Could 2012 ultrabooks sport touchscreens?
Do you remember an article I wrote a while back, where I compared and contrasted ultrabooks and tablet PCs only to conclude that they are very different computer devices and that they shouldn’t go one against the other, but rather complete each other…?
Well, as it turns out, I might have been wrong and we may see soon enough a tablet-specific feature introduced to ultrabooks… I’m talking about touchscreens, which might be adopted by Intel’s ultrabooks as soon as next year, according to some rumors from Ubergizmo, and might make ultrabooks further step onto tablet territory…
Ok, there are a lot of ‘’mights’’ and ‘’mays’’ in these opening paragraphs, but that’s because what we are dealing with today are only rumors and speculations, which will be proven true and accurate (or not) in time.
Tablet PCs might become obsolete if ultrabooks manage to squeeze touchscreens into their premium designs.
On the other hand, it kind of makes sense for ultrabooks to step it up a notch, considering that they are pretty expensive nowadays and that they are still ages away from becoming as popular as tablets. And when something like this happens, you have to innovate and try to ‘’crush’’ some of your opponents…
The question that arises right now is whether ultrabook manufacturers could pull a stunt like this and still keep their machines’ current strong points, which are without a doubt the lightweight and elegant bodies.
The truth is that touchscreens add thickness and bulkiness to a computer device, which means that either future ultrabooks will become heavier and thicker than today, or they will sacrifice in terms of performance and will not feature the same badass processors and SSDs as these days.
Also, I personally am afraid that touchscreens might further raise the pricing bar of ultrabooks, as they are not the cheapest feature to engineer and manufacture. And as cool and nice would a slim and strong laptop with a touchscreen might sound, I for one would not pay 1500 or 1800 dollars on such a device…
What about you? Would you consider going for a laptop that is functional as heck, elegant and strong, even though it might cost a fortune…? Or would you rather stay conservative and pick either a tablet or an ultrabook, depending on your exact needs?
