Samsung, ASUS to take on MacBook Air with new laptops

Apple's current 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air notebooks[Photo credit: Apple]

As MacBook laptops sit at the pinnacle of the market, a number of manufacturers are aiming to take it down. Microsoft started with its attack when it released the Surface Pro 3 that was dubbed as the MacBook killer. Now, Samsung and ASUS will take the wraps off their devices that will also pit against Apple's prime laptop. 

Samsung went ahead and teased the public with a fresh Samsung Ativ Book 9 2015 laptop that is powered by an Intel Core-M processor and Windows 8.1 operating system. The laptop reportedly features a 12.2-inch screen display with 16:10 aspect ratio and quad HD 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution. The screen's brightness is dependent on the environment. 

The laptop is lightweight at only 950 grams, thanks to Intel's Core-M chipset clocked at 2 GHz. Without the fan, the device runs quietly. In addition, the device has up to 12 hours of battery life. Other features of the device are 256 GB SSD for storage, 8 GB of RAM and Intel HD 5300 graphics. 

The laptop was announced alongside the company's all-in-one PC with 27-inch curved monitor. The pricing and availability of the two will be revealed at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show happening next week. 

Meanwhile, ASUS is also gearing up for the release of its own laptop. The company is bound to update its ZenBook series that will most likely be powered by Intel's Core-M chipset. Information about the laptop is still scarce, but details will be unveiled at CES 2015. 

It is expected that laptops are moving toward the quad HD screen panels. There is also a wave of PCs that will be powered by Intel processors. Intel will reportedly unveil the new Broadwell processors this year.

Apple, on the other hand, is rumored to have plans of releasing an updated MacBook Air in the near future with the new Intel chipsets.