Can someone explain the difference between an ultrabook and regular laptop?

[Kim in Appalachia]

So we are looking to buy for my dd18 for graduation a new laptop.  She doesn't want Apple, so that's out.  I was looking at the new Dell XPS, which is nice, but then I was comparing it to the Dell laptop (maybe Inspirion??) 

 

The laptop is cheaper with more memory. Both have 4G RAM, and say that the battery will last 7hrs.  I'm assuming something must make the XPS worth $300 more. But what is it?

 

Just looking at them, I would go with the XPS. I thought it looked pretty.:D  My dd says she doesn't care. I just want something that will hold up through 4 yrs of college. 

[Lanny]

I am guessing at this.  My guess is that an Ultrabook will have very little Storage capacity. That would be one difference. A regular laptop (hopefully one designed for "Enterprise" customers, would hopefully have a better panel, a better keyboard, better components, etc.  The Chromebook may be lighter or have a smaller Panel?  My gut feeling is that the Laptop will have more capability. This ties into the other thread asking about the Leonovo product.   Would you consider a Refurbished "Enterprise" laptop?  In our house we have five (5) Dell Latitude laptops. 3 are E6400 we bought Refurbished from BlairTechnology Group, on Amazon (2) and on eBay (1). They come with a one year warranty on everything  but the battery and a Fresh, Legal, copy of Windows. The other 2 (including the one I am using now) are a later model, E6410, that I bought "Used (Incomplete) from a Seller in PA on eBay.  I had to install Windows on them. One  advantage to a model like the E64xx series is that the Panels are Non Glare.  .  Take a look at a model in a store, designed for the "Consumer" market, at the glossy panel. If one is using the laptop under neon or other lighting, the glare is very offensive. There are other advantages, such as the design, quality of the components used, and the ease of servicing. Parts are readily available.  GL with whatever you buy!

[MaeFlowers]

The main difference is in the hard drive. Ultraviolet have ssd drives. They are newer, faster technology but significantly smaller. My understanding is that they process files differently and don't need the same about of gb/tb. From what I have read you want a hybrid for the best experience. Or an external drive if space is an issue.

[Lanny]

The main difference is in the hard drive. Ultraviolet have ssd drives. They are newer, faster technology but significantly smaller. My understanding is that they process files differently and don't need the same about of gb/tb. From what I have read you want a hybrid for the best experience. Or an external drive if space is an issue.

 

In recent months, I bought two 500 GB hard disk drives for 2 of our laptops (including this one).  I looked into the Hybrid drives, but they scare me. I know which utilities I can use on a hard disk drive, but I have no idea which utilities (if any) can be used on a Hybrid drive.  I assume the manufacturers (Seagate) have Diagnostic utilities one can use on their Hybrid drives.   

 

Also, the drives I purchased (Seagate Thin drives with a 32 MB Cache and 7200 RPM) may be as fast for our use of the laptops we have them installed in as a Hybrid drive would be.

 

SSD drives are much more expensive per GB and they also have their own issues. A childhood friend had a bunch of them in a Server in his house, in RAID.  Mysterious problems that took a lot of his time and the time of the Support people in the manufacturer of the SSDs, before they realized the issue was due to the drives being defective.