Acer Aspire S3, the first mover ultrabook
We heard the word “ultrabook” for the first time in May of this year - at the Taiwan exhibition Computex 2011. There was a big solid presentation with the participation of Intel senior vice president Sean Maloney, and he told the audience about the new mobile initiative of the corporation. I wrote a post about it straight from Taiwan, and if you 're interested, you can refresh it in memory . In short, it was a new class of devices that combine the functionality of a high-performance laptop and tablet computer without sacrificing both incarnations. A strong impression was made by the promise to keep the thickness of ultrabooks within 2 centimeters, and to limit the price to a thousand dollars. Nowadays, when even owners who are quite distant from IT and not prohibitively well-paid professions, do not part with mobile computers, such initiatives are met with enthusiasm. Half a year has passed, and here I am writing this post on the first ultrabook, which is officially sold in Russia, namely on Acer Aspire S3. Let's talk about it in more detail, and also look into the future of this new class of truly mobile computers.
Immediately I will clarify - I will not torment you with the most detailed technical characteristics, performance graphs and other attributes of large reviews. In the end, about Acer Aspire S3 has already been written decently, and if you want to read the most detailed test, the search for such a time does not take much (for my part, I can recommend the material of my colleague Alexei Drozhzhin). I will focus on the main and most interesting features of this pioneer, as well as a three-week experience of working on it.
')
Easier, thinner, faster
A year ago, when I was looking for a new working laptop, the choice left much to be desired. The fact is that my work is associated with a large number of movements in space, and the mobile computer required compactness, durability and high enough performance to quickly process the RAW made by the Nikon DSLR and, from time to time, the videos. Considering that I bought a laptop for my money (I was not satisfied with the government version offered at work), I didn’t want to spend too much money. But in practice it turned out that a small, durable and fast is not cheap. It was possible to buy a compact and budget model - but rather weak. It can be strong, inexpensive and fast - but large for traveling. Finally, I came across a compact, fast and inexpensive option, but outwardly so flimsy that I was just afraid to buy it, given the dangers of camp life (later I still bought this model for my spouse, who travels an order less than mine, and the fears came true - the body cracked from the first the same hard landing backpack on the ground).
As a result, I bought a “business-like” Thinkpad X201s on the Core i7 with excellent performance, impressive durability and almost miniature dimensions. I can’t say anything bad about it - a wonderful machine. But I had to pay for it almost two thousand dollars, which, you see, bites. Nevertheless, given the fact that the laptop has been bought for more than one year and, like it or not, I should like it, I stepped on the tender throat of a brown-green tailless amphibian and took the money to the cashier.
So if such a choice stood before me today, it would be obvious - an ultrabook. Thin, strong, fast and, in comparison with business models, quite affordable. At least, that’s how he looks at the store shelf. But can everything be different in practice?
When you first look at the Acer Aspire S3, as well as at its counterparts, the thought flashes: "Aha, here it is, MacBook Air on Windows." In fact, if you put a series of ultrabooks and Air, there are quite a few differences, however, there are quite enough intersections in the design in order to arouse the predatory interest of patent attorneys. Nevertheless, the trials, which are so rich in recent news feeds, can not hear anything. Why is that? Two versions can be cited - realistic and slightly conspiratorial. According to the first, despite the resemblance, skillful changes have been made to the design of the ultrabooks, which do not allow the treachery to find fault. This is not really as difficult as it sounds - you just need to know what you are doing. The authors of the second version rely on the fact that the reference design of ultrabooks was developed by Intel itself, and what we see on the shelves is a kind of variation on a given topic. So suddenly, suddenly it was not invented in 2011, but earlier, in 2008? And the fruit company from Cupertino just had the right of the first night, which expired in May 2011?
In any case, for a user the appearance of a decent enough choice of thin and light notebooks is a great joy, and how big companies will deal with each other is their own business.
The case of the Aspire S3 is very thin - from 13 millimeters around the touchpad to 17 and a half in the back, where all the available connectors are placed. At the same time, you can’t call an ultrabook absolutely a feather - it weighs a little less than 1.4 kilograms, and it feels in your hand, let's say. Probably, if S3 was plastic, the weight could be significantly reduced.
Thin. Very thin
But in this case we are dealing with a magnesium alloy body and, you know, I agree to wear an extra couple of hundred grams in a backpack for the sake of such strength. In addition, this design dissipates heat much more efficiently than plastic.
