventy and um what they

show that. Uh, Different manufacturers have a different take on the concept, right, I mean there's something I saw that are going to be priced as low as around eight hundred eight or fifty dollars, which is, you know, it's pretty competitive for something that's on the cutting edge of form factors, if not the actual guts of the device itself. Um. Again, you know it's gonna have to have an Intel Core

processor for it to be called an ultrabook. So there's a certain level of speed that you're going to expect from any ultrabook. But some of them are, of course, are gonna have like the most advanced chip set that that you can possibly get in that form factor. Like again, like Samsung Series nine. That's a good example because there are three different series that kind of fit in the ultrabook uh category, from Samsung Series five, Series seven, Series nine.

The higher you get, the more luxurious the device. Right. So the nine is a sleeker design, has more powerful components and a higher price point than the fives. Now I understand there's a new chip set coming from Intel. Uh code name has well yes, Uh, the so we had Sandy Bridge, right, So Sandy Bridge was the big development last year, and then we have ivy Bridge that's

just coming out now. So though that's gonna be in of at least in the first half, probably the first probably the first three quarters, we're gonna have lots of devices running on ivy Bridge processors. But the one after that is as you said, so we're gonna that'll be the next big development. And again this is showing improvements

and speed and size. Yeah. Yeah, Well they call it a system on a chip to which would work better in this kind of form factor, I would imagine because you've got all the components there where you don't have to include separate other pieces to the the operating puzzle UM, and I would to assume that that would take up a lot less space. Now, I don't know if you would sacrifice performance, um, you know, as a result of that, But it's still um, you know, still in the ways

uh you know coming. But that's the way the tablets handle it to UM, like the iPad and and the Android tablets. So but all of these these intelmachines, now do they necessarily have to use Windows because I didn't see anything that said specifically, Now, all of these machines we've been talking about use Windows specifically Windows eight too, because that that allows them to use that tablet functionality.

But I've been wondering if, uh, there's a possibility that you could run something like Android on an Ultra book. There's nothing in Intel's lineup of requirements that says that it has to use a particular operating system versus another interesting, but I think the trend is to go to Windows mainly.

I think, I think mostly it's an image thing. The idea of these are these devices are devices designed to compete with the MacBook Air, and there's a perception within the general consumer market that Windows and Apple are the two operating systems. You know, and we all know there are other operating systems besides Windows and mac os, but the general to the general consumer, that's what an operating

system is. And so I think that if you're trying to create a luxury product and you want to make as many sales as possible, you're gonna go with a an operating system that most people are familiar with. UM maybe some of these will have options where you can choose to get a model that runs uh, say a Linux based operating system as opposed to Microsoft. But but I that will be the exception to the rule. They

tried that with netbooks, right. That was one of the things about netbooks was that you actually had the option with some of the providers, some of the manufacturers, to get a model that ran Linux operating system as opposed to Windows, and uh, it got kind of a negative reaction amongst the general consumer market. I mean, at first, you had a lot of people adopting it because they were cheaper, so you didn't have to pay the licensing fee to Microsoft for the operating system, and that reduced

the cost of the device overall. So then you're like, well, there's two different versions of this one netbook. I like one of them is hundred and fifty dollars cheaper than the other, so clearly I'm going to go with that one. Then you get at home and you realize, I don't know what this operating system is. I'm not familiar with it. I don't even know if all of my software is going to run it. I'm gonna have to learn this

new thing. I'm irritated. I'm returning this thing. And so you had a lot of stories about the return rate on netbooks because people were unhappy with either the performance of the machine or more specifically, the operating system. So I think that would probably mean that we're going to see fewer instances of that with Ultra books. Not necessarily a complete absence, but I think that the majority of them are going to be Windows based machines, especially with

the push for Windows eight. In the combination of the new machines coming out, in the new operating system coming out, I think is gonna be you know, that's gonna be the focus for uh. Now that being said, would I buy an Ultra book? I'll tell you this. I tried to win one. Is that the Intel booth tried to win one on two different occasions. Uh. To be fair,

At the time, my work computer had gone caput. Yes, and so I was thinking this will be a way where I can write stuff because I can get another computer. That did not work out for me. It turns out my dance moves they aren't as a fly as I had anticipated. What you just used to fly as well, I I am not as fly as I had hoped. All right, then, so yeah, it turns out if you do have the opportunity to win an ultrabook from Intel, doing the robot not necessarily going to win you anything, right, Um, yeah,

