One of my favorite things about the Asus Zenbook UX31 I reviewed recently was the ultrabooks 13.3 inch, 1600 x 900 pixel display. It’s hard to find a notebook that comes with anything other than a 1366 x 768 pixel screen these days, which seems kind of silly when we’re starting to see 10 inch and smaller tablets with higher resolution screens.
But it looks like the pixel density revolution is about to hit ultrabooks.
The folks at The Verge got a sneak peek at the spec sheet for the next-generation ultrabooks from Asus. The company will launch the new 11.6 inch and 13.3 inch thin and light laptops once Intel’s new Ivy Bridge processors are ready to go, which means we could see the new notebooks in a few months.
It’s hardly a surprise that Asus will launch new Ivy Bridge models of its ultrabooks. I suspect Acer, Toshiba, Lenovo, Samsung, and other ultrabook makers will do the same.
But according to The Verge, the new models will be available with screen resolutions ranging from 1366 x 768 pixels to 1920 x 1080 pixels.
The lowest resolution will be available with an 11.6 inch Asus Zenbook UX21A ultrabook with a standard LCD display. Asus will also offer a 13.3 inch UX31A model with a standard LCD and a 1600 x 900 pixel screen — much like the Asus Zenbook UX31 I reviewed.
But Asus will also reportedly offer 1920 x 1080p pixel Super IPS display options on both the 11.6 inch and 13.3 inch laptop models.
The company is also said to be offering Intel Core i3, Core i5, or Core i7 processors, 2GB to 4GB of RAM, and a 256GB solid state disk. A 512GB SSD may also be available.
Leave a Reply
5 Comments on "Report: Asus Ivy Bridge ultrabooks to feature 1080p displays"
… wow.
I was thinking of trading in my rock-solid trackstick and keyboard for an amazing screen on a Samsung, but if Asus is going to raise the bar like that…
I might need to try out an awful trackpad and shallow keys. 😮 1920×1080 at 11 inches super IPS? I’m dreaming.
Say what you will about the new iPad, but one of its effects will be to spur resolution increases in all other devices. I mean, how many years have mainstream external monitors maxed out at 1920 x 1080?
The industry has been stuck for too long on lower resolutions. I’d expect to see 1920 x 1080 on built-in displays, and as high as 4k x 2k on external displays in the next few years.
Fortunately, Intel and Apple picked the right time to collaborate on Thunderbolt aka Light Peak, which will ensure that these new displays will be snappy.
1920 x 1080p pixel Super IPS display on the 11.6 inch sounds pretty awesome. Not quite iPad awesome, but certainly way more awesome than MacBook Air. Apple will need to rethink its notebook screens (if they aren’t already doing so!).
They already improved the trackpad with a driver update. Now they need a new hardware keyboard. I don’t want to smash my keyboard everytime I type. It’s annoying and definitely going to annoy other classmates around me in lectures.