Everyone notes the sense of beauty that awakened in Acer's designers, forcing them to make standard stickers on the case not ordinary colorful, but grayish, to match the case. Indeed, like a trifle, but thanks to her ultrabook looks much more solid.
The first time the Aspire S3 is turned on, like “just laptops”, because the usual operating system is Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit version), and it starts from at least the usual Hitachi hard disk. More precisely, the HDD is somewhat different from most fellows with a shell thickness (7 mm instead of the standard 9), but this does not affect the performance.
Once loaded, as always, but then the interesting begins. The fact is that a very fast 20-gigabyte SSD soldered right on the motherboard dwells alongside normal HDD. It is impossible to record data on it (at least, without the use of a tambourine and calls to such and such a mother), and his main task is the implementation of Intel Rapid Start technology. It is such a useful hybrid of sleep and hibernation: the laptop instantly falls asleep and almost instantly wakes up, but it practically does not consume energy, as in the hibernation mode, which usually takes a lot of time to go to “just computers”. Here, even if a lot of applications are running, after closing the lid, the laptop completely shuts down in four seconds, and wakes up in just two. Very interesting and unusual feeling.
To look inside the Aspire S3 is simple - just unscrew a few ordinary screws. True, you can only replace the hard drive, because even 4 gigabytes of memory are tightly soldered on the board
As for the battery consumption, having started this post in Saratov, I just closed the laptop, put it in my backpack, and could only open it again after six days. The charge level during this time has not changed, and after a few seconds it was possible to continue writing. I remember that Mac OS adepts (especially those who were new converts) liked to be proud of this convenience. Now it can be used by the more traditional majority.
The screen of the Aspire S3 is quite normal - with a 13.3-inch TN-matrix that supports the resolution of 1366x768 pixels. For such a diagonal is enough. The picture quality is quite ordinary, and the stock of brightness, in my feeling, is more than enough. However, I don’t like excessively bright screens at all, and on Acer laptops I usually twist the brightness to 50%. In this case, I was comfortable at 60.
I was, as always, very worried about the convenience of the keyboard. In Aspire S3, it differs from the analogs in other
Acer laptops: not wanting to give up the secondary buttons, they were shoved into a relatively small space of as many as 84 pieces, and because of the general subtlety of the design, the key travel was slightly shortened. However, this practically did not affect the usability: I type blindly, and it took me about half an hour to get used to the S3 keyboard.
The touchpad of this ultrabook is quite large and pretends to be buttonless. In fact, of course, those are present, which is not difficult to verify by clicking in the lower right and left corners. Honestly, I connect a mouse to laptops at the first opportunity, and therefore I rarely use touchpads. Nevertheless, I can not fail to note the very clear work of scrolling pages with two fingers and zooming with them. Gestures are far from new, but not all models are convenient to use. But here, it feels like, there is no difference with MacBook, although, of course, I know about a much larger choice of finger gestures on Mac OS.
The performance of the Aspire S3 impressed me a lot. No, seriously, from such a machine somehow you do not expect swiftness. Thin, strong, and the speed of work should be just sufficient. Here, it feels like everything happens faster than on my Thinkpad with the first generation Core i7, where both the base frequency is higher and the Turbo Boost is “fatter”. The Aspire S3 is a dual-core Intel Core i5-2467M with a frequency of 1.6 GHz, increasing under load to 2.3 GHz. The maximum TDP of the processor is 17 watts, but given the fact that most of the time it operates at 800 MHz, the averages are clearly lower. Just from the principle I will not give these benchmarks - there are enough of them on the web. It is not customary to wait for miracles of performance from such compact systems. And here a little miracle is still present. I emphasize that it applies not only to this ultrabook, but to all models, and in some you can find even more nimble Intel processors. It remains only to rejoice and wonder at the level of technology development, which allows creating such productive CPUs with such a low level of energy consumption. And this is only the beginning of the path ... However, we will talk about the prospects a little lower.
The battery of the Aspire S3 lives deep inside and cannot be replaced - at least at home. Three cells, 3680 mAh - nothing special, but from her ultrabook guaranteed to work for four hours, even under a moderate load and with maximum brightness of the screen. If the last twist a bit, and reduce the load to web surfing, study presentations or typing, you can firmly hope for five hours. For 7-8 hours, which are spoken about in advertising, only those who buy a more expensive version of the Aspire S3 with SSD instead of the traditional hard drive can seriously count. True, it should be noted here that this is not an SSD so economical, but it simply takes up less space in the case and additional cells of the battery will take up the free space. When I changed my HDD to SSD in my laptop, I noticed a 10% increase in battery life on the strength. So - do not flatter yourself.
