Natasha Hunt is many things: A philosophy student, aspiring journalist, fashion stylist and part-time Haligonian. She crams a lot into her day and of anyone we know, we thought her mix of expertise and interests would provide an interesting testing ground for the new Intel Ultrabook. A little exhausted from final exams and wayward air travel, she compares the new laptop to a frisbee and alludes to the perks of a solo YouTube party.

Around this time last year, I bought a brand new Macbook Pro after the demise of my old one. In the thick of exam and paper season, I had the contents of my entire computer transferred to this new machine. Barely three days into using it, I got the black screen of death. Everything had to be wiped. Completing an entire semester in a week? Do-able, but certainly not recommended.

So, it was with a certain amount of trepidation that I received the Intel Ultrabook. April, as its unequivocally shown me, is the cruelest month for trying new technology. It is also the most anti-social month; wherein the only conversations I have are with professors and baristas.

An even more terrifying prospect than complete technological breakdown? Switching from Mac to Windows. However, the Ultrabook, the latest in a series of Intel laptops, is all about convenience. No fuss, no hassle––just straight up computing.

Immediately, I was struck by how light it was. I’m a philosophy and journalism student, so it’s standard for me to lug around at least three books, my laptop, and a camera. To call my bag “heavy” would be a bit of a gross understatement. Imagine my relief when I subbed in the Ultrabook for my regular computer, and took that to the library instead!

With its sleek design, and feather-like lightness, it seemed like this computer would break when sandwiched in between heavy textbooks, and dense tomes of modern German thought. Yet, it survived––unscratched and unscathed. 

When studying in my dark, apartment-like cave (often at night with Starbucks in hand), I was soothed by the florescent comfort of this computer’s bright light.

When I wasn’t busy downloading articles from JSTOR (and then reading them in a frenzied flurry), I spent quite a lot of downtime with my Ultrabook. I’m a sucker for online television (so much so that I canceled my cable), so the high image and video quality on this laptop was a bit of a godsend. Watching high definition movies was certainly a cinematic experience, and for someone who frequently refers to themselves as “blind as a bat”, the clarity was certainly illuminating.

There is no DVD player but there is a nifty built-in feature build called Intel® Wireless Display AKA Intel® WiDi. If you have a television, some movies saved on your computer (or Netflix), and an HDMI cable, it’ll be a breeze to hook the Ultrabook up, and watch videos on a bigger screen. Can you say one person Youtube party?

Since we’re still on the topic of online television, do you ever get frustrated with the internet’s long loading times? Even on my Mac, the waits can become excruciating. Computers can freeze, remain snail-slow, or just flat out refuse to cooperate with you. Almost intuitively, the Ultrabook was consistently fast, both in accessing the internet, and loading content. 

Unlike some laptops I’ve used in the past, I could leave this one unplugged for hours. I would pass out on my bed, wake up the next morning (a bit of a hyperbole: it was more like 4-6 hours later), and the thing would still be on. Miraculous? I think so. I’d just press a button, and it’d reboot––no fuss, no muss, no wait time. 

It appears then, that for a student, who’s looking to save space in their book-bag, and use a computer for the three cornerstones of exam-season undergraduate existence (reading, writing, and watching), the Ultrabook is practical, sleek, and incredibly user friendly.

It wasn’t just Natasha who tested out the new Intel Ultrabook, we sent them all over the country. See what Micki in Vancouver, Lindsay in Montreal and Monica Heisey from Toronto have to say. 

Desperately in need of a new computer? Find out how you could win a new Toshiba Z830 Ultrabook(™) powered by 2nd Gen Intel® Core(™) i5 processor.