The new iPad weighs 652 g. The Google Nexus 7 weighs 340 g. Amazon’s Kindle Fire weighs 413 g. The 14-inch Lenovo Carbon X1 Ultrabook weighs 1360g. A 13-inch Macbook Air weighs 1080 g. With the above weights of numerous devices in mind, you can pretty much get a rough figure as to what a tablet computer weighs as compared to a powerful laptop. More than that the Carbon X1 from Lenovo is actually the lightest 14-inch Ultrabook in the world, an achievement which was made from the laptop sporting a carbon fibre build / chassis and super portable design. Wouldn’t it be super amazing then if a company managed to create an Ultrabook just as powerful as Lenovo’s option however weighing in at under 1000 g, less than twice the weight of a new iPad?
One company has done just that. NEC, a Japan based electronics manufacturer who are big within their own country, have partnered with Lenovo and created the world’s lightest 13.3″ Ultrabook. Tipping the scales at just 875 g (yes 875 g!) the NEC LaVie Z is one super light Ultrabook beating in to submission the Gigabyte X11, which claims to be the lightest 11.6-inch Ultrabook in the world. That 11 inch book’ weighs a whole 100 g more than the LaVie z, and to look at this new Ultrabook you’d be hard pressed to find out exactly why.
The secret lies with what this Ultrabook is made from; it sports a unique magnesium based alloy which is just as strong as aluminium, as flexible as carbon fibre however weighs less overall. This has also resulted in the machine sporting terrific rigid build quality likened to that of an Apple Macbook Pro.
Inside the machine NEC have not skimped on spec either. At base configuration, Japan consumers get an Intel Ivy Bridge Core i5-3317U processor (a tried, tested and reliable chip), a super fast 128GB SSD, HDMI out and a built in card reader. Of course, USB 3.0 also makes an appearance here, as part of Intel’s Ultrabook guidelines. Any doubts surrounding the 13.3” display can be put to rest too, as this here Ultrabook packs a 1600 x 900 screen resolution.
So this machine is devastatingly light. It is fantastically built. It is more powerful than many machines on the market. The display features a decent resolution and IPS technology. Are there any downsides? Well no, actually, apart from possible the price; In Japan, the base specification Core i5 model will cost ¥130,000 whilst the more powerful Core i7 version will cost ¥160,000. Roughly that translates to £1030 and £1250 respectably in the UK. For that sort of money you could buy a Macbook Air or even Pro, even even those raved about Apple devices can not match the lightness or portability of this machine, and with exactly the same processor options as the Mac’s, Japan consumers have one big decision to make.
This article was penned and contributed by Jakk Ogden. You can follow Jakk on Twitter or visit his blog at http://www.ultrabook-news.co.uk/.
