Dell launches Ultrabook for $999

The telling thing for me is that there is not a single image of the keyboard head-on. The keyboard is a make or break feature on a laptop of this size. I fear that not showing any images of the keyboard is indicative of a sub-par experience.

This problem has been solved many a ttimes before. It's not the first 13" laptop anybody has designed. So thogh I'd love to see a keyboard pic, I'd assume it's going to be inline with what's out there already.

Love these new ultrabooks btw. Apple kickstarted it as always and all the platforms benefit.

All I want for Christmas is for a Linux optimized Ultra Book.

So I clicked through this article, expecting something that totally misses the point (like their Adamo a few years ago).

It doesn't match my immediate expectations. Which is good! The machine looks solid. I don't know if I like it more than my Air, but it looks promising.

I keep clicking through. In a machine like this, two things really matter: keyboard and display. As allwein says in another comment thread, they don't show the keyboard head-on. Which is concerning, but I can live with a crappy keyboard if the screen is great. So click click click, I keep on looking for display information.

"A tough yet brilliant 13.3" screen in a compact form similar to an 11" laptop." This sounds...well, I'm not sure what they're saying, but it sounds interesting at least! So I go to check out the specs.

No specs, anywhere. After a bit I realize that clicking "Buy XPS 13" takes me to the (god-awful, ugly) Dell page for the product line, where (if I pick "Customize") I can get some specs. The prices get me a bit frowny, but they're not that crazy. So I look at the bottom-line one, which for my use case is more or less equivalent to my 11" Air except in size.

At last, there it is...WTF? "Silver Anodized Aluminum and 13.3" HD (720p) Truelife WLED Display with 1.3MP HD Webcam".

There we go--there's the "attention to detail is for suckers" Dell I've come to know and loathe. Apple puts a 1440x900 display in their 13" Airs. They put a 1366x768 display in the 11" Airs. I mean, that's just sad--Dell is using a worse panel in their 13" 'ultrabook' than Apple does in their 11" Air. Dell has no excuse.

Somehow, the lessons of "don't make people use screens that suck" is lost along the way to the rest of the laptop manufacturers out there. I am (not very) deeply sorry, Dell, but packaging crap in a thinner, lighter box only makes it thinner, lighter crap.

Because at first glance it will pass for a macbook air.

I don't say that with any bitterness. I have and love my air, but as I find myself using less and less of OS X, and really just living in iTerm and my browser, the real appeal of the Air to me now is the hardware. If the Ultrabook stands up to the Air in quality, I'm seriously considering the Ultrabook + Ubuntu (double-u?) for my next notebook. Also assuming Ubuntu runs well on it, which my guess is if it doesn't now, it will soon.