Are Ultrabook computers the next Big Thing?

I think I'm going to have to investigate this further as all my current laptops (minus my Netbook)  are too heavy, and take far to long to boot. Is the Ultrabook the super sleek answer I've been looking for?

By Marc Saltzman

Make no bones about it: laptops are feeling the pressure from the tablet craze.
After all, why would you want to lug around a heavy laptop that's slow to boot up and only lasts a couple of hours between charges? Perhaps the answer is because you prefer a physical keyboard to type on, multiple USB ports or a Windows operating system?
Well, you can have your cake and eat it, too, with the coming "ultrabooks" boom.

An ultrabook is a new category of incredibly thin and lightweight laptops – "ultra-portable," if you will - that also benefit from a powerful processor.
In other words, there's no trade-off between size and performance as there was just a couple of years ago with those inexpensive but underpowered "netbooks."
A term coined by Intel, "ultrabooks" not only have a fast processor to handle demanding tasks – such as online gaming and video editing – but they also enjoy long battery life, too. If the few ultrabooks available today are any indication – such as those offered by Samsung, Toshiba, Acer, LG and Asus - most  will last more than 8 or 9 hours on a single charge. This is close to that of an Apple iPad tablet.

It would be remiss not to suggest the MacBook Air - probably the first ultrabook - had something significant to do with this wake-up call among PC manufacturers.
I believe the increasingly popularity of tablets and the MacBook Air had a direct influence on the creation (and soon, adoption) of ultrabooks, as consumers want something thinner and lighter to tote around, with a high-powered but low-voltage processor.
Ultrabooks also benefit from Intel Rapid Start, a proprietary technology that uses flash memory embedded in the Intel chipset to improve boot-up times considerably. Some models can turn on and be ready for use in 7 seconds.
There are no trade-offs between size and performance but be aware there might be something you're giving up with ultrabooks. Most used SSD (flash) memory instead of a HDD (hard drive), which means less storage for all your programs and files.

Therefore, if you enjoy carrying around many thousands of songs or hundreds of videos you might opt for a laptop with a hard drive instead. Also be aware most ultrabooks do not have an optical drive, so you can't play CDs or DVDs. Personally, I haven't used my DVD burner in my laptop in nearly three years, so I wouldn't miss it.