Working With the Intel Ultrabook

Back in September I wrote about my first impressions of the Ultrabook I received from Intel. It has now been a couple of months and so I thought I would give a follow up on how it has been holding up.  Well, I have to say that I have been impressed with it so much that I have been using it as my main machine.  It is not only a slim and sexy ultrabook ,weighing only 3.5 pounds, which is great when you travel, but it has really been a power house machine for me.  I have been spending a lot of time lately building Windows Phone 8 applications which requires a machine that supports SLAT (Second Level Address Translation) and this machine does. I have been building an app with a colleague that uses NFC to transfer data from one phone to another (or to another machine) and this has been a great machine to develop and test on.  I will do one more most and talk more specifically about the sensors and that application.  

To remind you, I have Windows 8 Release Candidate as the base install of this machine since that is how it was shipped to me,  and I am currently running Windows 8 RTM as a Boot To VHD.  I originally kept it set up this way because I was working on converting applications that I built using the RC version to RTM.  I tell you this because even running this as a Boot to VHD machine it is blazing fast with the IvyBridge I5 and 180GB SSD even though it only has 4GB of RAM. In addition, since it has a USB3 Port, I am able to show off using my Windows 8 To Go stick.  

Being in meetings all of the time, I find myself using two apps on this machine all of the time.  Skype and Lync.  Although not at the same time as the picture might suggest.  I guess I could.

It has been a great machine for both of these apps.  I used it quite a bit over the Thanksgiving holidays to talk to family across the country.  The fact that is is a light machine made it easy to tote around the house for the different conversations.  The touchscreen works amazingly well and I find myself using it more than I have in the past.  I have a another tablet with Windows 8 loaded on it but I don’t use the touch screen that much.  I think that is  because when I touch it, it bounces back and fourth which makes it not respond as well and honestly a bit annoying.  With this machine, the screen stays solid and allows me to use it as it should be used.  Its funny, its those little things that really start to show up the longer you use a machine.

The one thing that is a bit of a downer for me is that the trackpad is too sensitive.  It is waaaay to easy to make the cursor jump to another locations by brushing it, but to be honest, I find this to be the case on most machines with a touchpad.

I will do one more post on this and talk more deeply about development on it as I dive into the sensors.

Happy Programing – The Sociable Geek

<disclaimer>I received the Intel Ultrabook (pre-release) for free in the hope that I would write about it in this blog. I only recommend things I personally endorse and would otherwise recommend without further consideration. I’m disclosing this in accordance with the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. I also cleared it with my employer (and this is the important part)  and I made sure the agreement said that my review would be my honest opinion. This review reflects my opinion alone, and doesn’t necessarily reflect the views of my employer or anyone else.</disclaimer>