Toshiba's luxurious Kirabook is the first Windows laptop to feature a display rivaling Apple’s Retina technology. The Kirabook is also thinner and much lighter than Apple’s MacBook Pro, and it’s outfitted with a touchscreen. While I wish I could report that Toshiba has crafted a masterpiece that fully justifies its $2000 price tag, this machine suffers from a couple of significant flaws.

With a native resolution of 2560 by 1440 pixels, the Kirabook’s 13.3-inch display delivers a pixel density of 221 pixels per inch—just shy of the 227 ppi that Apple packs into the 13-inch MacBook Pro’s 2560-by-1600-pixel display. If you think Apple’s computers are overpriced, consider the fact that a 13-inch MacBook Pro with a 3.0GHz Intel Core i7-3540M processor sells for $100 less than the Kirabook, which runs on a 2.0GHz Intel Core i7-3537U CPU. Apple, however, doesn't currently offer any full-blown computers with touchscreens (the iPad doesn't count).

Clock speeds aren’t everything, of course. The processor that Toshiba picked boasts a TDP (thermal design power) of just 17 watts, versus the 35-watt TDP of the chip that Apple uses. (Thermal design power refers to the maximum amount of power that a computer’s cooling system must dissipate. A lower TDP is desirable for a mobile computer, because it improves battery life. In our test, the Kirabook’s battery lasted an impressive 5 hours, 14 minutes.) The Kirabook’s other key components include 8GB of DDR3-1600 memory and a 256GB solid-state drive. I’ll get into the Kirabook’s performance in depth later.

Photos, movies, and documents look gorgeous on the Kirabook’s display. But when I compared the Kirabook to a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display (Apple doesn’t offer its high-res display on its thinner, lighter MacBook Air line), I found that Apple’s product delivered far better contrast. Both machines rely on the Intel HD 4000 GPU core integrated into the CPU, so I don’t know whether the Kirabook’s problem is due to Toshiba’s choice of Corning Concore glass (which is specifically formulated for touchscreens) or due to the fingerprint-resistant coating on the glass. Whatever the reason, it was no contest: The Retina display produced much deeper blacks.

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Intel revealed key details of its redesigned Atom microprocessor product line this morning. Code-named Silvermont, this all-new microarchitecture marks the first time that Intel will use its 22nm manufacturing process and 3D Tri-gate transistor technology to build a system-on-a-chip (SoC) platform for devices ranging from smartphones and tablets to microservers.

Intel

Intel’s current Atom line is based on the five-year-old Bonnell microarchitecture introduced back in 2008. Although Intel switched from a 45nm manufacturing process to a 32nm process in 2012, resulting in the current Saltwell platform, Saltwell is not fundamentally different from Bonnell.

As a result of the age of their underlying architecture, Atom processors have not been competitive with mobile CPUs based on designs from the UK’s ARM Holdings. The Apple A series, Nvidia Tegra, Qualcomm Snapdragon, and Samsung Exynos mobile CPUs that power the vast majority of modern smartphones (and many non-Windows tablets) are all variations on one or another ARM platform.

Intel

Intel claims that will all change with Silvermont, and that Atom processors based on this new microarchitecture will deliver three times the performance while consuming five times less power (compared to its current-generation Atom cores, at least). “This is not just a tweak of Saltwell,” said Intel Fellow and chief architect Belli Kuttanna and at an embargoed press briefing last week, “it’s a fundamentally new design.” Kuttanna explained that many of the features present in Intel’s powerful Core series of desktop CPUs have been brought over to Silvermont, and that Silvermont SoCs will be available with up to eight CPU cores.

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Plenty of specialized companies out there sell PCs with Linux, but Dell is one of the very few mainstream contenders to have done so over the years. After some spotty initial offerings, it's taken a different approach with its latest Linux PC. Rather than try to sell Linux hardware to the masses, which the company has said typically requires support, it's focusing instead on developers, a savvy group that tends to need less help.

