best travel sites: Engadget's back to school guide 2012: ultraportables

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Engadget's back to school guide 2012: ultraportables

Welcome to Engadget's back to school guide! The end of summer vacation isn't nearly as much fun as the weeks that come before, but a chance to update your tech tools likely helps to ease the pain. Today we're getting down to the very important business of helping you sift through laptops -- and you can head to the back to school hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back -- at the end of August we'll be giving away a ton of the gear featured in our guides -- you can hit up the hub page right here!

Given their roots -- luxury machines like the original MacBook Air ($1,800) and last year's Samsung Series 9 ($1,649) -- you'd be forgiven if you initially dismissed Ultrabooks as being too extravagant for a college-bound student. Thankfully, though, prices have sunk so low that you can now find a thin, fast, ultraportable laptop for as little as $700. The only problem, perhaps, is a paradox of choice: the selection is already crowded with dozens of contenders, and there are 100-some-odd more models in the pipeline, according to Intel. Fortunately for you, dear readers, we've had the chance to handle or even review many of them, and were able to whittle down the offerings to a handful of promising contenders. Whether you're prepared to spend $750 or $1,400, we have something that'll fit the bill.