Fujitsu, Dell 'Ivy Bridge' ultrabooks point to hybrid HDDs

Hybrid storage systems will become common on Ivy Bridge-based ultrabooks.

Fujitsu's just-announced Ivy Bridge-based ultrabook offers a 500GB 5400RPM hard drive with a solid-state drive cache. SSD-accelerated HDDs will likely become a base configuration for many ultrabooks to reduce cost.

(Credit: Fujitsu)

With Fujitsu today announcing new ultrabooks based on Intel's latest Ivy Bridge processor in Japan and Dell's XPS 14 Ivy Bridge ultrabook imminent in the U.S., it is becoming apparent that spinning hard drives are back in vogue for these slim laptops.

The 0.6-inch thick Fujitsu UH75/H ultrabook comes with a Core i5-3317U (1.7GHz) chip, a 14-inch display with resolutions up to 1920x1080, and a 500GB hard disk drive with a solid-state drive cache for the base model.

That last storage specification matches a similarly-configured Dell XPS 14 ultrabook model that is expected to be announced imminently. And already-announced HP Envy laptops.

The model from HP, for example, specifies a 500GB HDD and 32GB SSD cache: that SSD cache is obviously a lot smaller than a pure 128GB or 256GB solid-state drive found in many ultrabooks to date, but not exactly tiny either. (Think of an iPad, for example, with 32GB of flash storage, total.)

Needless to say, hybrid storage systems are not as fast as pure SSDs. In a review of an Ivy Bridge-based HP Envy 4 "sleekbook" (read: bigger, thicker than an ultrabook) with a 500GB HDD and 32GB SSD, CNET Asia said that it "managed to get the startup time down to around 22 seconds by uninstalling or disabling a number of applications. This compares quite well with the 18.5 seconds on the HP Envy 14 Spectre, which uses an SSD. However, it's far from matching the 13 seconds on the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s."

And note that the Lenovo also uses a pure SSD like the HP Envy 14 Spectre.

"SSD-equipped ultrabooks should easily beat the Envy 4 when it comes to a system benchmark such as PCMark 7," CNET Asia added.

Peliculas Online

Sony Vaio L Series all-in-one gets Ivy Bridge, media features galore

Sony has thrown every home entertainment feature you can imagine at its updated Vaio all-in-one.

(Credit: Sony)

Sony has gone all-in on the concept of the home entertainment PC with its new Vaio L-Series all-in-one desktop. Yes, it has Intel's new third generation (Ivy Bridge) Core CPUs, but that's almost besides the point. Alongside those new chips, you'll find Sony has pushed harder than ever to make this PC an all-encompassing digital media hub.

The L-Series has many of the usual features you expect to find in a modern, higher-end all-in-one. It comes with a 24-inch 1,920x1,080 resolution touchscreen, HDMI-input and output, USB 3.0 jacks, and a slot-loading Blu-ray burner.

Amplifying its home entertainment chops is a Bravia X-Reality display engine, the same engine Sony uses in its televisions. The idea is to offer an all-in-one with the best picture quality, which Sony hopes will compel you to truly use the L-Series for entertainment in a dorm room, a den, a bedroom, or some other media consumption space outside of your living room.

Beyond the display tech, Sony has also added gesture recognition via the Web cam, with support for basic volume control and forward-and-back navigation input. I don't expect everyone will find gesture recognition a compelling point. At least we can hope it's better here than with Samsung's TVs.

Sony Vaio L Series all-in-one PC (pictures)

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Specs-wise, the L-Series is mostly competitive with other recent all-in-ones, like the Dell Inspiron One 27. Both have various i5 and i7 flavors of Intel's new third-generation Core chips (aka Ivy Bridge). They also feature Nvidia graphics chip options, TV tuners upgrades and large hard drives (up to 3TB in the Sony).

The one glaring difference between the two is the display size. Dell's screen is a 27-incher at 2,560x1,440, matching the highest-end iMac. Sony only offers a 24-inch 1,920x1080 display. Sony, like other vendors, claims that getting touch on a 27-inch display is prohibitively expensive. I understand it wants to the L-Series to offer a user-friendly interface, but I expect I'm not the only one who would gladly sacrifice touch input for a bigger screen.

Sony has one possible killer feature for its all-in-one lined up for later this summer: glasses-free 3D. Sony says it will offer the option "late summer 2012." For now, the 2D-only model will be available this month, starting at $1,299 with a Core i5 chip. Sony will be selling the systems with a voucher to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $14.99 when it launches later this year.