Samsung reckons its Ultrabooks justify the hefty price tags they carry, even if the competition is cheaper.
Speaking to LaptopMag, Won Park, vice president of sales and marketing at Samsung, said the firm believes consumers will happily pay more for the right features, even though Ultrabook prices have reportedly taken a dip in recent times.
Park does admit "it’s kind of an audacious move to go beyond the Ultrabook in terms of price", but Samsung clearly has confidence in its range of thin and lights, and the aggressive pricing strategy it has implemented.
Oh you show off
According to Samsung’s senior vice president of PC sales and marketing Sungwon Song, the company is asking itself, "How can we deliver a product to consumers that they’ll be proud to show off in public?"
Song goes on to explain that Samsung thinks it beats the competition when it comes to the design and manufacturing process, resulting in more expensive Ultrabooks.
All said and done, we were impressed with the Samsung Series 9 ultrabook when we reviewed it, even if it does carry an eye-watering price tag.
Some believe the Ultrabook is nothing more than a fad which will fade in time in much the same way as netbooks fell away, only to open the door to tablet boom we see before us today.
AMD officially unveiled Trinity, the second generation of its A-series APU that is looking to rival Intel’s Ivy Bridge for high-performance chips with low power consumption at an even lower cost.
The Trinity line will launch in five models – three aimed at mainstream notebooks and two targeting the coveted "ultrathin" market, with designs for desktops and all-in-one PCs to follow later on.
The two ultrathin notebook chips, the quad-core A10-4655M and dual-core A6-4455M, use a sparing 25W and 17W respectively.
Additionally, AMD claims battery life lasts up to 12 hours in a "resting" state.
That’s an impressive figure – especially coming from a chip manufactured on the larger 32nm process compared to the 22nm chips Intel adopted for its Ivy Bridge processors.
Piledriving power
AMD is squeezing power efficiency out of a 32nm chip thanks to its new Piledriver architecture.
While built on the less than impressive Bulldozer architecture as a base, Piledriver makes notable improvements in dynamic power management between the onboard CPU and GPU for a 29 percent performance increase over Bulldozer.
This translates to faster startup times – 2 seconds to resume from sleep and 10 seconds for the initial boot to desktop – but also clock speed enhancements.
The quad-core 25W chip has a default CPU speed of 2GHz that can jump up to 2.8GHz in a pinch, while the dual-core 17W chip can bump from 2.1GHz to 2.6GHz.
Speaking of the Trinity’s onboard GPU, AMD will equip Trinity processors with its Radeon HD 7000 line to give it a significant graphical boost.
AMD claims a performance edge against comparable Ivy Bridge processors of up to 150 percent in mainstream games like Starcraft 2 and Dirt 3, though that statistic should be taken with a grain of salt since it hasn’t been substantiated by any third-party benchmarks.
Even so, given AMD and Intel’s respective histories, it’s fair to expect Trinity processors to have an edge.
The final factor for AMD’s Trinity processor is price, which is where the chip shines brightest.
Late to the party?
HP already set the trend for more super-thin notebooks when they announced a series of new Ultrabooks.
And, the Trinity processor may face an uphill battle, with 80 percent of PCs using Intel processors.
What’s more, Intel smartly coined the term "Ultrabooks" for slim notebooks using its low-power processors, providing an easily marketable term for retailers to display.
AMD doesn’t have that yet, with HP adopting the non-standard term Sleekbook for its new Trinity notebook and AMD opting to simply call them "ultrathin notebooks."
There’s also stiff competition from Apple with rumors of a lower-cost Macbook Air and thinner Macbook Pro slated for later this year.
Where AMD can carve a position in the ultrathin market will be through its graphics capabilities, since slim notebooks aren’t typically known for their gaming capabilities.
And if the price is right, AMD shouldn’t be counted out yet.
With all of the rumors flying fast and furious in recent days, there’s little doubt that Apple plans to introduce a new MacBook Pro soon.
In fact, sources now confirm that the company will ditch AMD graphics processors in favor of Nvidia.
According to recent reports, Apple’s forthcoming MacBook Pros will make the switch from AMD GPUs in the current models, to Nvidia graphics to complement Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors.
The swap appears to be directly related to the high resolution Retina Display which is anticipated with the new models.
While a "trusted source" confirmed the Nvidia news, it’s unknown exactly which GPU Apple will be using.
MacBook Pro + Nvidia= The complete package
The most likely candidate appears to be the GeForce GT 650M, an upgrade from Nvidia’s 28nm GeForce GT 640M.
"Apple’s riding the wave of innovation by teaming up with top technology companies it has strong relationships with," remarks MacLife Managing Editor Florence Ion.
"The Mac may not be a gaming machine, but it’s primarily favored by professionals for its software and its technological longevity. Might as well pop in a Nvidia GeForce GT 640M GPU to complete the package."
