Which one is a good buy?
Is it only the touchpad functionality that would make MacBook Air a better choice?
MacBook Air against Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook
Ultrabook is a term Intel coined to describe ultraportable laptops that meet a certain set of guidelines. These machines are less than .8 inches thick and use either a solid state drive (or a cache of flash memory) to boot Windows fast and wake from sleep almost instantly. You should also expect at least 5 hours of battery life. The goal: to make notebooks as responsive as tablets–not to mention attempt to beat the Air at its own game.
Ultrabooks superiority over MacBook Air
They’re Cheaper
While the 13-inch Air costs a somewhat steep $1,299, you can pick up an Ultrabook like the Toshiba Portege Z835 (pictured) for as little as $799.
More Sizes, More Choices
There’s no question that the sweet spot for Ultrabooks is 13 inches. This size laptop is small enough to take anywhere but big enough to be your primary PC.
Additional Port Options
While some Ultrabooks leave out important features like SD Card slots (Dell XPS 13, Lenovo IdeaPad U300), many of our top picks include more ports than the MacBook Air.
Some Models Give You More Storage
MacBook Air superiority over Ultrabooks
Superior Screen Quality
I don’t know where Apple got its displays for the 11- and 13-inch Air, but they’re vastly superior to the vast majority of Ultrabook screens out there.
Best Touchpad
This is what happens when you have total control of the hardware and software. While many Ultrabooks we’ve reviewed have touchpads that offer erratic performance, the glass trackpad on the Air is silky smooth, dead accurate and reliable.
Comfy, Well-Backlit Keyboard
Friendlier Software
As we learned from the recent Flashback Trojan attack, which affected more than 600,000 Macs, Apple’s OS is certainly not immune to security threats. But overall I find OS X Lion easier to use than Windows 7.
So the bottom line is that ultrabook is a work in progress and I would personally go Macbook Air.