That's the plan behind the $1,549 Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition, an ultrabook that was born via the company's “Project Sputnik” skunkworks initiative last year combining Ubuntu Linux 12.04 Long Term Support Precise Pangolin and the company's existing XPS 13 laptop.

What started out as a pilot project turned into a real commercial product last fall, and earlier this year it got a nice upgrade. We got our hands on one recently and put this latest model through its paces.

A thing of beauty

Visually, the Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition is a thing of beauty. It's thin, sleek, and lightweight, weighing in at just under 3 pounds. With a top cover precision-cut from a single block of aluminum, the silver-toned machine features a carbon-fiber composite base surrounded with a ring of matching anodized aluminum. A comfortable magnesium palm rest features soft-touch paint.

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Intel is expected to announce its fourth-generation Core processors code-named Haswell for laptops and desktops in June, but the company is already releasing teasers that talk about their performance.

The Haswell laptop chip will deliver up to twice the graphics performance compared to third-generation Core processors code-named Ivy Bridge, according to a slide deck released by Intel on Wednesday. The company is claiming graphics performance improvement of close to three times for Haswell desktop chips.

The graphics capabilities in Haswell will enable high-definition gaming and video playback, which will reduce the need for separate graphics cards.

Intel is expected to announce the Haswell chips at the Computex trade show in early June. PC makers are expected to show laptops, desktops and tablets running on Haswell chips at the trade show, which will be held in Taipei between June 4 and 8. Intel has said that Haswell-based laptops may be released around the middle of this year.

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Will the HP Envy x2 evoke jealous thoughts in the coffee shop? Given its sleek, brushed-silver looks and thin clamshell design, probably. Will it stir the deeper emotions that other, faster convertible Windows 8 tablet/laptops do? Sorry HP, no. Still, this thoughtfully designed portable delivers enough battery life and performance to more than adequately fill the roles of both tablet and small laptop.

Light, usable design

The Envy x2 sports a 1366 by 768 (16:9), 11.6-inch display that shows off video well and delivers more than enough usable brightness. The tablet portion weighs a comfortable (given its wide nature) 1.54 pounds, with the 1.56-pound keyboard/port dock bringing that up to 3.1 pounds. All told, toting the package is no great feat. The tablet portion locks into the keyboard dock, and is released via a slide switch.

Most of the EnvyxX2's ports reside on the dock, including a headset jack, HDMI video output, and two USB 2.0 ports. The lack of USB 3.0 or any other high-speed interface for backing up is a minor quibble given the light-use nature of the product. There's also a SDHC car reader, and a large power connector jack. Connectivity (all on the tablet) includes 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, as well as Near-Field Communication, though there are few applications for the latter at the moment.

The tablet portion sports the usual features: a 1080 display-side Webcam, an 8-megapixel back camera, plus an ambient light sensor. There are only two ports--the power jack and the headset jack. With no USB or card reader, you'll need to load or offload data docked or via Wi-Fi. The tablet also has a power button and rocker-volume switch which are placed handily on the back, just a short reach from where your fingers fall when holding the tablet with both hands.

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I was a big fan of Ultrabooks—or at least the concept of Ultrabooks—when they first debuted in 2012. After all, who doesn’t like the idea of sliver-thin laptops that run Windows?

Unfortunately, it seems like the definition of an Ultrabook has since expanded to include any relatively sleek-looking ultraportable laptop—other specs be darned. HP’s latest Spectre XT TouchSmart shows how the definition can stretch in awkward ways. It’s got the look of an ultrabook—and it’s a great look. The touchscreen display is awesome. But the weight puts it closer to a mainstream notebook computer, and it suffers from the shorter battery life (but not the higher performance) of a desktop replacement. It's a luxe-looking laptop for your living room, which may be all some people want, but it's not really an Ultrabook.

