Yesterday Intel announced
fourteen new Ivy Bridge desktop and mobile (laptop) dual-core
processors and amongst this announcement also came updated
specifications for Intel's Ultrabook platform. Along with the top
end mobile cpu, the core i7-3520m with a base clock of 2.90GHz and
turbo of 3.6GHz, are four ultra low voltage (ULV) processors that
have the potential to reinvigorate Intel's ultrabook family. Indeed
the i5-3317u, i5-3427u, i7-3517u and i7-3667u all have a TDP of 17W.
This leads to the question of whether these new processors have the
capacity to push ultrabook prices down, increase battery life and
thus take ultrabooks into the mainstream.
What Are Ultrabooks?
While it is likely you
have heard the term ultrabook you would not be blamed for not knowing
exactly what they are. Indeed their market penetration over the past
8months has been rather limited due to the lack of quality hardware
that has been built around the concept. Ultrabooks are Intel's
initiative to tackle the wildly successful MacBook Air. The Air
provides users with an incredibly thin, beautifully designed yet
still relatively powerful machine and compared to many PC laptops
only serves to highlight Apple's understanding of what consumers
want. While such a thin and light computer was not first created by
Apple, previous attempts at building a thin and light PC often
resulted in exorbitant pricing, Sony Vaio Z, or below par
specs. Therefore Intel's aim with ultrabooks was to erode
Apple's market dominance by encouraging manufacturers to use its
processors to produce high quality, well designed and ultimately
highly desirable laptops that could hit a $699 price point and thus
rival the MacBook Air. However, many of the first generation
ultrabooks failed to live up to their billing as MacBook Air
competitors as they suffered from a number of problems including poor
battery performance and expensive starting prices.
Don't Blame Intel
Intel clearly hopes that the release of their new Ivy Bridge ULV
chips therefore provides a new start for manufacturers in their quest
to rival the MacBook Air. Indeed there is good news in the shape of
the new processors' performance. The early signs are that these new
ULV 22nm Ivy Bridge chips pack around 10% more performance than last
years sandy bridge chips whilst also consuming less power. Not only
that, but Intel has included their brand new HD4000 integrated
graphics along with these chips. While still a long way behind a
dedicated graphics solution the HD4000 does provide a nice boost to
ultrabook graphics performance. However, the bad news for Intel is
that these processors do nothing to solve the real problem behind the
first generation of ultrabook failings, the manufacturers.
By taking a look at two
of the ultrabooks from last year we can see a number of the problems
with the ultrabook family, they lack the attention to detail of Apple
products. Take the Asus Zenbook for example. Arguably the best of the
first generation ultrabooks, the Zenbook suffered from flaky touchpad
drivers and a less than ideal keyboard. These are admittedly minor
problems especially as a driver update somewhat solved the touchpad
issues. However, what it does go to show is that other manufacturers
are still missing out crucial details when it comes to designing PCs.
Until the arrival of ultrabooks with touchscreens both the touchpad
and keyboard are the only means by which to interact with a computer.
It is therefore crucial that these aspects are things that
manufacturers focus on and work out of the box without the need for
driver updates. At the end of the day much of Apple's success is
based on its user experience. Taking a look at one of the most
expensive ultrabooks of last year, the HP Envy 14 Spectre, we see
another problem with the first generation of ultrabooks. At first
glance the Spectre looks like exactly what Intel was aiming for when
it announced the ultrabook concept. A thin 14” laptop in the size
of chassis usually reserved for 13.3” inch screens, an exterior
shell made of metal and covered in gorilla glass, with beats audio
and a 1600x900 display. Yet a look at the price shows all that you
need to know about what is wrong with the device. Starting at $1400
the Spectre was twice the price that Intel envisaged ultrabooks could
be sold for. Apple has shown that stunning design has a way of
tempting people to spend more money on a device than its specs would
have you believe yet the difference is that Apple is, at the moment,
the brand in technology.
People buy Apple products not only for the user experience but also
because they are made by Apple and carry with them a certain
prestige. HP launching a brand new product does not have the luxury
of the Apple brand to turn to when people ask why it costs so much.
Furthermore there is a reason that Intel said that it eventually
hoped ultrabooks to cost $699. They understand that PC manufacturers
cannot get away with pricing their products to close to Apple's as
for the vast majority of people Apple will win every time. This may
seem a rather negative appraisal of the first generation of
ultrabooks but the important details here are that if ultrabooks fail
it will not be down to Intel's processors not being fast enough but
rather the manufacturers for not fully understanding what is
important for consumers.
Ivy Bridge, Hope and
the Second Generation
While Ivy Bridge does
not signal a revolution for the ultrabook it does allow manufacturers
to somewhat start afresh and learn from the failings of their first
generation of products. Indeed there are certainly signs that
manufacturers seem to have taken criticism on board and look likely
to finally produce machines that are capable of rivalling Apple's
MacBook Air line up. The new Asus Zenbook Prime for instance looks
set to challenge the Air. Coming in both an 11” and 13” version
the Zenbook Prime, like its predecessor, is setting its stall out to
be the ultrabook to beat. It has maintained the excellent design and
build quality of its predecessor yet now not only packs a faster Ivy
Bridge processor and better battery life but also includes a full IPS
1080p (1920x1080) screen on both its 13” and 11” inch models.
Finally it seems that manufacturers are grasping how important screen
resolution is to users. Apple is likely to give its Air line up a
resolution bump when the new MacBook Pro and Air are expected to be
announced on 11th June but it is good to see that Asus is
not waiting to let Apple set the trend for increased resolutions on
ultra-portables. Indeed there is certainly hope for Intel's
Ultrabooks. Intel have recently said that they have 110 ultrabook
projects currently worked on. Whether or not such a large number of
products will sully the ultrabook brand is an issue for another day
but as it stands it certainly looks promising for Ivy Bridge and the
second generation of ultrabooks.
While Ivy Bridge does
not bring enough of a performance or battery life leap to
automatically revitalise the ultrabook market the fact that it is
coinciding with the second generation of ultrabooks bodes well for
the platform as a whole. Not all manufacturers seemed to have build
upon the feedback of users and critics alike, looking at you Envy
Spectre XT, but the fact that some are certainly shows that
manufacturers are dedicated to the ultrabook brand. There is only so
much Intel can do to push the ultrabook brand as in the end it is up
to the manufacturers to make ultrabooks a successs and with Intel's
Haswell processors promising huge increases in battery life maybe by
next year we will be discussing whether Apple will be able to catch
up to the ultrabook.
Sources
No comments:
Post a Comment