Travelling? I'd very much like to have an ultraportable, especially on trips or even bringing it along with me everyday. And they finally are starting to pack some power too alongside opting for SSD's versus traditional drives. Would I game on one? No, but I'd certianly use one for work.

Although you do bring up a point (mainly my issue with netbooks) is because they were made so cheaply, they suffered in build quality and were honestly, just crappy. Not to mention stuck mainly on super low end processors. But if you look at ultraportables like the MBA, Lenovo X1, etc, they are solidly made, and don't feel like cheap plastic. The funny thing is, in the ultraportable market, the MBA beats most ultraportables in benchmarks and battery life aside from the Viao Z, but that starts at over 2 grand.

If anything, I find massive laptops to be overrated given that my whole reason to have a laptop is for portability and battery life (build quality is another big plus). Unless it was merely a desktop replacement, I'd build my desktop for power then.

Plus with lightpeak/thunderbolt (appearing on Sony Hardware too) you are able to utilize external GPU's if you are docked. I find this far more appealing than carrying a 17"+ laptop like so many people seem to do. So in the case that you would need a desktop replacement, in a year or two you might actually have ultraportables that pack some pretty solid power.

Is this for gaming? No, but some of us work on our computers. ;)

The thing with tablets at this point (Android and iOS) is that they still really are appliances at this point. Tablets are becoming pretty capable, but not as capable as a traditional OS. The problem was there were poor attempts in putting a full OS on a tablet and still stick to a low pricepoint. At the time, this simply was unreasonable to expect it to be smooth. A perfect example would be HP's earlier tablet (I forget the name of their windows tablet), but it was very wonky. This is where Windows 8 seems to come into play and might do well. I still am a bit skeptical, though.

They are more of an accessory device to a desktop or laptop, which works for many people, and that's good. But at this point, my EVO seems to be doing the job that the tablet would do. That's not to say I haven't considered buying a tablet, though. But I have other expenses at this point.

Now with ultraportables, would this be a primary device? Likely not. But you will likely see laptops become smaller and more powerful and desktops keep becoming more powerful. I find this to be a good thing. I was skeptical about ultraportables until now, because they are finally packing Sandy Bridge i5/i7's and SSDs. While not as powerful as regular i5/i7's, they are becoming surprisingly fast for what they do with SSD's.

The problem is, for many (including me) , this is becoming an even more expensive hobby, and we might just be owning a ton of devices either way, lol.

But ideally, for computers, an ultraportable alongside a powerful desktop would be my choice.

I'd also take a look at Lenovo. They are another company I look to for solid laptops. Their higher end laptops are pretty awesome and built amazingly.

If you are looking an ultraportables alternative, take a look at the Lenovo X1. The problem I found in configuring it was screen resolution (the 13" Air is 1440x900 vs the non upgradable 1360x768 on the X1...which the 11" MBA comes with). The X1 also comes standard with a traditional drive, but you can upgrade to an SSD. The advantage is you can upgrade to 8 gigs of RAM. But even then, if price is a concern, you still might be paying more for the X1 depending on what upgrades you make. Still a solid competitor, though. And Lenovo builds their laptops pretty well, aside from their lowest end laptops.

Nice laptop. I'm not sure that's entirely an ultraportable though? It seems to be more of a 13" MBP competitor, but if it hits the middle of both that is actually quite appealing. The current ultraportables with some power competing that I know of are the Lenovo X1, Adamo, and Viao Z, etc. But Asus is another company I like (for laptops I typically would mainly stick to Lenovo, Apple, and Asus) My biggest issue with that would be the 1366x768 screen (which is on the 11" MBA). I just can't use a screen below 1440x900 or I'll get annoyed.

But I also was looking above the $1299 price point with the i7. The one thing that the Asus lacks though, is an SSD, and with Sandy Bridge processors it makes it actually surprisingly fast. The HDMI out would simply be alleviated with a Thunderbolt to HDMI adaptor that you could get cheap online.

But like you, the GPU might become an issue if you do intensive work. At the same time, I would likely do intensive work at a desktop.

At this point, I'm just glad ultraportables are starting to get decently powerful. I never really cared about ultraporables (or netbooks...still don't) until now. I still might hold off on ultraportables for another year or so.