If the above seemed to you too blissful, do not rush to get angry - now let's talk about the shortcomings. In the Acer Aspire S3 I was, let's say, surprised to mount the cover. It looks very soundly, but in practice the lid shakes from the slightest touch, and during typing it walks back and forth in a fun way. This miscalculation of engineers is noticeable mainly in the off state, and when there is a picture on the screen, you don’t pay attention to his “festivities”. But if you knock on the keys more intensively - you will notice, you cannot get anywhere. I can’t consider this feature for good reason, so we’ll write to bugs.
The second drawback of the design is too noisy cooling system, which makes itself felt even in the typing mode. I respect the desire of engineers to protect the ultrabook from overheating even under high loads (by the way, to dump the MacBook Air processor into throttling is a damn good thing), but probably it was worth finding a cooler or a quieter, or just a sound ... more potent. As a person who has the habit of constantly “doping” your NAS in a mini-ITX package, I know that sometimes a propeller, more than fifty cents, works much quieter with similar efficiency. Of course, Aspire S3 can not compete with a frightened pig, but still I really want to make it quieter when working in complete silence. On the other hand, if you are used to working in headphones, the noise will not interfere. You can output the sound and the built-in speakers, but they are at S3, though relatively loud, but are able to reproduce only the high and a little midrange. Better in headphones.
In this case, the word “Dolby” should not be too encouraging: decent sound from the S3 can only be achieved with headphones
The third drawback is the location of all the ports on the rear panel. No, I understand that the sidewalls are thin and nothing really can be placed there. And yet, my business colleagues somehow contrived and stuck on the sides at least USB ports. And then even to connect the flash drive, you have to either close the lid, looking for the port to the touch (it is completely invisible from above), or turn the laptop to your back, like a hut on chicken legs. Well at least the card reader's nest was placed on the right side, otherwise it would be completely uncomfortable.
All behind
In general, if I had to choose a light laptop for travel, the Aspire S3 would undoubtedly be on the shortlist. Its only serious flaw is the trembling lid. Harm from her, in general, no, and it does not interfere with work. But - annoying. I have already come across a similar and have "just laptops." It remains to check - how are things with ultrabooks from other manufacturers. Well, by the way, it is possible that the new batches of the Aspire S3 will no longer have a bug - it's too obvious and easy to fix.
If I wondered if I could change the Thinkpad on an ultrabook, I can say for sure: I would change the price difference without thinking :) Still, 32-40 thousand rubles (depending on the brand of the ultrabook and configuration) and 60 thousand are felt very -different. If the money is not returned ... So far, probably still not. For my tasks, the Thinkpad fits perfectly, and when I move I will get about the same level of convenience. I envy those who can save a little bit now, but I will not spend time reinstalling programs before the appearance of ultrabooks with good touch screens.
The beginning of the way
Ultrabooks in our market have already appeared decently - at least five models from Acer, Asus, Lenovo and Toshiba. But here I will allow myself a slightly seditious remark: in comparison with real ultrabooks, they are all like a doll or even a caterpillar, and they still have to go through a number of important rebirths before the butterfly state.
Recall that in a software statement for Computex, Sean Maloney talked about a device that combines the functionality of a high-performance laptop and tablet PC. That is, a completely ultrabook should have a touch screen, which is not the case with current versions. Sean also mentioned CPUs made using 22nm technology using Tri-Gate transistors, which will appear only at the beginning of next year. So it turns out that the current ultrabooks are, in fact, just good thin mobile computers that use a number of new technologies - Intel Rapid Start (we already talked about it), Intel Smart Connect (data update in sleep mode), Intel Smart Response (acceleration of the HDD due to caching data on a small SSD, installed additionally or soldered on the motherboard) and a number of other security-related data (they are so entertaining that it is probably worth preparing a separate post about them).
