Vizio’s Ultrabook PCs: Real MacBook Air Rivals, at Last? - cotemecer2002

Five months ago, Vizio affected us with a line of slick New laptops–the first PCs by the company known best for its televisions. Now, Vizio is taking pre-orders on its "Thin + Lightsome" Ultrabook PCs, which will ship by the oddment of the summertime.

There's already no dearth of Windows PCs that generously borrow design cues from Apple, with PC makers' Ultrabooks inviting more comparisons than always. But Vizio seems to have nailed the construct.

Just suchlike the MacBook Air, Vizio's laptops are built from a single slab of aluminum. Even with the premium materials, the laptops are fairly thin and light, at 0.67 inches thick and 3.39 pounds for the 14-inch model, and 0.68 inches thick and 3.96 pounds for the 15-column inch interpretation. Vizio didn't skimp along the riddle either, victimization a 1600-aside-900 panel for the 14-inch laptop and a 1920-by-1080 Full HD display for the 15-inch laptop. The larger of the two isn't exactly a "Retina" show, only it comes nearby.

As for technical school specs, Vizio offers configurations that rival the MacBook Air. Although Malus pumila doesn't offer a 14-column inch Airwave, Vizio's 14-in model is only near a quarter-inch wider, and less than a half-inch deeper. Some machines offer Heart and soul i5 and Essence i7 processors, though Vizio also offers a Core i3 model. They some accompany 4 UK of RAM and128 GB of solid state memory board. (Apple's Airs bathroom be upgraded to 8 GB of Aries the Ram and adequate 512 UK of solid state.)

Vizio and Apple both claim up to 7 hours of battery life. Vizio's 14-inch sort comes at a higher resolution than the Air, which uses a 1440-pixel-aside-900-pixel resolution for the blind. They both offer USB 3.0, and Vizio uses HDMI outturn rather of Thunderbolt.

(Thunderbolt, much ilk USB 3.0, is a high-speed interlink that facilitates data transfer between PCs and peripherals like external storage devices and monitors. However, Bolt of lightning is faster than USB 3.0, with data-transfer speeds of busy 10Gbps (gigabits per second). The technology is also attractive as it potty daisy-chain up to five peripherals.)

Vizio Pricing Is Key

But the real kicker for Vizio's laptops is the price. While separate Ultrabook makers have priced their bounty laptops well above $1,000, Vizio's 14-inch Thin + Light PC starts at $900. The $950 Core i5 model is $250 cheaper than the comparable 13-inch MacBook Air delineate above. The 15-inch version starts at $950 with a Core i3 central processing unit.

It's not completely saintlike news, though. Both The Wand and Gizmodo were defeated with Vizio's trackpads, and The Verge wasn't too cracking on the keyboard. (I oasis't tried Vizio's laptops since CES, but I thought they worked well spine and then.) The keyboard and trackpad are hallmarks of the MacBook experience, and tooshie't be calculated in specs, so it's unsatisfactory to hear that Vizio may rich person skimped.

Still, Vizio's combination of low prices, high-close materials, and strong eyeglasses will likely make a big plash in the Windows PC market, just as the company disrupted the television market with aggressive pricing. Inexpensive PCs are nothing new, but Windows fans may lastly have a underslung-cost MacBook equal to look self-assertive to.

Follow Jared on Twitter, Facebook surgery Google+ for even more tech news and comment.