Ultrabook look with laptop heft

The Spectre XT TouchSmart still (barely) meets Ultrabook standards. It’s under 0.9-inch thick, it’s got an Intel Core i7 processor and an SSD boot drive, and so on. But it weighs in at almost five pounds--4.96, to be precise, which is a half-pound heavier than a 15-inch MacBook Pro. It’s trying hard to be an Ultrabook, but it’s too heavy to qualify.

It sure looks good, though. HP may have dropped the “Envy” moniker from its Spectre line, but this is still an eye-catching computer. The Spectre XT TouchSmart (we reviewed the 15-4010nr model, which starts at $1400) has a brushed-aluminum cover with lightly tapered edges and a soft-touch, rubbery bottom. Inside, the keyboard deck sports the cover’s same brushed-aluminum pattern. The backlit, island-style keyboard sits behind a large glass trackpad.

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Whatever happens to Dell in the near future, let’s hope that the company keeps making notebooks as nice as the Latitude 6430u. In a world of cheap-feeling merchandise, it stands apart. It’s sedately handsome, ruggedized, remarkably stable in your hand and on the table, and a tactile joy to use. It’s also fast and available with a wide variety of warranty and support options, as a good corporate computer should be.

Why on earth would anyone start a review by talking about a laptop’s physical stability and feel? Partly because it’s better than talking about the 6430u’s 4-pound bulk, but also because there’s palpable pleasure in handling a well-balanced unit sporting a silky, soft-to-the-touch feel. The unusually uniform weight distribution comes courtesy of the flat battery pack that occupies the lower front quarter of the unit. That balance makes the unit feel lighter than it actually is.

The 6430u’s heft also makes it a very stable typing platform, which accentuates the already nice feel of the Chiclet-style keyboard. The keyboard response is a little lighter than a Lenovo’s, but combined with the solidity of the 6430u, the overall experience might actually be a wee bit better—high praise in my book. The keyboard is backlit, and you can control the lighting intensity via a function-key combination. The unit’s touchpad has silky-smooth response, and buttons on the top and bottom reduce hand travel when clicks are required. Even the eraserhead pointing device is well adjusted. Someone at Dell obviously spent considerable time designing the ergonomics.

Our test configuration of the 6430u sported an Intel Core i5-3427u processor, 8GB of DDR3 memory, and a 128GB Samsung PM830 solid-state drive, which helped the unit earn a very capable score of 78 on PCWorld’s WorldBench 8 test suite. The integrated Intel HD 4000 GPU’s game play is mediocre but doable at 800 by 600 or so. There’s no discrete-GPU option, but this is a business machine first and foremost.

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Business travelers willing to give Windows 8 a spin have a noteworthy option in the HP Folio Elitebook Folio 9470m. Attractively slim and lightweight, this 14-inch Ultrabook delivers an assortment of business-oriented features, including a fingerprint scanner, a smart-card slot, and a solid-state drive that boosts performance on any task involving retrieval of data from storage. The battery life, while not outstanding, should get you through a cross-country flight.

The SSD, however, holds only 180GB, which is stingy by current standards. On top of that, the standard configuration’s 4GB of RAM is tight considering that the machine’s integrated graphics will commandeer some of that memory. And with a list price of $1349, the Elitebook Folio 9470m is by no means cheap.

Skinny, light, and handsome

The Elitebook Folio 9470m looks the part of a road warrior’s faithful companion. Encased in a silvery magnesium alloy with a soft-touch finish, it measures only about 0.75 inch thick and weighs less than 3.75 pounds (without accessories), making it no great hardship to carry in a backpack or briefcase.

Flip open the lid, and you see a backlit island Chiclet-style keyboard with black keys set into a platen the same color as the case. HP provides all sorts of navigation options; my personal preference is the responsive, rubbery gray joystick set into the keyboard, but the laptop also has a multitouch-enabled touchpad with two sets of left and right mouse buttons (one set on the top edge of the touchpad and the other at the bottom). The keys are large and well spaced, but typing feels a bit mushy, and the keys lack sculptured contours to keep your fingers from slipping.

