UltraBooks are becoming increasingly popular, and cheaper as well. Intel and its partners have worked hard, it seems, to bring the average price of these products down to less than £500.

HP is selling its entry-level UltraBook product, the Envy 4-1010SA, for just £479 with free delivery via its online store, and John Lewis sells a similar model with a two year warranty for just £1 extra. The ultra-portable device is powered by a dual-core Intel Core i3-2367M processor clocked at 1.4GHz with 3MB L3 cache and based on Sandy-Bridge with an Intel HD Graphics 3000 sub-system.

There’s also 6GB of RAM (which means you will need to swap one 2GB module for a 4GB one if you want to upgrade), a 500GB SATA drive spinning at 5400PRM, a 32GB SSD, a 14in BrightView LED (1,366 x 768 resolution) display, an HD webcam, two speakers and a Triple Bass Reflex sub-woofer courtesy of Beats Audio.

Connectivity options include GbE interface, Wi-Fi with Wi-Di capabilities, Bluetooth 4.0, one HDMI port, audio in/out, one USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 sockets and a card reader.

At less than 20mm thick and weighing only 1.8Kg, it earns its UltraBook badge by being able to run for up to eight hours without charge.