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Ultrabook and Notebook – Where are the differences?

  • Mar 25, 2026
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"Ultrabooks" - where are the differences to conventional laptops in this relatively new product category? We will explain it to you here.

The Ultrabook Model: MacBook Air

Apple created the MacBook Air , a new product category: Light and thin Laptops, the only with the most Necessary equipped, and thus more convenient to transport can. To oppose something the chip manufacturer Intel introduced the term "Ultrabook", and coupled this to special requirements, the Computer manufacturer such as Dell, Asus or Samsung with their new models must meet to be allowed to use their devices as "Ultrabooks" to certify. These special specifications make the difference to a normal laptop.
Model MacBook Air

The external differences are: Display, Design, and interfaces compared to the Notebook

  • Design: Intel wants to establish with the Ultrabooks extremely portable, compact and high-quality Laptops. Resulting from the requirements of the Design: The Display, with approximately 13 inch sitting normally in a high-quality and lightweight housing made of aluminum (for example, Dell XPS 14), magnesium alloys (Toshiba Kira-101), combinations of these materials, or even carbon, like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1. The housing must be kept very flat and compact, in order to keep the device portable. The Intel limits here are very tight, so, for example, may be a 13-inch not two inches thick. In conventional Laptops, the manufacturers have much more leeway, here are the case less high-quality can be the materials and also thicker, larger and heavier.
  • Display: Normal Laptops are put on display diagonals of up to 17 inches. On the other hand have Ultrabooks rather small screens, the 13 inch, but more often with a high-resolution points and, accordingly, sharper (e.g. Samsung Ativ Book 9). As in "Ultrabooks" most of the time higher quality components are installed, the Displays are also brighter, have larger viewing angles and even behind the Gorilla glass protected (Dell XPS 14 ).
  • Interfaces: The limited space in the compact chassis of the ultrabook effect on the number of interfaces. So most of the Ultrabooks do without a DVD drive and only the bare Essentials: Two USB 3.0 bring-Ports, an Ethernet Port, HDMI and headphone output and SD card reader are Standard. Rare you will find a VGA or Display Port output, not to mention more exotic outputs such as SATA. Here are the Notebooks with a larger variety of connections points. Both Note - and Ultrabooks offer both of course Wi-Fi for Ultrabooks and Bluetooth is, in contrast to Notebooks is always present. UMTS with SIM-card is rather the exception.
Ultrabook top tab, Samsung ATIV Book 9

Processors, graphics chips and memory: differences in internal values

  • Processors: All Ultrabooks share the same series of processors: Intel's "ULV"-series ("Ultra-Low-Voltage") was specifically designed for this device category and are characterised by a particularly low power consumption. At the same time, they are not as powerful as traditional processors in Notebooks. These usually have higher clock rates or more processor cores (e.g., Quad-Core instead of Dual Core).
  • Graphics: most of The regular Notebooks rely on a dedicated graphics card such as the GeForce series by NVIDIA or AMD Radeon models. In "Ultrabooks" is with a few exceptions (e.g., Dell XPS 14 or Asus Zenbook UX302 ) no proper video card installed, here are the graphic tasks of a so-called On-Board graphics chip-done: This is in the processor integrated, consumes less space and power, but it is also much weaker than a regular graphics card. Demanding games and graphics applications push these Chips to their limits quickly.
  • Memory: the speed and portability to promote the most Ultrabooks rely on solid-state drives . These compact Flash memory, up to three times faster than traditional hard drives. So default is Intel, that Ultrabooks have to Wake up in two seconds from Stand-By. At the same time they do not offer as much storage space (only 128 to 512GB). To be installed in larger laptops, which will serve more as a Tower PC replacement, Standard large hard drives with plenty of storage space, where you will also complete a Film or music collections can store, the you need to hardly be on the Ultrabook to Take with you.
  • Battery: Ultrabooks are designed as a mobile Abeitsgeräte, according to long, the battery needs to be runtime. Here is the frugal processor and the SSD hard drive help: top models create a good 8 hours of battery operation, average Ultrabooks are about 4 hours, varying according to work load, but this is still considerably longer than conventional Notebooks. In addition, the new Haswell processor Generation is even more economical and allows for even longer periods. In the case of large, powerful Gaming Laptops, the battery is sufficient, however, - loosely said - just to carry the unit from the living room to the work room.
Notebook Winner Of The Fujitsu Lifebook E743

Huge price differences between laptops and Ultrabooks

  • Normal laptops move in a much wider price range as Ultrabooks. You can find cheap entry-level models starting at 200 euros, but can spend for a high - spec gaming or Business laptop far more than 3000 euros.
  • In the case of Ultrabooks, the price is limited to the bottom is relatively clear: Under ca 700 Euro you will rarely find something, the prices have stabilized for most of the models around 1000 euros to 1100 euros. But even above 2000 euros, you find you still need models who know how to convince with perfect features and a sophisticated Design.
  • Before the purchase, you inform the best at CHIP Online about recommended laptops as well as the test winner in the field of Ultrabook . All the top lists you will find clearly gathered in this page.

Conclusion: Are you an Ultrabook-type?

You take your Laptop to the University, on a business trip or on holiday with you? Here are the Ultrabooks in terms of battery life and speed of play to their Strengths. If your Laptop is rather on the Desk, and even for Performance-hungry tasks such as Gaming or 3D Software is used, then the classic "Notebooks in terms of selection can't be beaten", efficiency as well as the price.

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