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Windows 8 opens up some interesting design possibilities for computing devices, and Acer's Iconia W700 epitomizes the hybrid desktop/tablet or modular small PC possibility. The W700 can be used as a normal Windows 8 tablet, but ships with a docking station/stand and Bluetooth keyboard that allow you to use it as you would a normal touchscreen PC. It's a good idea that, unfortunately, isn't perfectly implemented.

PCWorld earlier took a close look at an engineering sample of the W700. This review is based on shipping hardware.

Design and Usability

Measuring 11.6-inches wide by 7.5-inches tall and a little less than a half-inch thick, the tablet portion of the W700 is larger than average. Weighing in at 2.1 pounds, this is not a tablet that is comfortable to hold for extended periods, so rest it on your stomach if you plan to read War and Peace.

The W700 controls are the standard Windows tablet variety. On the right side is the power button and rocker volume control. On the front, there's the Windows 8 button for switching between the Metro interface and desktop mode.

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A year and a half ago, the Acer M5-481PT would have been a revelation. A Windows 8 Ultrabook, the M5 sports a third-generation Intel Core i5-3317U processor, 6GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive (with 20GB SSD cache), a 14-inch 10-point multitouch screen, and a DVD-RW drive. It’s an impressively robust hardware package, especially for its budget pricetag of $800.

Now, in the age of ultra-portability and high-end laptop performance, however, the M5-481PT feels just a bit too big, a bit too heavy, a bit too slow, and a bit too dull to be properly labeled as an Ultrabook.

Design and Usability

The Acer M5-481PT technically meets Intel’s Ultrabook design specifications—but just barely. Eschewing the wedge design of smaller Ultrabooks, the M5 stands at a uniform height of 0.9 inches tall on all sides. Though not ugly by any means, the best word to describe the M5's overall design would be “solid.” Solid in its durability, solid in its aesthetics, solid in its build quality. Solid as a rock…but also dull and heavy as a rock. Though not as hefty as a performance machine, the M5 weighs in at a substantial 4.5 pounds, and over 5.2 pounds including the power brick. The touch-screen and the optical drive certainly contribute to the weight, making the M5 one of the heavier Ultrabooks around, especially in its performance range.

The M5's keyboard is the highlight of the build—quite literally, including a nice-looking and useful backlight. The keys are big, well-spaced, and responsive, allowing for fast, accurate, and comfortable typing.

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Lenovo’s ThinkPad Twist is the latest in a string of Windows 8-running tablet-laptop hybrids, and it’s a little different from the competition. Mainly, it’s a business-oriented tablet-laptop (excuse me, tablet-Ultrabook) hybrid that stays true (sort of) to the ThinkPad line’s traditional, if somewhat boring, aesthetic.

Like other tablet-Ultrabook hybrids, the Twist has a unique way of converting itself from a tablet to a laptop and back again. This time the screen is attached to the bottom of the laptop with a single, sturdy rotating hinge. You can rotate the laptop’s screen 180 degrees, and then fold it backward to use it as a tablet. This isn’t a new concept – we actually first saw this style of convertible tablet-laptop way back in the early 2000s when Microsoft was trying to make pre-iPad tablet computers a thing – but it’s implemented much better than what we’ve seen before.

