ASUS Paves the Way
Computex was all a-flutter with stories about tiny notebooks dubbed mini-notes. You may have seen the most popular one before: the ASUS Eee PC. In this article we look at new mini-notes as well as interesting standard notebooks from ASUS and others.
While we have already taken a look at the world of miniature notebooks from the ASUS Eee PC to the Eee Box and MSI Wind, there are many not-so-mobile machines that deserve our attention. Unsurprisingly ASUS had a quite a few products on display – the company is simply not sitting still at the status quo and wants capitalize on the attention their Eee line is getting.
First up is the ASUS R50, a UMPC that features Intel’s Atom 2520 processor at 1.33 GHz along with a 32GB 1.8″ SSD drive and 1GB of DDR2 memory. The unit has some great features including 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 and 3.5G cellular networking not to mention integrated GPS and a dual-facing webcam. The screen is a 1024×600 resolution at 5.6″. And you get all of this for a 1.2 lbs weight.
Next up is the ASUS F80S that is an inexpensive 14″ notebook that features a water spill proof keyboard and something ASUS is calling a “palm rest providing (sic) the best touching feeling.” Uhh…sure. Other than that feature you can find the standard hardware in here: Core 2 Duo processors (with Pentium M or Celeron M optional), Windows Vista, GMA X3000 graphics (AMD Radeon HD3470 optional) and DDR2 memory.
You may have heard of the Toughbook – this is ASUS’ answer to it. The B51E is a ruggedized notebook for harsh environments; thing construction, rain forests and just plain clumsy people. The insides are pretty stale – Core 2 T8000 series CPUs, GM965 chipset, standard hard drive and you’ll be tugging around about 7 lbs of extra weight with it.
Yes, that is indeed real bamboo on the ASUS U6V – “performance with environment in mind”. The notebook features a 3.5G wireless connection, the ASUS facial-scan login system and the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M discrete graphics.
The luxurious Lamborghini line of notebooks saw and updated from ASUS as well with the new ASUS VX3. This machine is aimed more at mobility with a 12.1″ screen yet still packs the Core 2 Duo T9300 processor, GeForce 9300M discrete graphics card and up to 4GB of DDR2 memory.
Of course you can’t get a name-brand machine like a Lambo without some matching accessories.
Moving into ASUS’ line of gaming notebooks, we found the ASUS G70S labeled as a “double barreled rig” for some apparent reasons. Featuring a 17″ widescreen display, support for dual-core Intel CPUs, dual GPUs and dual HDDs, this is not your daddy’s notebook; unless your daddy is rich.
Of course ASUS had the various Eee PCs on display as well. From the top: a pretty in pink Eee PC 901 and following it are a couple more shots of the new Eee PC 1000.
Finally, we wrap up ASUS’ new notebooks with a glance at the G50V – the next step in gaming notebook. Inside this system you’ll find a pair of GeForce 9700M GT GPUs, Intel’s top Core 2 mobility processors, two hard drives for up to 640GB of storage and a combo Blu-ray drive.
