first to offer Ultrabook laptop and 3G/4G hotspot bundle to consumers

Today Sprint became the first carrier to officially adopt Ultrabook class laptop computers to their product line.

Sprint is offering consumers that require a wireless Internet connection beyond just Wi-Fi for their laptops the opportunity to purchase a 13.3-inch Lenovo IdeaPad U310 Ultrabook and get a 3G/4G mobile hotspot with free service for 3 months. With the mobile hotspots all you need is a Sprint 3G/4G signal to get access to the Internet on your IdeaPad U310 laptop once you get service setup.

Price wise Intel claims Sprint will sell you a Ultrabook+mobile hotspot bundle for as little as $799.99 with a signed 2-year agreement (price excludes taxes). Since you get 3 months of service free Sprint only lists future service charges for the four available bundles. The cheapest bundle will carry a future monthly charge of at least $34.99 (not including taxes), but there are more expensive packages that offer more monthly 3G/4G data (3G/4G data is what you’ll be using to get Internet access with the mobile hotspots).

If you don’t want to sign a 2-year agreement with Sprint you do have the option of buying everything included in the bundle separately for a higher initial cost. The Lenovo IdeaPad U310 Ultrabook is available for purchase currently with a starting price of $599.99 on the shop.lenovo.com webstore.

It’s worth noting that the base $599 U310 Ultrabook features a 1.40GHz Intel Core i3 ULV dual-core processor while the Sprint bundle model comes with a 1.70GHz Intel Core i5 ULV dual-core processor that will offer slightly faster performance. The Core i5 base model starts at $699.99 on the Lenovo webstore, so it’s still cheaper than buying from Sprint.

As for purchasing your own standalone mobile hotspot you can purchase the units that Sprint is willing to throw in for free online for between $60 and $100. However even if you buy a mobile hotspot on your own you’re still going to need a carrier to provide you with some 3G/4G service for your hotspot. All the major carriers in the U.S. offer hotspot service and some even offer pay-as-you-go data plans for mobile hotspots if you don’t want a contract (the best monthly prices relative to the amount of data you get tends to favor contract customers at some carriers).

Laptop specifications

If you’re not to familiar with the Lenovo IdeaPad U310 or it’s features let me list off the main attributes of this laptop–Ultrabook:

                -Windows 7 comes pre-installed

                - 13.3-inch LED back-lit glossy display with a native resolution of 1366×768

                - Intel 2nd and 3rd generation ULV processing chips. There is one Core i3 2nd gen. chip and the                 rest are either Core i3 or i5 chips from the new 3rd gen. family code-named Ivy Bridge.

                - 4GB of DDR3 memory that runs fast at 1600 MHz speeds

                - 500GB 5400 rpm spinning hard drives come standard, but there are options for additional SSD                 storage if you want more speed

                - Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth built-in

                - Webcam with a microphone integrated

                - The U310 is 0.7-inches at it’s thinnest point and the machine weighs 3.7 lbs.

                - Battery life is estimated at up to 7 hours with the included 3 Cell Li-Polymer battery