ROBERT CARDIN

Our review model, which costs $899.99 as configured, has a third-generation Intel Core i5-3317U processor, 4GB of RAM (3.82GB usable), and a 500GB HDD spinning at 7200rpm alongside a 24GB SSD caching drive. The Twist also has built-in Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, and a slot for a SIM card, for users who want to be connected

Performance

In PCWorld’s WorldBench 8 tests, the ThinkPad Twist scores 47 out of 100. This means that it’s 53 percent slower than our testing model, which is no surprise – our testing model has a third-generation Intel Core i5 desktop processor, 8GB of RAM, and a discrete Nvidia graphics card. The Twist’s score isn’t great – it’s on the lower side of the systems we’ve tested that have the same processor. For example, Lenovo’s IdeaPad Yoga, which has the same i5-3317U processor and 4GB of RAM, scores 60 out of 100 on WB8. Likewise, the Dell XPS 12 Convertible Touch, another convertible tablet-laptop hybrid, score 64 out of 100. The score differentials are probably because those other systems ship with SSDs instead of rotating hard drives.

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Have you picked up your laptop lately? If it's getting long in the tooth, it's probably as heavy as it is slow. Fortunately there's no better time to look for a more portable and modern machine than during the holidays. Even if you can't find a year-end deal on the particular model that interests you, you'll be able to impress family and friends when you whip out your new laptop at holiday gatherings.

Thanks to the performance and efficiency of Intel's Core-branded processor platform, Ultrabooks are gradually gaining in popularity. These machines provide great performance and long battery life, despite weighing less than 4 pounds. They're also a traveler's best friend—slim and light, with quick boot times owing to built-in solid-state memory drives.

That said, if you need more raw power and are willing to compromise on portability, you can find plenty of great traditional laptops. These machines may weigh more, but they also carry larger screens, which are helpful in countless multitasking scenarios.

To help you with your purchasing decision, we've compiled a list of the best Ultrabooks and laptops available right now. PCWorld staffers test as many models as possible—and then we pass our experiences on to you.

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A number of high-powered computers made it onto our Top 100 list this year, but what surprised us even more was that an all-in-one PC had become our overall favorite in the desktops category. And while you'll see plenty of the usual suspects on our list, you'll also encounter a newcomer that wowed us with its first efforts at building both an all-in-one desktop and a laptop.

Maingear Alpha All-in-One (desktop)

Our number three pick overall, the Maingear Alpha's massive chassis accommodates a GeForce GTX 680 video card, a Core i7-3770K CPU, and up to 32GB of memory. You can play today's triple-A game titles, and upgrade every major component to play tomorrow's attractions, too.

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Your living room is no longer the only place you watch movies and TV shows.  Online streaming services, cloud storage and digital media have enabled you to take your entertainment anywhere and made viewing your favorite content more convenient than ever.

Putting an Ultrabook at the center of your entertainment network lets you harness all these technologies so you can enjoy your media where you want, the way you want.

Here’s how: 

Stream your media

That way, you can take it with you anywhere — whether it’s another room or another house — and always pick up right where you left off.  When you use an Ultrabook for this, there’s no need to spend extra bucks for a smart TV, media box, Roku, tablet, or even a Blu-ray player.  All you need to do is connect Ultrabook to your TV with an HDMI or VGA cord.  Then you’ll be sending streaming video to the TV in HD quality. 

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Traditional hard drives, solid state drives, and cloud storage are all vying for your attention, but if you balance your options just right, you can reap the benefits of each. 

In order to maximize performance and efficiency in a very tight space, Ultrabook systems rely on a variety storage options.  Some offer traditional hard drives (HDD), some use solid-state drives (SSD), and some, like the HP Envy 4, have hybrid systems with both kinds of storage.  And of course, you can also supplement your onboard storage with online “cloud” storage.  Here’s a guide to each of those storage systems, and the best way to use each one.

Traditional hard drives (HDD) 

• What it is: HDDs offer affordable, high-capacity onboard storage.  HDDs use read/write heads to record information onto a spinning disk.  Those moving parts make HDDs susceptible to damage from drops and bumps, but the low cost-per-gigabyte means manufacturers can include a substantial amount of storage space. 

• How to use it: The advantage of an HDD is that it provides plenty of local storage that’s always available.  It would be wise to store your larger files and applications on this drive, along with anything that takes up a lot of space, like your music library or video content. 