So what are the ultrabooks in a year or two? You know, this is a very rare case when you don’t have to guess or quote rumors. Intel itself announced its plans until 2013, inclusive, which is, in fact, a very unusual step for any industry and for IT - especially. Usually, plans are revealed from strength for a year, so that the client does not even think to save money until better times. And then - as much as three. It seems that a) the corporation is already prepared for much now and b) it is not afraid that in three years it will have nothing to surprise beyond the plan.
So, what awaits us?
In addition to the 22-nanometer Ivy Bridge already mentioned, providing a 30 percent increase in the speed of the graphics core and a 20 percent CPU at the same frequency, in ultrabooks will appear:
As for 2013, then for this period the plans are a little less detailed, but still there is something to say. Thanks to the Haswell processor family, the power consumption of the system is planned to be reduced to half of the current one. People from the circle of initiates told me about reducing the weight of ultrabooks to 900-1000 grams and battery life up to 15 hours from a completely standard battery. Even if in practice there will be not 15, but 10-12, I agree.But this is no longer a tablet with its initially limited functionality, but a powerful computer on which content can be not only viewed, but also created with complete comfort.
Also among the plans are wireless and secure synchronization of ultrabooks with various types of devices and advanced features for online games and video conferencing. The last point personally gives me a number of questions (where is it better? Really in 3D?), But, one must think, with each month there will be more clarity.
Dots
Probably, many people remember how much interest netbooks on the Intel Atom caused in 2008. I could not even believe that such small and fully functional computers could be so cheap. For three years, netbooks have become faster, more functional, and are still in great demand, although it would seem that almost everyone already has them. Having wondered at cheap mobility, many wanted more: so that you could carry performance and usability at the level of a serious laptop with you and cheaper, please. Ultrabook today is a great option for people who feel like growing out of a netbook. But it will take quite a bit of time, and a tablet will be added to the notebook functionality, which will be systematically developed with the active support of Intel.
And, who knows, maybe those of us who are taking a laptop and a tablet PC on a business trip today can manage with only one device in a year. And those who did not buy a netbook because of insufficient performance for their tasks will finally find happiness with an ultrabook, the benefit next year will be versions on budget versions of processors, which will further reduce the price.
Ultrabooks are a really good idea. The main thing is that the evolution process goes harmoniously and without the furious marketing mutations. We will be able to observe the development of the idea in early January 2012, when at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas will be presented, according to various sources, from 30 to 50 (!) New ultrabooks. With all my strength I will try to prepare from there an on-line report with pictures.
But personally you, dear reader, are ready right now to change a netbook to an ultrabook? And if you have to pay extra? :)
Immediately I will clarify - I will not torment you with the most detailed technical characteristics, performance graphs and other attributes of large reviews. In the end, about Acer Aspire S3 has already been written decently, and if you want to read the most detailed test, the search for such a time does not take much (for my part, I can recommend the material of my colleague Alexei Drozhzhin). I will focus on the main and most interesting features of this pioneer, as well as a three-week experience of working on it.
')
Easier, thinner, faster
A year ago, when I was looking for a new working laptop, the choice left much to be desired. The fact is that my work is associated with a large number of movements in space, and the mobile computer required compactness, durability and high enough performance to quickly process the RAW made by the Nikon DSLR and, from time to time, the videos. Considering that I bought a laptop for my money (I was not satisfied with the government version offered at work), I didn’t want to spend too much money. But in practice it turned out that a small, durable and fast is not cheap. It was possible to buy a compact and budget model - but rather weak. It can be strong, inexpensive and fast - but large for traveling. Finally, I came across a compact, fast and inexpensive option, but outwardly so flimsy that I was just afraid to buy it, given the dangers of camp life (later I still bought this model for my spouse, who travels an order less than mine, and the fears came true - the body cracked from the first the same hard landing backpack on the ground).
As a result, I bought a “business-like” Thinkpad X201s on the Core i7 with excellent performance, impressive durability and almost miniature dimensions. I can’t say anything bad about it - a wonderful machine. But I had to pay for it almost two thousand dollars, which, you see, bites. Nevertheless, given the fact that the laptop has been bought for more than one year and, like it or not, I should like it, I stepped on the tender throat of a brown-green tailless amphibian and took the money to the cashier.
So if such a choice stood before me today, it would be obvious - an ultrabook. Thin, strong, fast and, in comparison with business models, quite affordable. At least, that’s how he looks at the store shelf. But can everything be different in practice?
