Intel Having Problems Getting Those Ultrabooks Under $1000

At Computex 2011, Intel unveiled a new form factor of notebook it calls the Ultrabook. Essentially, it's an extremely thin and light notebook that's powered by Sandy Bridge-class processors – not unlike the new MacBook Airs from Apple.

While Acer and Asus have signed on to make Ultrabooks, they may not be able to hit that magical under-$1000 mark that Intel wants – despite having the platform already being subsidized by Intel.

Notebook Italia reports that Acer will launch its Ultrabook in Q4 2011, but it will arrive with a price of four digits. Another source told Slashgear that Asus UX31 and UX21 Ultrabooks will be over $1000 as well, unless a sacrifice is made to drop the CPU down to a Core i3. Models with Core i5 and i7, paired with SSDs, will range between $1000 to $2000.

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It seems that the MacBook Air line isn't carrying as much of an "Apple tax" this time around.

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Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.

43 Comments Comment from the forums

tmk221

it carry intel tax due to no competition from AMD

am I the only one who starts to lose hope about bulldozer?
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well well, now that there's competition on the horizon, looks like Jobs is letting the ole Apple premium drop a little
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nebun

ha ha ha.....get used to it....quality and form factor is going to cost...most companies don't know this...and the same goes for a majority of the people out there
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Thunderfox

Or they could just make it 10% thicker and probably half the price...
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enewmen

I like the basic idea of having large notebook power in a smaller package at a price near $1000. Hope Intel, Asus, Acer, and others can pull it off - but with more ports than the photo suggests. An 11" Llano Ultrabook will also be great.
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I just cant get over the Less is More theory!
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hardcore_gamer

overpriced
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jacobdrj

There are people who work, and travel, but have a hard enough time lugging around their own luggage, and LOVE the idea of carrying '1kg less weight...'

There is a market for this, even if some of the more vocal Tom's Hardware posters are hardcore performance buffs, and therefore don't understand this...

I love my desktop. I pimp it out with the latest and greatest, no matter how much copper I have to strap on to my silicon to keep it cool... But I want battery life and portability (small weight/size) when I am on the road... Every ounce of spared weight counts...
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ojas

i hope to be able to buy something like this or the samsung series 9 notebook (which is sort of like an ultrabook at a high price) at around 1K about 4 years from now, when intel get their 10/14mm processors going. Hopefully SSDs would have become cheaper and more reliable by then as well.

What i really hope ultrabooks manage to do is have gesture support like macbooks (and the samsung 9 series) do, because that + win8 (or whatever)+ 1kg weight + great performance would be really stiff competition to Apple.

I think a 13+ inch ultrabook with all this would just be sooo cool. And they'll be much more than just a fancy thing, they'd be bang for buck for a lot of people, imo.

Keep innovating bitches! :D
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CoffeeDrinker

I think Acer or Asus will be able to get the pricing down only if Intel stops making a huge profit on there products. Intel always has been overpriced. That is why they can try make demands of a lower priced laptop.
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