By Claire Reilly
After the rollout of Windows 8 saw the arrival of a raft of new touch-capable tablets, notebooks and Ultrabooks to the Australian market, retailers can once more expect to see an influx of new products in their stores thanks to the arrival of Intel’s newest processing chip, launched in Sydney overnight.
The 4th Generation Intel Core processor has already been integrated into a number of new products from OEMs including Acer, HP, Sony, Toshiba and Dell, and is set to offer consumers significant improvements in computing performance on older products featuring chips from Intel’s previous generations.
According to Gregory Bryant, vice president, sales and marketing group general manager, Intel Asia-Pacific, Intel has made several key improvements in the 4th generation processor that are designed to bring the end consumer a better computing experience. Intel conducted a “fundamental reinvention” of the chip’s architecture, he said, and that had resulted in several key benefits for average retail customers.
“If I was going to highlight it to my mother or the average user, I would say the first thing is it has the biggest generation-over-generation battery life increase in the history of the company,” said Bryant. “The second thing is we have increased the graphics capabilities of this product dramatically. And then obviously you’re going to see amazingly thin, flexible designs — two-in-ones, even tablets with full core capability and no compromises.”
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In real terms, the improvements to battery life mean 50 per cent longer HD movie playback and more than 7 days of standby battery life — changes that “the average consumer is going to notice”.
Intel has also made “a remarkable leap forward” with graphics capabilities, promising “double the graphics performance of prior generation” processors. Aside from advantages for gamers, the built-in Iris and Iris Pro graphics, as they are called, also support Ultra High Definition playback — this was demonstrated at launch with the live feed of Ultra HD video on an LG Ultra HD TV, which came through a basic HDMI cable from a 4th Gen-powered notebook.
In terms of new designs, the Intel launch showcased a number of new form factors from several major brands, with a focus on thin and super lightweight Ultrabooks, large all-in-ones and convertible notebook/tablet hybrids.
“It’s a pretty exciting time to be in computing these days,” said Bryant. “The lines are blurring between form factors…and they’re also blurring between usages and how people use technology. It brings some exciting new solutions for consumers, and it’s also an exciting opportunity for the industry.”
While retailers and suppliers alike have been attempting to generate buzz around new computing products over the last few months, largely to drive adoption of the new Windows 8 operating system, Bryant said there was plenty of innovation to keep consumers excited and there was still room for consumers to keep buying.
“We have a lot of data that says there are literally hundreds of millions of installed PCs that are four or 5-plus years old. So a lot of those people have not upgraded their PCs in some time.
“This is a huge leap forward, so there is probably more impetus than ever to get somebody who may have been waiting on refreshing their PC device or their desktop or notebook and to get them into a store and to do it.”