I should have popped and locked. Well, it'll be interesting, I think, to see how far this goes. The concept of the concept behind it, I think is sound. I think people want a lighter, thinner machine just because it's lighter and thinner. Um. Well, at the idea behind ultra book is a a name. I don't know if that will have the lasting power, but I think they also want if they want something that's going to be in a computer form factor, they want something that's going to

be more powerful than a tablet. So if you look at a netbook versus a tablet and you think that their performance is about the same, again, I think most people sort of lean towards the tablet mode just because it's kind of a cooler form factor. Um, if you go with the ultra book, then one of the marketing things you can say is that, hey, this device is far faster and has far more memory and etcetera, etcetera than the tablets do. Therefore, if you're in the market

for a computer, this is the way you should go. Yeah, it's ultra portable and ultra powerful, and I guess is what you could say an ultra Bookie and ultra Bookie ultra book is so um. But this I also think is an indication that people are more comfortable using the cloud for uh, for storage and for other applications because um, you know, without an optical drive, as most of these machines are, you know, that's uh, it gives you a a

fewer options for installing new software. I think people are becoming more comfortable purchasing and downloading software from the Internet, and we're seeing more app stores. Intel has its own app store, so just as Apple has the Mac app Store for Mac computers, Intel's gout its own app store up now, which allows you to to shop for various kinds of apps and software directly from Intel and buy them that way and then downloaded and a new gut

on your machine. Yeah. The really interesting thing to me is that the the evolution of the personal computer, as seen it at shows like c e S suggests that if you don't have a broadband connection, you're getting left out. Uh.

You know. Back in you know, five years go, you didn't have to have a broadband connection to have a good computer and a good suite of software, because you could go out and buy a hard copy of whatever piece of software you wanted, You get it on desk, you load it into your computer, and you were good

to go. But now that we're getting to a point where the optical drive is starting to disappear, if you don't have that broadband connection, then you you were cut off from the content, you're cut off from the software. So in a way, and it's kind of silly to say this, but in a way, Cees really paints a picture of winding the digital divide because you're talking about a class of customers who have to have a bare minimum access of technology in order to take advantage of

the products you're launching. If you don't have that, then you're stuck. Now, you know, five years ago that was electricity, Now it's broadband. And I think it's pretty safe to say that electricity penetration is greater than broadband penetration. Um. And of course there's still there's still companies out there that are marketing devices that are meant for consumers who don't have broadband access. But that's you know, it's almost that's a specialty product now, it's not like the general

product that hits the store shelves. So that's kind of an interesting trend as well. Um, we'll have to see how this plays out. I imagine that ultra books will do fairly well, um, because it's it's competing in a different space than than netbooks were. Uh. Some people would argue that ultra books really should just be called notebooks just they're just particularly sleep notebooks. Um. And also I guess we should mention we we talked about the thickness

and everything. Typically these ultra books have a screen size between thirteen and fourteen inches. That's that's your typical ultra book. There are outliers, but that's they're larger than your netbooks are.

And that was another point was that people we're saying ultra books are going to be preferable to netbooks because you won't have the same cramped keyboards that you had in the netbook form factor, and that there were several netbooks that came out that definitely had small keyboards that were a little uncomfortable to type on if you had you know, man hands, or you know, if you were larger than a child. I just get the sense that people are that the average person is not going to

see ultra books as a thing. I think this is more as a you know, from the manufacturers. But I don't. I don't think the general public is going to think of ultra books necessarily as a separate thing. Um. That said, I think it will have another effect too, is you know, pushing the plane old laptop and towards the lower end

of the scale in terms of price. Wells now that they could they could charge more for an ultrabook because it's it's sleek and efficient and and and cool look and um and oh well you can have this uh brick top um for four or you can buy an ultrabook for well. Yeah, I think ultra books will It'll all depend on the marketing. And you know, if these companies all come out and start using ultrabook as a marketing term, then maybe the general consumer will have like

they'll think of ultra books as being its own specific category. Um. Frankly, I haven't seen any of the advertising materials, but you know, just based upon the press releases I saw at CS the term was yeah, I was one of the big themes of CS. This here, but I think I think this, uh, this move is really showing that they the manufacturers have

moved on from the concept of netbooks. Um, and that you know, between tablets and ultra books, there's there's really no uh, not much of a market saying I wouldn't say no, not much of a market segment for the netbook anymore. Right, Well, yeah, and I think, um, I think that pretty much sums it up. I mean, that's that's what we have so far. Whether or not this will become a successful category in consumer electronics remains to be seen. Uh, it's if it fails, it's certainly not

because it lacks support on the manufacturer something. Yeah, because there's a lot of enthusiasm, let me tell you. And uh, and what if you haven't seen these devices, you really need to get a chance to take a look at them, either online or if you can go to a store, just to get a look at the form factors, because even if you're not in the market for a new computer, it's kind of interesting to see the move to this this design where everything is is water thin. Alright, So

that wraps up our discussion on ultra books. If you guys have any topics you would like us to cover, you can let us know on Facebook or Twitter or handled there is tech stuff hs W or write to us at our brand new email address, tech stuff at this goovery dot com, and Chris and I will talk to you again really soon. Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you