When you first look at the Acer Aspire S3, as well as at its counterparts, the thought flashes: "Aha, here it is, MacBook Air on Windows." In fact, if you put a series of ultrabooks and Air, there are quite a few differences, however, there are quite enough intersections in the design in order to arouse the predatory interest of patent attorneys. Nevertheless, the trials, which are so rich in recent news feeds, can not hear anything. Why is that? Two versions can be cited - realistic and slightly conspiratorial. According to the first, despite the resemblance, skillful changes have been made to the design of the ultrabooks, which do not allow the treachery to find fault. This is not really as difficult as it sounds - you just need to know what you are doing. The authors of the second version rely on the fact that the reference design of ultrabooks was developed by Intel itself, and what we see on the shelves is a kind of variation on a given topic. So suddenly, suddenly it was not invented in 2011, but earlier, in 2008? And the fruit company from Cupertino just had the right of the first night, which expired in May 2011?
In any case, for a user the appearance of a decent enough choice of thin and light notebooks is a great joy, and how big companies will deal with each other is their own business.
The case of the Aspire S3 is very thin - from 13 millimeters around the touchpad to 17 and a half in the back, where all the available connectors are placed. At the same time, you can’t call an ultrabook absolutely a feather - it weighs a little less than 1.4 kilograms, and it feels in your hand, let's say. Probably, if S3 was plastic, the weight could be significantly reduced.
Thin. Very thin
But in this case we are dealing with a magnesium alloy body and, you know, I agree to wear an extra couple of hundred grams in a backpack for the sake of such strength. In addition, this design dissipates heat much more efficiently than plastic.
Everyone notes the sense of beauty that awakened in Acer's designers, forcing them to make standard stickers on the case not ordinary colorful, but grayish, to match the case. Indeed, like a trifle, but thanks to her ultrabook looks much more solid.
The first time the Aspire S3 is turned on, like “just laptops”, because the usual operating system is Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit version), and it starts from at least the usual Hitachi hard disk. More precisely, the HDD is somewhat different from most fellows with a shell thickness (7 mm instead of the standard 9), but this does not affect the performance.
Once loaded, as always, but then the interesting begins. The fact is that a very fast 20-gigabyte SSD soldered right on the motherboard dwells alongside normal HDD. It is impossible to record data on it (at least, without the use of a tambourine and calls to such and such a mother), and his main task is the implementation of Intel Rapid Start technology. It is such a useful hybrid of sleep and hibernation: the laptop instantly falls asleep and almost instantly wakes up, but it practically does not consume energy, as in the hibernation mode, which usually takes a lot of time to go to “just computers”. Here, even if a lot of applications are running, after closing the lid, the laptop completely shuts down in four seconds, and wakes up in just two. Very interesting and unusual feeling.
To look inside the Aspire S3 is simple - just unscrew a few ordinary screws. True, you can only replace the hard drive, because even 4 gigabytes of memory are tightly soldered on the board
As for the battery consumption, having started this post in Saratov, I just closed the laptop, put it in my backpack, and could only open it again after six days. The charge level during this time has not changed, and after a few seconds it was possible to continue writing. I remember that Mac OS adepts (especially those who were new converts) liked to be proud of this convenience. Now it can be used by the more traditional majority.
The screen of the Aspire S3 is quite normal - with a 13.3-inch TN-matrix that supports the resolution of 1366x768 pixels. For such a diagonal is enough. The picture quality is quite ordinary, and the stock of brightness, in my feeling, is more than enough. However, I don’t like excessively bright screens at all, and on Acer laptops I usually twist the brightness to 50%. In this case, I was comfortable at 60.
I was, as always, very worried about the convenience of the keyboard. In Aspire S3, it differs from the analogs in other
Acer laptops: not wanting to give up the secondary buttons, they were shoved into a relatively small space of as many as 84 pieces, and because of the general subtlety of the design, the key travel was slightly shortened. However, this practically did not affect the usability: I type blindly, and it took me about half an hour to get used to the S3 keyboard.
The touchpad of this ultrabook is quite large and pretends to be buttonless. In fact, of course, those are present, which is not difficult to verify by clicking in the lower right and left corners. Honestly, I connect a mouse to laptops at the first opportunity, and therefore I rarely use touchpads. Nevertheless, I can not fail to note the very clear work of scrolling pages with two fingers and zooming with them. Gestures are far from new, but not all models are convenient to use. But here, it feels like, there is no difference with MacBook, although, of course, I know about a much larger choice of finger gestures on Mac OS.
