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After Apple announced the incredibly thin MacBook Air back in 2008, the rest of the world has slowly started to catch on. The ‘thin wars’ are now well and truly on, with many PC manufacturers signing up to create ultra-thin and lightweight ‘Ultrabooks’ that use Intel processors and Windows.
In the past year we’ve seen an army of Ultrabooks launch, from manufacturers such as Dell, Sony, Acer, Asus and Toshiba. The latest manufacturer to get in on the act is Gigabyte – a company more known for the excellent motherboards and other OEM computer parts that it makes.
Gigabyte has chosen to enter the Ultrabook market with a bang, announcing its first model, the X11, as the world’s lightest. Now, the idea of the Ultrabook is a super-thin and lightweight laptop that is very portable and powerful while still retaining a long battery life.
However, Gigabyte has opted to craft much of the X11 from carbon fibre, ensuring it is as light as possible. Physically it resembles Apple’s MacBook Air but in black, with both the lid and the touchpad carrying a cool carbon fibre look. The whole thing weighs just 975g, compared to Apple’s 11-inch MacBook Pro which weighs 1.08kg.
Screen size is 11.8-inches, processing power comes from the latest third-generation Intel Core processors and 4GB of RAM, and storage is a speedy yet limited capacity-wise in the form of a 128GB SSD. Connectivity-wise you have Bluetooth 4.0 and a couple of USB 3.0 ports, but due to the svelte nature of the X11, there won’t be a host of other ports, although there is a Mini Display port for outputting picture to a TV.
The Gigabyte X11 is launching initially in Taipei and should be available in further countries as of July. Pricing is expected to be around £800.
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