They are light, incredibly thin, compact, portable and functional. Gone are the days when laptops are bulky and burdensome to carry. Now, people can carry the same functionality in a lighter and more battery-efficient version - ultrabooks.

Intel, the company behind the core processor of many of today's computers, introduced the "ultrabook" category in 2012.

Following the introduction, many ultrabook products came pouring into the market. However, despite the connotation of the term, the laptops under this category are not exactly an evolved version of their predecessors nor are they a mutation.

Intel simply added a spin on this evolving laptop category. Basically, they are battery-efficient, thin and run on low-voltage processors. More interesting is the fact that these laptops were previously referred to as CULV laptops. CULV stands for consumer ultra-low-voltage processors.

However, the company felt this was not a good name for the product. In their words, it does not "sexy." Because the name does not sound anywhere appealing, Intel decided "ultrabooks" should come to light. Thus, a new breed of computers was born.

What exactly is an ultrabook? While companies like Intel have a long list of specifications on their ultrabooks, there are several common traits. These include: a thin frame no more than 0.83 inch, low-voltage Intel core processor and around five to six hours of battery life. It is can also have fast boot capacities.

Throughout the years, several operating systems have been featured on laptops. For ultrabooks, most of them are running on Windows 8 these days. See the following slideshow to see the top picks for ultrabook laptops.

Intel