Ultrabooks are increasingly slipping into an all-too-familiar blueprint, so it’s good to see some companies trying to push the envelope. Gigabyte’s latest design, the X11, claims to be the world’s lightest 11.6in Ultrabook – and, at less than a kilogram, we’re not going to argue.
Gigabyte made its point by unveiling the laptop on a set of scales, and the figures don’t lie: we clocked the X11 at a svelte 973g with the lid open and, oddly enough, at 977g with the lid closed. Pick it up and it feels disarmingly light.
The 11.6in device is milled entirely from carbon fibre, and it looks and feels good. The lid is decorated with a carbon weave, there’s a glossy black finish across the rest of the device and, aside from marketing stickers, there’s very little to ruin the minimalist design. We’ve certainly used more luxurious Ultrabooks – the X11 is coated with a lacquer that lends it a slight plasticky feel – but it’s far from the worst around.
It’s just under 17mm thick, and the base tapers down to a mere 3mm at its front edge – but, despite this, the X11 feels reasonably sturdy. There’s a little give in the lid, which we’d expect, but the base feels stronger – and it helps the keyboard, which doesn’t have a huge amount of travel, feel comfortable.
The specification is decent, too, considering the tiny dimensions. There’ll be a choice of two Ivy Bridge processors, with the 1.7GHz Intel Core i5-3317U and 1.9GHz Core i7-3517U crammed into different models. They’re both low-voltage, dual-core and Hyper-Threaded, with the former turbo Boosting to 2.6GHz and the latter to 3GHz. The screen’s resolution of 1,366 x 768 is what we’d expect from a machine of this size, and it has 4GB of RAM. Storage comes via a 128GB SSD, and Gigabyte promises an upgrade to a 256GB device soon.
There’s plenty to like, and Gigabyte says its X11 will be available in September from a host of UK retailers. The price could prove a sticking point, with the lesser specifications starting at £1,000 inc VAT – and while Gigabyte wouldn’t disclose further prices, we can only assume the Core i7 model will cost more still.
So, are you willing to spend four figures on a laptop so light you’ll barely notice it’s in your bag, or would you rather save cash for another few hundred grams? We’ll have a full review as soon as we get our hands on the X11 but, until then, let us know in the comments.
