Will Ultrabooks replace Business Laptops?
Since Intel introduced a new category of ultra-thin/ultra-light notebooks called Ultrabooks, this category has been consistently evolving and now many popular manufacturers have come up with multiple Ultrabook models. Will Ultrabooks make good business laptops? What are the unique features of Ultrabooks that separate it from the current generation of business laptops? How are Ultrabooks better than business laptops?
Let us look at some features that make the Ultrabooks, what they are –
Basically there are no hard and fast rules, but below mentioned features are the characteristics of most Ultrabooks.
#1 Light weight & Portable – Most Ultrabooks are very light weight (less than 1.5 Kg) and extremely portable. That’s exactly what the traveling businesspeople, who already take so much luggage with them on each trip, want. This also makes it easier for them to take their Ultrabook home and bring it back to the office. Ultrabooks are very thin. Their thickness is around 20-23 mm, on an average.
#2 Solid State Memory – Ultrabooks have SSD’s instead of hard disks. This makes the OS/applications load faster and the system becomes lighter. SSD’s also more reliable as there are no moving parts. Some Ultrabooks may have 24/32 GB SSD (for quick loading of OS and important applications) and Hard Disk Drives (HDD) for bulk storage. HDD’s maybe required to provide higher memory capacity as SSD’s with larger memories are more expensive. Most Ultrabooks have at least 4 GB of RAM.
#3 Longer Battery Life – Ultrabooks are expected to have a long battery life of at least 5 hours on normal usage. Portability with longer battery life is what every traveling business personnel wants.
#4 Low Voltage Processors – Ultrabooks may have ULV processors that are powerful and at the same time have lower power consumption. For example: Intel Ivy Bridge, etc. The low voltage processors used by these laptops facilitate longer battery life.
#5 Compact/Small screens – Ultrabooks are compact and hence have smaller screens (at least for now). The average screen size for Ultrabooks is around 13.3″ but they do come in other screen sizes as well.
#6 Instant Sleep/Wake-up – Business users can just close the lid anytime, open it after sometime and resume working within a couple of seconds. No more wasting of time with slow loading OS, etc.
#7 Other features/limitations – Other features include USB 3.0 Ports, high-speed Thunderbolt port, etc. Limitations include limited port availability (with some models), sealed batteries, no optical drive (DVD/BluRay), not optimized for graphics/gaming. These features/limitations vary according to the manufacturer and the model.
These are some of the striking advantages Ultrabooks have over current business laptops. Ultrabooks are normally priced higher than business laptops and the options available are limited (at least for now). Still, this segment seems to be growing quickly as Ultrabooks offer a lot of value to the traveling businessperson. Perhaps it’s time you consider buying Ultrabooks for the executives in your company?