 Solid state drives (SSD) 

• What it is: SSDs use flash memory instead of spinning disks and moving arms, making them much less vulnerable to damage, likely to last longer, and more power efficient.  They’re also faster than HDDs, making data stored here more quickly available.  But, due to the higher cost-per-gigabyte of SSD storage, devices currently integrate smaller amounts in order to remain affordable.  

• How to use it: The strengths of SSDs are stability and speed, so it would be wise to store your more essential and frequently used files and applications here, like ongoing projects and email clients.

Cloud Storage 

• What it is: The cloud stores your data on offsite servers, allowing you to access it through an online account and synchronize it across multiple devices.  Storing your data online offsets some of the danger of losing files with a misplaced or damaged device.  But, since it requires Internet connectivity to access the cloud, you can run into issues if you lose your WiFi signal. 

• How to use it: Cloud storage provides fluid access across devices and locations, making it great for collaborative spreadsheets, reference files, and documents you might need in multiple locations.  It’s also great for backing up your important data.

The Ideal Storage System 

Given the complementary strengths of each storage option, an ideal setup will use a combination of SSD, HDD, and cloud storage.  You’ll use HDD to store for large files and applications, SSD storage for fast access to your most essential and frequently used files, and cloud storage for backups and anything you’ll need to access on more than one device.  That’s why Ultrabook systems like the HP Envy 4, powered by an Intel Core i5 processor, have hybrid SSD/HDD storage.  And once you sync up your cloud storage account to supplement it, there’s no limit to what you and your Ultrabook can do.

The drive towards dirt-cheap Ultrabooks is getting a big boost with the release of Western Digital’s new ultra-slim spinning hard drive, a barely there piece of hardware that is even thinner than the iPhone 5.

WD’s new WD5000MPCK, as it's clunkily called, is a 500GB traditional hard drive that measures just 5mm (0.20-inches) thick. Part of the mid-range WD Blue lineup, the hard drive is 0.10-inches thinner than the current iPhone and around half the depth of typical 2.5-inch notebook hard drives.

WD says it is able to offer such an impossibly thin hard drive because of advances in shock protection and a motor shaft that can reduce internal vibration and stabilize drive platters. Beyond depth and capacity, WD’s new ultra-thin hard drive features a 5400RPM rotational speed, 16MB cache, 6Gb/s SATA interface, and weighs 0.16 pounds.

What the new hard drive loses in bulk, however, it makes up for in price with an MSRP of $89. At less than $100, the new hard drive is still really cheap, but comparable 9mm-thick drives with a faster rotational speed of 7200RPM are priced around $50-$60.

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We’ve had about six months to play with Windows 8 (like it or not) and with the first generation of hardware designed for the new OS. So now, with PCs based on Intel’s Haswell CPU poised on the horizon, it’s time to take stock of the best Windows 8 hardware available today. You may be able to snap one up for a bargain-basement price as the industry clears out inventory in anticipation of second-gen machines.

Our top picks among first-gen Windows 8 devices offer touch capability, along with something deeper: a new take on what it means to be a tablet, a laptop, or a hybrid that lies somewhere in between. As for desktops, members of the latest generation of all-in-ones provide generous screen real estate for both Live Tiles and touch features. We applaud all of the following machines for the way they’ve risen to the Windows 8 challenge.

Windows 8 tablets: The best and the boldest

Yes, the Surface Pro is the best available Windows 8 tablet. Though it’s not quite the iPad killer Microsoft should have created, it’s a huge improvement over Surface RT, thanks to a vastly better display, Ultrabook-caliber components, and a full version of Windows 8 Pro.

Surface Pro can run all of the legacy desktop applications you need for serious productivity—and run them well, outpacing many full-fledged Windows 8 hybrids. And who doesn’t love its smart industrial design? Its VaporMg chassis still inspires us today, offering a level of fit and finish missing from competing tablets.

