Is there is still room for ultraportables?

With all the new mini notebooks, is there is room for ultraportables?

for years these models introduced the lightest and most powerful notebooks, and with a hefty price tag. But now when you can buy a 11" computer which is good enough to run your office programs, who needs more than that?

the main problem of the consumer is that the thin and light usually cost
$1500-$2000, but now you can get a compact and light notebook for less than $500.

do you think in the near future will continue to see these ultraportables, or that consumers will ditch them in favor of the mini laptops?

 

Arent most ultraportables 11-13" and netbooks 8.9"-10".

I know it may soundcontradictory, but I was hoping manufacturers would make 11, 12 or even 13" netbooks. That'd be more suitable for school because the screen wouldn't bee too small and more importantly typing will have a full size keyboard.

 

I think the current sizes for netbooks (8.9-10.2 inches) is perfect. The screens are more than comfortable enough to read and use to watch videos and also keyboards are very close to full size. The current eee 1000h has around a 90% full size keyboard-- i hardly notice any difference when typing. The current size hits the sweetspot in terms of battery life, usability and portability.

 

when we see more advanced Atom versions, we will also see much more performance - so how will ultraportables justify their price tag?

 

Current ultraportables use low or ultra low voltage dual core Core 2 Duo processors, noticeably faster than the single core Atom clock for clock. They also have higher L2 cache and other features.

They also typically have the same size or slightly larger screens, but with higher resolutions (eg. 1280x768 vs 1024x600 in most netbooks).

Most ultraportables also have a built in DVD drive unlike netbooks.

But I agree that for what most people do with their ultraportables, netbooks will still be fast enough.

80% of the time, I surf the internet on my $1500 Vaio TZ when a $400 netbook can do just fine, I can live with the smaller screen and resolution with all the money left over.

If I didn't have my Vaio TZ or was in the market again, I'd get a netbook for sure.

 

Here's one of the bigger of the next crop of ultra-portables.

John

 

I'm expecting the netbook market to grow closer to the ultraportable market.

It won't be long before we start seeing higher resolution and dual Atoms on the 10" netbooks. Dell leaked specs for a 12" netbook but it has been quiet around it for a while.

I'm still hoping for more 12" options as 10" is too small in my experience.

 

As long as netbooks use crappy lcds with terrible resolutions, there will always be a place for ultraportables.

 

I think netbooks are the way, when LCDs in those sizes get cheaper and with better resolutions, with the processor technology advancing as fast as its going right now, with dual core chips like the Atom with better power management, and software less demanding, (like XP used to offer) the subnotebook market will outreach the niche ultraportable notebooks have today.

 

What is crappy about the LED screens that most netbooks use (like my EEE 901)? The resolution may not be great, but it is fine for the price.

 

That's right, it's fine for the price. If someone wants something better in what's pretty close to the same form factor, someone's bound to offer it for more money...

 

Otellini (Intel CEO) was asked about this in the last earnings report conference call and he said that netbooks weren't what you or I (I think that he was referring to the financial analysts in the conference call) would use implying that their computing power would be lower than what we're used to. So they are after a certain market which they believe will be a new market.

The Atom chips are tiny and I think that Otellini hinted that margins on Atom chips will be better than they are on Pentium and Celeron chips so Intel will have no problem with Atom chips taking the low-end of the Core lineup.

From a personal perspective, I have a Dell XPS M1330 at 2.0 Ghz that cost $1,000 which I use when travelling and that's about the low-end of the performance curve that I'm comfortable with - at least running Vista.

 

Ohhh..That is nice...very sleek, streamlined and *slim*
Thanks for linking to the thread, John!


Cin

 

There will always be room for price differentiation. I'm sure a lot of the lower end $2000 ultraportable sales will be gobbled up by netbooks, but there will be space for both $500 netbooks and $1500 Sony Vaios.

 

I'm not sure that's will happen. As LCD on netbooks is getting better, I think that most people won't shell out $1000 more just for performance. The Atom processors are more than enough for daily tasks.

 

OK, explain Dell XPS, Falcon NW and Voodoo (bought by HP?) to me. People will always want to pay more for performance and status.