14 DAY TRIAL // As we write about all sorts of devices, it takes really unusual things to impress us, and we dare say that the NEC LaVie Z ultrabook has some of that unique flare.
We probably won't be so eager to gush over it once the company finally says how much money the Ultrabook is supposed to cost.
For now, though, we'll allow ourselves to react as though we didn't expect the LaVie Z to be as expensive as it is appealing.
NEC didn't break away from the form factor like HP did when it built the AMD-powered Sleekbooks. Instead, it went with the standard ultrabook size: 13.3 inches.
We'd love to start listing all the nice hardware parts, but we can't really do that because the company barely revealed any of the specs.
Even the Intel ULV (ultra-low voltage) CPU was left unnamed, although the company did, at least, say it was an Ivy Bridge model. This, of course, came as no surprise to us, so it doesn't really count.
An mSATA SSD was mentioned in passing, but the need to keep the whole laptop light would have been enough of a hint on its own to imply that the storage drive was a miniature SSD.
At least the photos show an HDMI output, one USB 3.0 port (there may be others), an USB 2.0 connector and a single audio jack, plus a memory card reader.
But now we have finally arrived at the feature that we said was worth gushing over, even if it does terrible things to the price: the case.
Rather than an aluminum enclosure, NEC's LaVie Z has a lithium-magnesium alloy chassis that weighs half as much. Coupled with the small internal components, this boils down to a weight of 999 grams, or 2.18 pounds, for the whole machine.
NEC will release the LaVie Z this summer. We'll spend the time between now and then wishing for an AMD Trinity APU option to be tossed into the mix.