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Windows 8 is dramatically different than its predecessors. The colorful, tiled Modern interface was designed with Intel-powered Ultrabooks, and mobile, touchscreen devices in mind. The real value of the Windows 8 Start screen, though, lies in customizing it to fit your needs.

Intel-powered Ultrabooks are designed to make your notebook PC experience better than ever. They’re sleek and powerful at the same time, with a variety of connectivity and security features to make your mobile computing simpler and more secure. Hybrid devices with both a keyboard and a touchscreen, like the Toshiba U925 Ultrabook, offer both the capability of a traditional notebook PC and the mobility of a tablet.

To get the most out of your device, you’ll want to set the tiles on your Windows 8 Start screen so you can see important information at a glance and have easy access to the apps you use most.

You can configure just about any aspect of Windows 8, from the aesthetic elements like the color scheme and wallpaper, to the features that impact productivity like the positioning of apps, and enabling Live tiles for real-time updates on apps like Mail, Calendar, or Messaging.

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The once-hot netbook may have been decimated by the arrival of tablets, but inexpensive, lightweight laptops are showing staying power. The latest iteration in that category is Chromebooks, laptops with Google’s Chrome OS, which is seen as a lightweight OS alternative to Windows for users who do most of their computing on the Web. There is substantial backing for Chromebooks with companies like Google, Lenovo, Samsung, Hewlett-Packard and Acer offering models with different screen sizes and hardware.

A first wave of Chromebooks released in 2011 from Samsung and Acer failed to catch on, but a new wave that went on sale late last year have better hardware and a more refined OS. Typical features include 100GB of Google Cloud storage, Wi-Fi, webcams, and in some models, 3G connectivity. However, IDC suggested that early sales of Chromebooks have been weak, and it remains to be seen if they will fill the void left by netbooks.

Acer’s Chromebook C7

The $200 Acer Chromebook C7 is the cheapest Chrome OS laptop available. It has an 11.6-inch screen and a 320GB hard drive, while other models have 16GB of local solid-state storage. One disappointment is the three-and-a-half hours of battery life, while more expensive models offer up to six-and-a-half hours. The C7 has an Intel Celeron dual-core processor running at 1.1GHz, 2GB of memory and an HDMI port. Like a majority of other Chromebooks, the screen displays images at a resolution of 1366 by 768. Acer maintains the C7 has sold better than expected, and has said it will come out with more Chromebook models in the future.

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Intel held its first quarter earnings call for 2013 on Tuesday, and the Q&A with analysts afterwards was full of bold declarations about how cheap touch-enabled PCs and other Intel-loaded touchable gadgets were going to get.

Intel executives love to talk about how the next generation of PCs powered by Intel processors is going to be surprisingly cheap. And there’s no better time to throw around price predictions than after a round of dismal reports about the future of the PC.

The most interesting price prediction came from outgoing CEO Paul Otellini who said touch-enabled laptops could get as low as $200 by the holidays.

“If you look at touch-enabled Intel-based notebooks that are ultrathin and light using non-Core processors …Those prices are going to be down to as low as $200, probably,” Otellini said. Otellini’s $200 price prediction followed earlier statements from both Otellini and Chief Financial Officer Stacy Smith claiming Bay Trail-powered devices would get into the $300 range. Bay Trail is Intel’s Atom system-on-a-chip that’s due later this year.

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Toshiba is launching a new luxury Ultrabook that's housed in a magnesium alloy case and boasts a 13.3-inch display with native resolution of 2560-by-1440 pixels. In a briefing with PCWorld earlier this month, Toshiba’s group product marketing manager, Young Bae, described the Kirabook as having a “MacBook Pro screen on an Ultrabook that’s lighter than a MacBook Air.”

There’s just one problem with that description: Toshiba has outfitted the Kirabook with an HDMI output that can drive an external display at only 1920-by-1080 pixels.