The performance of the Aspire S3 impressed me a lot. No, seriously, from such a machine somehow you do not expect swiftness. Thin, strong, and the speed of work should be just sufficient. Here, it feels like everything happens faster than on my Thinkpad with the first generation Core i7, where both the base frequency is higher and the Turbo Boost is “fatter”. The Aspire S3 is a dual-core Intel Core i5-2467M with a frequency of 1.6 GHz, increasing under load to 2.3 GHz. The maximum TDP of the processor is 17 watts, but given the fact that most of the time it operates at 800 MHz, the averages are clearly lower. Just from the principle I will not give these benchmarks - there are enough of them on the web. It is not customary to wait for miracles of performance from such compact systems. And here a little miracle is still present. I emphasize that it applies not only to this ultrabook, but to all models, and in some you can find even more nimble Intel processors. It remains only to rejoice and wonder at the level of technology development, which allows creating such productive CPUs with such a low level of energy consumption. And this is only the beginning of the path ... However, we will talk about the prospects a little lower.
The battery of the Aspire S3 lives deep inside and cannot be replaced - at least at home. Three cells, 3680 mAh - nothing special, but from her ultrabook guaranteed to work for four hours, even under a moderate load and with maximum brightness of the screen. If the last twist a bit, and reduce the load to web surfing, study presentations or typing, you can firmly hope for five hours. For 7-8 hours, which are spoken about in advertising, only those who buy a more expensive version of the Aspire S3 with SSD instead of the traditional hard drive can seriously count. True, it should be noted here that this is not an SSD so economical, but it simply takes up less space in the case and additional cells of the battery will take up the free space. When I changed my HDD to SSD in my laptop, I noticed a 10% increase in battery life on the strength. So - do not flatter yourself.
If the above seemed to you too blissful, do not rush to get angry - now let's talk about the shortcomings. In the Acer Aspire S3 I was, let's say, surprised to mount the cover. It looks very soundly, but in practice the lid shakes from the slightest touch, and during typing it walks back and forth in a fun way. This miscalculation of engineers is noticeable mainly in the off state, and when there is a picture on the screen, you don’t pay attention to his “festivities”. But if you knock on the keys more intensively - you will notice, you cannot get anywhere. I can’t consider this feature for good reason, so we’ll write to bugs.
The second drawback of the design is too noisy cooling system, which makes itself felt even in the typing mode. I respect the desire of engineers to protect the ultrabook from overheating even under high loads (by the way, to dump the MacBook Air processor into throttling is a damn good thing), but probably it was worth finding a cooler or a quieter, or just a sound ... more potent. As a person who has the habit of constantly “doping” your NAS in a mini-ITX package, I know that sometimes a propeller, more than fifty cents, works much quieter with similar efficiency. Of course, Aspire S3 can not compete with a frightened pig, but still I really want to make it quieter when working in complete silence. On the other hand, if you are used to working in headphones, the noise will not interfere. You can output the sound and the built-in speakers, but they are at S3, though relatively loud, but are able to reproduce only the high and a little midrange. Better in headphones.
In this case, the word “Dolby” should not be too encouraging: decent sound from the S3 can only be achieved with headphones
The third drawback is the location of all the ports on the rear panel. No, I understand that the sidewalls are thin and nothing really can be placed there. And yet, my business colleagues somehow contrived and stuck on the sides at least USB ports. And then even to connect the flash drive, you have to either close the lid, looking for the port to the touch (it is completely invisible from above), or turn the laptop to your back, like a hut on chicken legs. Well at least the card reader's nest was placed on the right side, otherwise it would be completely uncomfortable.
All behind
In general, if I had to choose a light laptop for travel, the Aspire S3 would undoubtedly be on the shortlist. Its only serious flaw is the trembling lid. Harm from her, in general, no, and it does not interfere with work. But - annoying. I have already come across a similar and have "just laptops." It remains to check - how are things with ultrabooks from other manufacturers. Well, by the way, it is possible that the new batches of the Aspire S3 will no longer have a bug - it's too obvious and easy to fix.
If I wondered if I could change the Thinkpad on an ultrabook, I can say for sure: I would change the price difference without thinking :) Still, 32-40 thousand rubles (depending on the brand of the ultrabook and configuration) and 60 thousand are felt very -different. If the money is not returned ... So far, probably still not. For my tasks, the Thinkpad fits perfectly, and when I move I will get about the same level of convenience. I envy those who can save a little bit now, but I will not spend time reinstalling programs before the appearance of ultrabooks with good touch screens.
