For many people, the choice of portable computing devices isn't iPad 2 vs. an Android tablet. The tougher choice may be between a tablet or ultrabook, an ultra-light and ultra-thin laptop.
The most prominent of this new generation of ultrabooks is the Apple MacBook Air. And for lots of professionals, the choice between the Air and an iPad is not an easy one. So what's the best portable computer deal?
In it's 11.6-inch screen configuration, Air weighs in at just 2.3 pounds – less than a pound heavier than 9.7-inch iPad 2's 1.33 pounds. At its thinnest point, Air is a silly .11 of an inch thin – two-thirds thinner than iPad 2's .34 of an inch thinness.
On the surface, making iPad/Air decision less confounding would seem to be their price difference – iPad 2's 64 GB Wi-Fi version is $699, while the similarly equipped 11.6-inch Air is $999. But with an Air, you don't have to buy accessories such as a case or a keyboard, which add weight and girth to the total portable computing package.
Your choice will come down to how much you want the touch interface vs. a traditional keyboard and what jobs you need your portable to perform. But increased tablet functionality and lighter/thinner ultrabooks is making that decision less clear cut.
Define 'ultrabook'
The Air isn't the only waif-like ultrabook around. It has been joined by the Samsung's Series 9 and the recently unveiled but yet-to-be-released (or priced) Asus UX21 and UX31. Acer and HP are just two of an expected torrent of ultrabooks to come in time (nearly) for the back-to-school season.
Right now, these Air apparents haven't been able to match Apple's sub-$1,000 pricing, but competition and volume are likely to bring many ultrabooks under the four-figure mark by the holiday shopping season.
But "ultrabook" isn't exactly a brand name or a certified standard. It won't be a surprise to see the "ultra" label mis-applied by less than scrupulous laptop makers.
So Intel, which has pioneered the low-power chips essential to preserving ultrabook battery life, is attempting to define the technical and physical characteristics that define an "ultrabook."
Here's my short list of attributes an "ultrabook" ought to have to qualify for the sobriquet.
¢ Light and thin. An ultrabook should weigh less than 3 pounds, measure less than three-quarters of an inch thick at any point, and are usually wedge shaped.
¢ Uni-body construction, usually aluminum or an aluminum alloy or, perhaps, fiberglass, with a screen less than 14 inches.
¢ No DVD or Blu-ray drive. So-called "optical drives" (so-called because they are read by a laser) are thick and take-up too much room. In this age of cloud storage and downloadable software and media content, largely unnecessary.
¢ Solid state memory. Most laptop computers have a hard disk drive, which are copious and inexpensive, but take up a lot of physical space, are heavy and are power-inefficient because they are mechanical. Tablets and most ultrabooks use flash memory, known in the business as SSD (an acronym for "solid-state drive") that are simply a chipset with no moving parts. Most ultrabooks will pack at least a 64 GB SSD.
¢ Quick start. Like a tablet, a solid-state ultrabook is ready to work almost as soon as you turn it on or wake it up – so-called "instant on" or "quick start" or some other similar hyperbole. From Windows' normal sleep mode, an ultrabook will become functional almost instantly – usually less than seven seconds. But from Windows' deeper "hibernation" mode, figure around 30 seconds to a minute, still drastically less than hard disk drive-based laptops. Intel, however, hopes to knock that time down even further.
Bring the thunder
Two other technologies may define these new ultrabooks: power-efficient yet powerful Intel Core processors and the dual-purpose Thunderbolt connectors.
Thunderbolt jacks not only transfer data at twice the speed of USB 3.0 (and Intel think they can boost that to four-times faster in a couple of years), but also can be used to connect external displays.
Faster transfer speeds – say, when using an external drive to move movies or photos back-and-forth – save time and battery life.
Right now, only MacBooks have Thunderbolt jacks, but the Thunderbolt technology was developed by Intel, which expects it to be widely adopted in laptops and ultrabooks to come.
And they are coming.