Apple provides HDMI out on its MacBook Pro, too. However, Apple's machine also delivers Thunderbolt, so it's capable of driving up to two external displays at resolution of 2560-by-1600 pixels each. While the HDMI standard is capable of resolutions higher than 1920-by-1080, when doing so it’s limited to refresh rates of only 24- or 30Hz (4096x2160 pixels at 24Hz, and 3840x2160 pixels at up to 30Hz). Anyone connecting the Kirabook to a 27- or 30-inch display is likely to be disappointed with the image they see on the big screen compared to what they see on the little screen next to it.

Toshiba

It’s a curious design decision considering that Toshiba is positioning the Kirabook as a luxury machine. “We intend to deliver an upscale, premium customer experience,” said Bae. “We will have a dedicated tech-support line for Kirabook owners. Their calls will be answered within 45 seconds. And the device will come with a two-year warranty during which we’ll provide paid overnight shipping on warranty claims.”

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John asked why one Web page "comes up right away, while another takes quite a long time to load."

You can't set a clock by your Internet download speed. A great many factors make one page faster than another. And a great many other factors can make the same page fast one day (or hour) and slow the next.

Most of these variables are completely out of your control. But it's still worthwhile to understand them.

[Email your tech questions to answer@pcworld.com or post them on the PCW Answer Line forum.]

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In the market for a new laptop? Think about the features you’re likely to prize the most: a slim design, a travel-friendly weight, lightning-fast performance, and outstanding battery life.

You’ve just described an Ultrabook. Although the term gets thrown around almost generically in describing modern-day portable PCs, Ultrabook represents Intel’s vision for what a laptop should be: thin, light, powerful, and able to last a good long time between visits to a power outlet.

Also, versatile. Models like the Acer Aspire S7-391 and Toshiba U925t sport touchscreen displays, giving you finger-powered access to some of Windows 8’s best features and apps. And the

Asus Taichi 21, Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13, and Sony Vaio Duo 11 are among those offering convertible designs, meaning they can pull double duty as Windows-powered tablets.

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Laptops used to be simple. Almost all of them had a clamshell design, with a display that folded onto the keyboard. You picked the laptop you needed based on factors like price, weight, and performance. But it's different today: New form factors, different operating systems, and disparate user needs conspire to make choosing a laptop a complex chore.

Do core processor specs matter, or has system performance reached the point where users won't even notice a 300MHz frequency bump? Should you buy a laptop at all, or would a tablet better suit your needs? I'll answer all these questions and more as I explore the challenges of buying a laptop (or something like a laptop) in the age of Windows 8.

Define your needs and budget

Before you pull out your credit card, consider how you'll be using your new machine. Perhaps you do a lot of business traveling, and carrying something lighter than your current 6-pound behemoth would improve your life on the road tremendously. Or maybe you're looking for a shared family machine, or a laptop that you can hand off to a student to do schoolwork on. Or you might want a high-performance system that can deliver high frame rates in 3D games.

Let's look at the main buying factors for each scenario.

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It’s back-to-school time, and retailers are inundating everyone with back-to-school specials, ads, email promos, and even direct-mail offers, all promising the best possible computer deal for your student. The problem is that many of these deals focus on some generic student, failing to address the needs or wants of individual students. Sure, the bargains often look attractive, but before you whip out your credit card, you should spend a little time with your student to figure out what they need.

College students, for example, don't have an easy time buying a computer for school. Budgets can be tight. Space is at a premium—particularly today, when colleges are cramming three bodies into rooms designed for just a pair of students. And computer needs may change due to class requirements.

That’s not to say that high school students don’t have their own needs. Nowadays, high school juniors and seniors face more-demanding curricula, with an increased homework load plus a growing need for collaboration and teamwork. They may have more space than college students, but not necessarily more budget.

Since today’s students are more mobile and more connected than ever, laptops are typically a better choice for students than desktop PCs. Students who require a larger display can always connect to one at their home desk.

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