ABC News also confirmed that Nvidia GPUs will be used in the next generation of Apple’s MacBook Pro. What’s more, rumors claim the notebook will be thinner and lighter than the previous generation and also feature USB 3.0, the first time Cupertino incorporated the faster version of USB.
Apple has yet to introduce a single new MacBook Pro in 2012, so it’s not much of a stretch to assume that updated models are on the way, particularly with OS X Mountain Lion already scheduled for this summer.
Thanks to sources in Apple’s supply chain, we may have some idea of what to expect.
Numerous reports are circulating about a forthcoming 15-inch model that’s not only thinner but also borrows a Retina Display screen from its iOS cousins, with USB 3.0 as the icing on the cake.
Although recent rumors point to an ultra-thin MacBook Pro that could match Apple’s wildly successful MacBook Air for size, sources close to the company’s supply chain now claim a prototype of the next 15-inch MacBook Pro will indeed be thinner, but not nearly as much as one might hope.
Gone is the optical disc drive, which few portable users need in the age of cloud storage services, with the power button being relocated to the keyboard, taking the place of the unnecessary eject key of previous models.
The new, thinner design will likely have another casualty as well, with rumblings that the notebook will be too narrow for a traditional Ethernet port.
New technologies
On a more positive note, Apple is expected to bring its amazing Retina Display to this same 15-inch MacBook Pro, making the leap from the iPhone 4S and this year’s iPad, which is said to feature a "jaw-dropping" high resolution.
Last but not least, Apple could slip USB 3.0 onto this year’s Macs, finally bringing the SuperSpeed USB port natively to Mac OS X thanks to Intel’s newest Ivy Bridge processors.
There’s no word on exactly when a new MacBook Pro might see the light of day, but with OS X Mountain Lion expected this summer, it looks to be sooner than later.
It’s nearly time for WWDC 2012, Apple’s sold-out World Wide Developers Conference, and that means the Apple rumour factory is in full flow.
There’s a difference between a wish list and rock-solid predictions, however, and the internet has more of the former than the latter. So what can we really expect from this year’s WWDC?
OS X Mountain Lion at WWDC
We know about this already: Gatekeeper security, iCloud integration, the new notification and game centres, AirPlay mirroring… OS X Mountain Lion is looking pretty tasty, and it’ll be in near-final form at WWDC.
A launch date announcement is almost certain and a public beta a distinct possibility, but our favourite rumour is that Mountain Lion will be a free upgrade. That’s not as far fetched as it sounds: Apple is giving free copies of Snow Leopard to MobileMe users who haven’t switched to iCloud, and of course iOS upgrades are already free.
WWDC unveiling of iOS 6
This one’s a given: Apple’s on a yearly release schedule for iOS, and the whole thing will be signed off and ready for the expected iPhone 5 launch in October. There are all kinds of tantalising possibilities: more Siri, both in terms of device support and software integration; NFC; some kind of dual-app multitasking for iPads so you can look at two things at once; Apple’s long-rumoured mapping API; and perhaps an improved notifications area with support for more widgets and the ability to access commonly-used features such as Airplane Mode. Can we make our annual request for multiple user accounts on the iPad, please? Thanks.
WWDC hardware announcements
WWDC is primarily a software event, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see new kit: Apple has unveiled important products there in the past such as the iPhone 4 and the 2009 MacBook Pro. There are four key hardware rumours this year: the new iPhone, Retina MacBook Pros, Apple TV and the iPad Mini.
The new iPhone, aka the iPhone 5, at WWDC
It’s coming, we know, but the D in WWDC stands for Developers, not "Dude, it’s the new iPhone!" Unless the incoming iPhone 5 is significantly different from a developer’s perspective — that is, if it has a completely different aspect ratio or other significant hardware change, or if it runs Android — then we don’t think the new iPhone’s going to make an appearance. Others, however, beg to differ.
WWDC unveiling of Retina MacBook Pros
They’re coming, we know, but the big question is when: while OS X already contains a HiDPI mode for retina-style displays, they’re still very challenging bits of hardware to make. The MacBook Pro is certainly due a refresh, but a retina refresh might be pushing it for 2012.
A new Apple TV at WWDC
We’re not feeling this one. Apple TV is still officially a hobby, and while it runs a variant of iOS Apple hasn’t opened it up to developers yet. That may well change at WWDC, but we a significant Apple TV announcement is a long shot.
The iPad Mini at WWDC
It exists, and it’s rumoured for a 2012 release, so why not unveil it at WWDC? Assuming that a 7.85-inch iPad Mini has been given the green light, a June unveiling would generate enormous excitement, annoying Amazon, Android manufacturers and Windows 8 OEMs simultaneously without overshadowing the Autumn launch of the iPhone 5. If Apple’s going to embrace the entire tablet market as it did the digital music market with its various iPods, then the iPad Mini is inevitable.
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