Laptop or Ultrabook—Which Is Right For You?

The market for laptops is getting more crowded by the minute. Popular products such as new Sony, HP and Dell laptops are flying off the shelves. There are so many choices out there that it's enough to give you a headache just thinking about selecting the right one for you. Of course you've heard of the standard laptop, but in more recent years we've also seen the rise of netbooks and ultrabooks. How do you know which one of these is right for you? Let's compare standard laptops and ultrabooks. Netbooks are starting to go out of style as they are very underpowered and there's not a lot you can do with them because their functions are not very versatile. The first thing you'll want to focus on is what you're going to use the laptop for. If you're going to be doing a lot of video editing or photo editing, you'll probably need to go with a high-end laptop. While ultrabooks are getting more powerful by the day, they still aren't quite up to the level that most multimedia artists need in terms of hardware. Rendering video is an extremely CPU-intensive task and is often performed on top of the line desktops, so doing it on an ultrabook is probably going to slow you down too much to be effective. You also might want to stick with a standard laptop if you're doing a lot of coding and development work in a live VPN environment. This is very resource intensive as well.

If you're not doing any of those tasks with your laptop, you should look into getting an ultrabook. There are many benefits to this new type of laptop. The devices are incredibly slim and light. Some of them weigh as little as a pound. While they aren't powerful enough to do the heavy tasks mentioned before, they can easily do most day-to-day tasks. They are perfect machines for people that travel frequently, as they're not much bigger than a paper folder you would slip in your messenger bag. They have long lasting batteries and come stacked with all the software you'll need to get work done on the road.

Students will also benefit from an ultrabook as they are very easy to transport. You can bring an ultrabook to class very easily and use it to take notes. They usually come with a microphone, so you could easily record a lecture and even transcribe it later. An ultrabook would be best for anyone that wants a very portable machine that doesn't expect to be doing very CPU-intensive work on their device. However, since ultrabooks are newer to the market, there are not as many choices out there as there are for standard laptops. This means ultrabooks are more expensive in general, though high-end laptops are still more expensive. Whichever option you choose, make sure you do research and select what's best for you. It's a great time to be in the market for a new laptop, as there are so many great choices.