The beginning of the way
Ultrabooks in our market have already appeared decently - at least five models from Acer, Asus, Lenovo and Toshiba. But here I will allow myself a slightly seditious remark: in comparison with real ultrabooks, they are all like a doll or even a caterpillar, and they still have to go through a number of important rebirths before the butterfly state.
Recall that in a software statement for Computex, Sean Maloney talked about a device that combines the functionality of a high-performance laptop and tablet PC. That is, a completely ultrabook should have a touch screen, which is not the case with current versions. Sean also mentioned CPUs made using 22nm technology using Tri-Gate transistors, which will appear only at the beginning of next year. So it turns out that the current ultrabooks are, in fact, just good thin mobile computers that use a number of new technologies - Intel Rapid Start (we already talked about it), Intel Smart Connect (data update in sleep mode), Intel Smart Response (acceleration of the HDD due to caching data on a small SSD, installed additionally or soldered on the motherboard) and a number of other security-related data (they are so entertaining that it is probably worth preparing a separate post about them).
So what are the ultrabooks in a year or two? You know, this is a very rare case when you don’t have to guess or quote rumors. Intel itself announced its plans until 2013, inclusive, which is, in fact, a very unusual step for any industry and for IT - especially. Usually, plans are revealed from strength for a year, so that the client does not even think to save money until better times. And then - as much as three. It seems that a) the corporation is already prepared for much now and b) it is not afraid that in three years it will have nothing to surprise beyond the plan.
So, what awaits us?
In addition to the 22-nanometer Ivy Bridge already mentioned, providing a 30 percent increase in the speed of the graphics core and a 20 percent CPU at the same frequency, in ultrabooks will appear:
- Touchscreens (and much earlier than the release of the “finger-oriented” Windows 8)
- A variety of additional sensors and modules, from simple accelerometers and light sensors to GPS.
- NFC support, which facilitates the connection of various peripherals and, if necessary, turns the ultrabook into a solid looking credit card
- Unique security technologies that extend the scope of ultrabooks.
- USB 3.0 and PCI Express 3.0 (the first is already found in ultrabooks, but in 2012 support for ports of this type will not require an additional chip)
As for 2013, then for this period the plans are a little less detailed, but still there is something to say. Thanks to the Haswell processor family, the power consumption of the system is planned to be reduced to half of the current one. People from the circle of initiates told me about reducing the weight of ultrabooks to 900-1000 grams and battery life up to 15 hours from a completely standard battery. Even if in practice there will be not 15, but 10-12, I agree.But this is no longer a tablet with its initially limited functionality, but a powerful computer on which content can be not only viewed, but also created with complete comfort.
Also among the plans are wireless and secure synchronization of ultrabooks with various types of devices and advanced features for online games and video conferencing. The last point personally gives me a number of questions (where is it better? Really in 3D?), But, one must think, with each month there will be more clarity.
Dots
Probably, many people remember how much interest netbooks on the Intel Atom caused in 2008. I could not even believe that such small and fully functional computers could be so cheap. For three years, netbooks have become faster, more functional, and are still in great demand, although it would seem that almost everyone already has them. Having wondered at cheap mobility, many wanted more: so that you could carry performance and usability at the level of a serious laptop with you and cheaper, please. Ultrabook today is a great option for people who feel like growing out of a netbook. But it will take quite a bit of time, and a tablet will be added to the notebook functionality, which will be systematically developed with the active support of Intel.
And, who knows, maybe those of us who are taking a laptop and a tablet PC on a business trip today can manage with only one device in a year. And those who did not buy a netbook because of insufficient performance for their tasks will finally find happiness with an ultrabook, the benefit next year will be versions on budget versions of processors, which will further reduce the price.
Ultrabooks are a really good idea. The main thing is that the evolution process goes harmoniously and without the furious marketing mutations. We will be able to observe the development of the idea in early January 2012, when at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas will be presented, according to various sources, from 30 to 50 (!) New ultrabooks. With all my strength I will try to prepare from there an on-line report with pictures.
But personally you, dear reader, are ready right now to change a netbook to an ultrabook? And if you have to pay extra? :)
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/133066/
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