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Best Buy has kicked Hewlett-Packard's Folio ultrabook down to a new low of $798. This is happening as HP announces new competitively priced ultrabooks and as rumors about a $799 MacBook Air swirl.

The HP Folio 13 (model 13-1035nr) is now priced at $797.77 at Best Buy. That includes a "Sandy Bridge" 1.6GHz Intel Core i5 processor; a 13.3-inch display, 4GB of memory, and a 128GB solid state drive. (More specs here.) … Read more

Intel's upcoming Ivy Bridge processors are causing a ripple effect in the lineups of laptops everywhere, and HP's freshly unveiled series of ultrabooks, "sleekbooks," and professional slim laptops reveals that thin's spreading beyond ultrabooks.

Of particular interest is the fact that HP's consumer line of ultrabooks is falling entirely into the Envy brand, which was previously exclusive to higher-priced laptops optimized for Beats Audio.

Call them fauxtrabooks, call them sleekbooks, call them ultrathins: these new 14- and 15-inch ultrabooks along with AMD-powered ultrabooklike laptops are bound to create some consumer confusion. But, based on limited time with these systems, they're also likely to make a lot of people happy: these thin laptops are actually impressively affordable. Let's hope it's a trend. … Read more

Logitech's been on a roll with its well-made keyboard accessories for the iPad (the Ultrathin Keyboard Cover is one of my favorites), but there's one big problem with all these accessories: they need their own USB charging cables.

Logitech's just-announced Solar Keyboard Folio adds a clever twist to the crowded iPad keyboard case market by introducing a solar charger. Better yet, the case doesn't look clunky.… Read more

If the ultrabook devolves into a hodgepodge of pseudo-thin, conventional designs, the chances of success are not good.

This may -- or may not -- be on the verge of happening with designs like the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 and even the Hewlett-Packard Envy 14 Spectre.

Though it's been said before, it's worth repeating: a kind-of-thin, kind-of-light laptop ain't an ultrabook.

I've handled the Acer M3, which is being marketed as an ultrabook. Sorry, no way that's an ultrabook. And the HP Spectre? That's a wonderful design in many respects (Gorilla glass screen … Read more

Ivy Bridge will highlight Intel's emphasis on power-efficiency and graphics performance, but one key ingredient will be missing -- Windows 8.

Intel's Ivy Bridge chip is expected to be announced Monday, opening the floodgates for new desktops and laptops built around the chipmaker's first 22-nanometer processor. Generally, the smaller the chip geometries, the faster and/or more power efficient the silicon is. Intel's current Sandy Bridge processors use "fatter" 32-nanometer technology.

How small is 22 nanometers? More than six million 22-nanometer transistors could fit in the period at the end of this sentence, according … Read more

For ultrabooks to succeed, the display needs to approach an iPad's quality or least match that of a MacBook--which uses higher-end displays.

A lower quality display can be a deal breaker for consumers in the age of the iPad, which boasts a high-quality, high-resolution in-plane switching (IPS) display.

IPS and high-quality TN displays offer viewing angles and contrast typically better than those used on most ultrabooks today.

This shortcoming has become apparent in more than a few reviews of the Dell XPS 13 ultrabook, which in almost every other respect is generally considered an excellent design. (Another review here … Read more

With Intel's latest silicon due soon, the chipmaker is cranking up the marketing volume for ultrabooks, saying the skinny laptops usher in a "a new era of computing."

The marketing campaign launched this week is the biggest in about a decade, spanning television, online, and print ads, the company said today. And Intel is putting its proverbial money where its mouth is.

Hundreds of millions of dollars will be allocated for the "largest marketing spend for the company since launching Intel Centrino in 2003," Intel said in a statement. (See first TV ad below.)

Centrino … Read more

A new model in Hewlett-Packard's Folio 13 series is available at Wal-Mart for $100 less than the standard HP price, making one of the most highly rated ultrabooks to date also one of the least expensive.

The online Wal-Mart price is $798, about $100 less than the standard model on HP's Web site.

Wal-Mart's SKU uses a 1.4GHz Intel Core i3-2367M processor compared to the higher-end 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-2467M chip in the $899 model on HP's site.

Everything else is pretty much the same, including 4GB of memory and a 128GB solid state … Read more

Ultrabooks are a hot topic right now, but with so many superslim 13-inch laptops available, how do you choose the best one? It's especially hard in the new pseudo-category, as most of the ultrabooks we've seen are very similar, both in design and specs. For this eagerly awaited Prizefight, we pitted two of our favorite ultrabooks against each other: the HP Folio 13 and the Dell XPS 13.

The Dell has a very MacBook-Air-like design, whereas the HP is a bit more businesslike, but has fantastic battery life. Below, you'll see our laptop experts, me along with Julie Rivera and Brian Tong, rate both systems across several key categories, and at the end, we'll tally up the score and declare a winner. … Read more