This is the Dell XPS 13 ultrabook. It sports a weight of 2.9 pounds, the laptop is .71 inches at its thickest point and .24 inches at its thinnest, with room for USB 3.0, USB 2.0, 3.5mm headphone, and MiniDisplay ports (sadly excluding an SD card slot, however). Other core specifications include a base Core i3 processor, 4GB of RAM, 128GB SSD storage, a standard backlit keyboard and the slightly disappointing 1366 x 768-resolution 13.3-inch display, which has been covered in Gorilla Glass for added protection. And yet, there are still more technical terminologies I must speak of: the XPS 13 also has Intel HD 3000 graphics, a 47Wh battery rated for up to eight hours, Bluetooth 3.0, and finally Intel’s SmartConnect, which automatically finds the right network for you to connect to and updates your email and calender, alongside the usual Rapid Start tech.
The XPS 13 ultrabook launches in February starting at $999.
The just announced Acer S5 Ultrabook kicks off the new ultrabook genre that manufacturers are going to push at CES. It’s 13.3-incher that checks in at under 3 pounds, is 15mm thin, offering Instant On functionality, a magnesium-aluminum alloy cover (in Onyx Black), HDMI / USB 3.0 / Thunderbolt (!!!) ports and an SSD for good measure. It will ship in Q2 of 2012, and that’s all we know about it, at the moment. PR after the jump.
Want an Acer Chromebook? Well, now that’s $0 cheaper. Want the Samsung Chromebook? Well, it comes in black now, too. Do you have a prototype Cr-48, like I do? Well then, you’ll be pleased to know that the Chrome OS is getting a face-lift with multiple enhancements and user interface changes to better benefit its look and the coming holiday season. These changes may not be much, but it’s good enough to keep people from being contentious and keeps Google’s PR for Chromebooks look unsullied.
Three laptops launching December 7th: the Envy 15, Envy 17 and Envy 17 3D starting at $1,100, $1,250 and $1,600, respectively. What they all offer you is a really original design that has been tuned to the likes of HP quite nicely this time, and has some great specs to boot (including Beats Audio software enhancements). The Envy 15 will receive an optional 15.6-inch, 1080p Radiance IPS screen panel, built-in backlit keyboard that adjusts to light settings and a great thin design. The entire Envy line will have access to quad-core CPUs, and come standard with six speakers, a subwoofer, HP’s CoolSense technology and support for HP Wireless Audio. The Envy 17, in particular, can be configured with either a 128GB mSATA SSD or dual 1TB drives. And of course all of them have Beats Audio on-board.
After much rumor and suspense, HP will be keeping their Personal Systems Group dedicated to making laptops and desktops — their best profession. It’s a plus for HP’s new CEO, Meg Whitman, and it shows that she, unlike H’s previous CEO, is willing to make decisions that, oh well, I don’t know – make sense.
Got a Macbook Pro this year? It’s time to feel bad already, because they’ve been slightly updated with new specs. To begin with, the AMD Radeon HD 6770M discrete GPU will be the gaming prowess in you 15-inch 17-inch versions. Even better yet, there are some CPU improvements to be examined: the 13-incher gets an with a 2.8GHz Core i7 or a 2.4GHz Core i5 dual-core processor, instead of the previous entry-level 2.3GHz Core i5 (and it also gets its HDD notched up to a minimum 500GB, or max 750GB). The 15-incher now goes up to a quad-core 2.4GHz Core i7 — the same speedy processor that comes in the updated 17-inch variant. And that is that.
With the exact same starting price-point of the Macbook Air, the Zenbooks by ASUS are also designed to function and look like the Macbook Air, specifically in weight, thinness, and with speed. The system recovers from sleep in 2 seconds and is .11 to .67-inches in thickness and weighs 2.9 pounds (the 11.6 model weighs a feather-like 2.4) all with a brushed aluminum exterior. Now, for pricing: the first, Core i5-powered, 11.6-inch UX21 with a 128GB SSD will come up at $999, while the 13.3-inch UX31 with a Core i5-2557M processor and the same 128GB SSD drive will reach $1,099, with the only real “bummer” about these laptops being that they do not have backlit keyboards, unlike all the other Macbook Airs, and that the 11.6-inch version has no SD card slot, just like the 11.6-inch Air, whereas the 13-inch models (both the ASUS Zenbook and the Macbook Air) do have one. The new Zenbooks debut in the States tomorrow. Via: 
