Acer, Lenovo Asus Tap New Intel Chips for Ultrathin Laptops

by Jeffrey Burt

The new ultra low-voltage chips will enable OEMs to build laptops with a height that is less than a quarter.

Some ultrathin laptops will come in at an inch or less, according to Intel officials

Intel officials said ultrathins built with the new low-power chips — which will span the Core, Pentium and Celeron lines — will not only be thinner, but will offer better performance and battery life than current thin and light notebooks.

Acer is one of several notebook OEMs who are ready to start selling products based on the new chips. Intel is hoping the ultra low-voltage chips will help ramp the sale of ultrathins, which have not gone as quickly as the chip maker had hoped.

Asus’ UL30, pictured, and the UL80, also will be powered by the new chip.

Gateway, with the EC39, pictured, and EC 19, also is gearing up to sell new ultrathins powered by the Intel processors.

One of the demands from consumers of ultrathin laptops is for sleeker, more colorful machines, as illustrated by Lenovo’s U160, pictured. Lenovo also will start selling the U460, which will run on the new chips.

Ultrathins running on the new chips, like MSI’s X350, will not be as powerful as mainstream laptops, but they will have a good balance of performance, energy consumption and price, Intel officials said.