Windows 8 is Here

For better or worse, Microsoft's Windows operating system is making its most radical shift in seventeen years. Windows 8 represents the most significant change in its user interface since the move from Windows 3.x to Windows 95.

Inside the shift is not a ground breaking as the move to the NT base with Windows XP. All your old Windows XP, Vista and 7 software will run fine with Windows 8. The difference is a new interface which looks similar to the Windows Phone interface, and is designed with tablets in mind. 

Microsoft is making sure that the Windows 8 personal computers are available at launch and we have already seen three new Windows 8 equipped laptops in the local market.

The first is the Acer Aspire One AO756-887BS, which is a 11.6-inch ultaportable laptop. With an Intell 877 processor and 4 GB of RAM, this laptop will run Windows 8 well enough. The main drawback is the lack of a USB 3.0 port and short 3.5-4 hour battery life. Still not bad as its Php20,900 asking price.

More interesting is the Lenovo's ideapad S405. This one is a 14-inch laptop which weighs in at just 4 pounds making it light enough to carry around on a daily basis Is is just over an inch thick. Inside is a dual core 2.1 processor AMD A6-4455M 2.1 (up to 2.6 GHz on Turbo mode) and 2 GB of RAM. While 2 GB or RAM is enough to run Windows 8, which actually runs fine on even 1 GB of RAM, and upgrade to 4GB is advisable these days. This laptop has all the bells and whistles, including a USB 3.0 port for its asking price of Php27,990. 

At the top end of the new laptops we have see with Windows 8 onboard, is the HP Spectre XT 13-2106TU ultrabook. This is a fairly expensive laptop at Php58,990. But that price does give you an Intel Core i7-3157U processor, 4 GB of RAM and a 128 GB SSD drive. The Spectre XT 13 is just 0.7-inch thick and weighs in at just a hair over 3-pounds.