Ultrabook vs Laptop: What’s the Difference?

What Is a Laptop?

A laptop is a portable computer with a built-in screen, keyboard, trackpad, and other accessories. When the lid closed, the device is in rectangular structure and it can easily be carried around. The laptops have been in use for decades and the idea was to use a laptop on your lap, hence the name laptop. You may be interested in laptop vs desktop.

Laptops come in a wide range of forms and sizes. In the majority of cases, laptops have a screen size of 13 to 20 inches and a weight between 1KG to 8KG, depending on the type of configuration.

What Is an Ultrabook?

Ultrabooks are also some ultraportable personal computing devices. They are just a special kind of laptops. Ultrabooks are laptops and they look and behave more or less like regular notebooks in many ways.

However, not all laptops are Ultrabooks. Laptops can get the “ultrabook” title only when they meet a set of criteria set by Intel.

Ultrabook vs laptop

Ultrabooks and standard laptops share many common traits, like the shape and form-factor, the standard body elements (screen, keyboard, ports, hardware) and their overall functionality. But they also have some differences.

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The Design, Thickness and Weight

Common laptops don’t define the screen size, thickness and weight. They can have a screen size up to 20 inches, be up to 40mm thick, and weigh up to 6KG or 8KG.

Compared to laptops, Ultrabooks are smaller, thinner and lighter. According to the standard set by Intel, Ultrabooks are available between 11 to 15.6 inches, and an Ultrabook of 13.3-inch display should have a thickness of less than 20mm. If the ultrabook has a touchscreen, the thickness can be up to 23mm.

Due to the above limits, most ultrabooks weigh less than 1.5 KGs and some Ultrabooks can weigh less than 1KG. To make lighter Ultrabooks, some manufacturers will use materials like Magnesium, Carbon Fibre, Glass etc., which are not as common on regular laptops, unless we’re talking about the higher-end options.

On the other hand, although smaller, thinner, and lighter design is good, I should point out that this kind of design may have difficulty in heat dissipation. Some Ultrabooks may be easy to overheat, especially for those that are designed defectively.

Hardware

Laptops don’t specify what hardware it should use, which varies according to different uses. However, for Ultrabooks, they must use Intel ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) Processors like Intel Core i3, i5, or i7 processor and use SSD Storage or a combination of HDD+SSD.

Due to the use of the above hardware, Ultrabooks have the following advantages:

1. Enhanced battery life: Intel ULV processors are deliberately underclocked, to reduce power consumption and stability. In addition, Intel Corp. has set some regulations in this aspect as well. For example, an Ultrabook equipped with Intel Haswell chipset should have a Windows idle time of 9 Hours and HD Video Playback time of 6 Hours.
2. Shorter boot-up time: SSD is offering better boot-up time. Most Ultrabooks can be switched on in a few seconds or so. But the disadvantage is that the SSD in Ultrabooks may offer smaller storage and you may need to use a portable HDD or Pen Drives to expand the storage.

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Price

You can get a laptop these days for anywhere from $100 to several thousand dollars. And a laptop sold at around $300 or $400 will include basic configuration and features, which are enough for use.

However, laptops are more expensive. The cheapest Ultrabooks sell for around $400 or so, but these laptops are defective. Most competent Ultrabooks start around the $1,000 range.