Microsoft laptop partners are ahead of Apple on critical design metrics like weight.<\/p>\n
So, how will that play out in 2014? A snapshot of today’s lightest, edgiest designs should give us an idea (I’ll put aside a discussion of competing operating systems and pricing for this post).<\/p>\n
Weight:\u00a0<\/b>Like\u00a0tablets, generally the thinner and lighter the laptop, the better. That’s what the popular\u00a0MacBook Air\u00a0is all about and the reason the ultrabook was developed — Wintel’s (Microsoft-Intel’s) response to the Air.<\/p>\n
Enter the carbon fiber-based Sony Vaio Pro 11 and 13, which CNET reviewers, accordingly,gave (both) 4 stars.<\/p>\n
“The carbon-fiber-constructed Pro 13 weighs only 2.34 pounds; it’s 2.9 pounds with its power supply, which is as much as the 13-inch MacBook Air weighs on its own,” CNET said.<\/p>\n
In short, Sony’s 13-inch Vaio weighs about as much as Apple’s 11.6-inch MacBook Air. The Vaio Pro 11 even less at 1.92 pounds.<\/p>\n
Then there’s\u00a0Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon\u00a0touch screen, which weighs in at a mere 3.3 pounds, easily one of the lightest 14-inch touch-screen Windows laptops out there.<\/p>\n
What does the future hold? Rumor has it that Lenovo\u00a0is working on an even thinner, lighter carbon laptop\u00a0with a 3,200×1,800 display.<\/p>\n
Sony won’t be standing still either and\u00a0Dell is starting to make some noise\u00a0in this category with the XPS 11.<\/p>\n
Behind the scenes, Intel is playing to the thinner, lighter trend with its newest processors. The power-sipping Bay Trail chip now offers low-end laptop performance in sub-0.7-inch-thick designs and the more power-efficient mainstream Broadwell processor is coming next year.<\/p>\n
Touch screen:\u00a0<\/b>Both of the Sonys above have touch screens, a feature that is (increasingly) conspicuously absent on MacBooks.<\/p>\n
But let’s focus on Hewlett-Packard’s just-released Spectre 13 ultrabook, which\u00a0CNET also gave 4 stars.<\/p>\n
That’s pretty close to getting a 13-inch MacBook Air with a Retina display. (In Apple’s stable of laptops, only the heavier MacBook Pros come with Retina displays.)<\/p>\n
To date, it’s been difficult to squeeze very-high-resolution touch displays into thin-and-light laptops that aren’t priced in the stratosphere. But HP — the biggest laptop maker of them all — is proving that that hurdle has been overcome.<\/p>\n
The Spectre 13 also boasts long battery life, Beats Audio, and an extra-wide touch pad.<\/p>\n
There are plenty of other examples, like Dell’s\u00a0touch-based XPS 13\u00a0and Toshiba’s Kirabook.<\/p>\n
Hybrid\/2-in-1:\u00a0<\/b>This is probably the most interesting\u00a0Windows 8.1\u00a0laptop category right now — and Apple, for now, appears to be steering clear of hybrid designs.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Surface Pro 2\u00a0is the most prominent hybrid — truly a laptop in tablet clothing. It packs a mainstream Core i5 “Haswell” ultrabook processor and is\u00a0competitive with the MacBook Air\u00a0in some benchmarks and beats Windows ultrabooks too in some cases.<\/p>\n
Other recent examples include the\u00a0Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 2\u00a0convertible, the\u00a0Dell Venue 11 Protablet-laptop detachable, and the\u00a0HP Spectre 13 x2\u00a0detachable.<\/p>\n
Overall, the Windows 8.1 (8.2) laptop and hybrid space should be fertile ground for newfangled designs in 2014. And don’t be surprised if Apple responds with higher-end tablet designs (like thelike the rumored 13-inch iPad\u00a0and\/or a\u00a0redesign of the MacBook Air, also rumored).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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