Intel believes that we will see Ultrabook prices as low as $699 this summer as a slew of new products are expected to lower prices across the board. In total, the chip giant claims there are 75 new Ultrabooks currently in development that will join the 21 existing models already available for purchase.

General Manager for Intel’s PC Client Group Kirk Skaugen told PC World that prices will dip below $700 in time for back-to-school sales, or roughly about $100 cheaper than existing entry-level models sell for today. Furthermore, Skaugen said that select Ultrabooks will feature touchscreens and convertible displays to accompany Windows 8. The Lenovo Yoga hybrid we saw at the 2012 CES is a perfect example of this.

Intel introduced the Ultrabook initiative last May with the goal of creating super thin notebooks that feature extended battery life and increased speeds thanks to solid state drives. The company has invested $300 million with manufacturers to get the ball rolling in an obvious attempt to compete with Apple’s MacBook Air.

Furthermore, the chip giant has launched a “multi-hundred million dollar” ad campaign that includes television and Internet spots. There will also be “Ultrabook experience zones” in retail stores that will better highlight the differences between these new ultrathin notebooks and traditional laptops.

If you’re in the market for an Ultrabook, it might be best to hold off until models featuring Intel’s upcoming Ivy Bridge processor are unveiled. The new chips feature a 22nm manufacturing process that will allow them to be more powerful while at the same time consuming less power and producing less heat.

Can't tolerate your laptop's paltry resolution after using one of Apple's "retina" displays? Pretty soon you won't have to, according to Intel slides published by Liliputing. The chipmaker believes devices with high pixel densities will wash ashore as early as next year, offering 220-300 PPI on virtually every display-bearing gadget in your arsenal.

It's predicted that handheld devices with viewing distances of 12 to 16 inches will have a pixel density of about 300 PPI, which works out to 1280x800 on 5-inch smartphones and 2560x1440 on 10-inch tablets. For reference, the iPhone 4 and 4S have a resolution of 960x640 (326 PPI) and the third-gen iPad's screen is 2048x1536 (264 PPI).



Systems typically viewed at 16 to 24 inches will supposedly offer a pixel density of around 250 PPI. This will include 11-inch Ultrabooks with a resolution of 2560x1440 and 13-inch Ultrabooks with 2800x1800 screens. Meanwhile, 15-inch notebooks and 21-inch all-in-ones viewed from 24 to 30 inches away will have a resolution of 3840x2160.

Intel doesn't just want to crank up resolutions, however. As part of the increasing demand for higher quality displays, the company believes it's necessary to address all aspects of the technology, including good viewing angles, a high color gamut, cheaper touchscreens, improved power efficiency, as well as thinner and lighter panels.



Liliputing notes that increasing pixel densities is partly hinged on support from Windows and other OSes. Cramming 3840x2160 pixels into a 15-inch screen would make things like text too small for comfortable viewing. To fix that, you'd have to adjust your platform's DPI, but that often produces subpar graphics -- at least on current versions of Windows, anyway. Windows 8 is expected to scale better, especially in the touch-oriented Metro interface.

We already knew Intel planned to ship its die shrink of Sandy Bridge this month, but separate reports by CNET and DigiTimes this week offer a more specific date: Monday, April 23. Intel is expected to yank the wraps off its next-generation processors on that day, initiating Ivy Bridge PC rollouts. It's unclear how many refreshed machines will be offered immediately, nor is there any word on retail availability for individual chips.

We wouldn't be surprised if a few ultrabooks are at least unveiled with Ivy Bridge, though many vendors aren't expected to ship revamped machines until May or June. In a conference call with Toshiba last week, the company said it wouldn't be prepared to discuss its new ultrabooks until sometime next month. Although Ivy Bridge ultrabooks might still be a month or so away, Intel claims there are at least 75 due in 2012.

Intel tends to launch its high-end quad-core products before more power efficient ULV chips, so full-size desktops and notebooks could exit the starting gate a little sooner. An upcoming HP EliteBook refresh has already surfaced and evidence suggests that Apple is preparing to unleash new MacBook Pros (current-gen supplies are dwindling and it's been over a year since the company shipped Sandy Bridge-based machines).



As usual, we plan to publish an Ivy Bridge review as promptly as possible and we're currently working on an overview of the new 7-series Panther Point chipsets. In the meantime, you can brush up on Intel's new processors with the breakdown we posted in early March. The gist of it: Ivy Bridge uses new tri-gate transistors to shrink Sandy Bridge and deliver up to 37% more performance while consuming as little as half the power.

It looks like we could be in for a treat. Industry sources are saying that Intel will launch the die shrink of Sandy Bridge, dubbed Ivy Bridge, this coming Monday, April 23, 2012. Previously, it had been rumored that Intel was launching the new Ivy Bridge April 29, so it will be coming just under a week early.

This has to be one of the worst launches in recent Intel history. Leaked chips and performance "previews" have been running rampant. Even we have managed to get a hold of one of these chips and put it through its paces. Rumors have been running around that a new, thinner MacBook Pro will be launching with the new Ivy Bridge chips.

The launch will be similar to other Intel launches where the high performance quad-core parts come out first. Then they will be followed by the more power-efficient processors destined for the MacBook Air and Ultrabooks. Intel has said some of these power-efficient chips may launch a few weeks later than originally planned.