The biggest global brand in all of Taiwan is Asus. Manufacturing everything from motherboards to mobile phones, Asus has a rated brand value of over $1 billion. While a good portion of the North American public is only familiar with laptop brands like HP and Dell, Asus certainly has a lot to offer to the world in that segment of the market as well. Heading on over to the Asus booth at Computex, we were shown some of the latest and greatest notebooks that the company had to offer. It seems that they are focused on Montevina and the Eee PC.
Asus G71V Ultimate Gaming Station
By and large, there are two main types of notebook enthusiasts. On the one hand, you have the folks that want a reasonably sufficient machine in the most compact of form factors. These are the people that would go after laptops with screens no bigger than 12 or 13 inches. On the other hand, you have those who are more inclined to look for a desktop replacement. These are the folks that are willing to sacrifice portability for power. I think it’s pretty obvious which segment Asus is targetting with the Asus G71V.
This monster of a laptop gets a large 17-inch widescreen display and it is being marketed as the ultimate gaming station. The LCD panel is said to boast a “quick response time” and “high brightness”, both of which are absolutely needed for an online session of Unreal Tournament. The big screen gets backed by the nVidia 9700M GT graphic engine, a gaming-centric keyboard with special key highlights (WASD), Intel Core 2 Duo processor, up to 8GB of DDR3-1066 RAM, dual SATA HDDs with support for RAID 0/1, and integrated CPU overclocking.
Rounding out the specs are a 4.1 (yeah, really) sound system, Dolby Home Theater, touch sensitive controls above the keyboard, secondary display for “real-time information when used in full screen gaming”, and an optional hybrid/digital TV tuner. I should also point out that the Asus G71V gaming laptop is meant to be a preview of the upcoming Intel Montevina platform.
Asus U6V Bamboo Notebook
One of the themes of this year’s COMPUTEX Taipei is GreenIT. It seem like Asus is trying to do its part by producing the world’s first bamboo laptop. They’ve replaced the wrist rest area on this notebook with a sheet of bamboo; I guess bamboo is so plentiful that the husk probably would have gone to waste anyways if Asus didn’t decide to slap it onto this laptop.
In terms of specs, this 12.1-inch notebook still gets quite a bit of performance. It’s got discrete graphics from the nVidia GeForce 9400M G, optional 3.5G HSDPA connectivity, a biometric fingerprint reader, Intel Core 2 Duo processor, up to 4GB of DDR2-800 RAM, SATA HDD support for up to 320GB of storage, and an 8-in-1 card reader. Also, the VGA webcam can be used with the intelligent Asus SmartLogon facial scan technology. Don’t worry. Everything stays safe with all this “top data security” via the Asus Security Protect Manager.
The Asus U6V Bamboo (as well as its non-bamboo counterparts) is also a preview of the Intel Montevina platform.
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Asus G50V Notebook with 3D Display
As you can probably guess, the Asus G50V is yet another laptop from the Taiwanese giant that previews the Intel Montevina platform. This gaming notebook is said to provide “extreme graphic performance” and this extreme-ness is taken to the third dimension. The model being showcased at COMPUTEX Taipei featured an LCD display with 3D technology. This obviously doesn’t reproduce very well through still pictures, but in person, you do get a sense of the three dimensions. Your eyes need to be a certain distance away and the horizontal viewing angle is quite narrow, but the 3D effect is pretty nifty. The Asus rep said that this “vivid viewing experience” is achieved by having a multi-layer monitor. No 3D goggles are required.
Aside from the 3D display, the Asus G50V gaming laptop also gets nVidia G700M GT graphics, a gaming-focused keyboard, Intel Core 2 Duo processor, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, up to 4GB of DDR2-667/800 RAM, dual SATA HDDs, integrated 2 megapixel camera, Asus Direct Messenger (secondary display), and a user interactive LED control system and CPU performance boost. Instead of a massive 17-inch screen, the G50V is marginally more portable with its 15.4-inch WXGA+/WSXGA+ display.
Don’t Forget About Eee
Ah yes, the Asus Eee PC. Although the above-mentioned laptops offer a heck of a lot more in terms of performance, it’s the Eee PC that is garnering the most attention. Asus introduced the seven-inch model last year and they took the opportunity at this year’s COMPUTEX to unveil the Intel Atom-powered Eee PC 901 and the larger Asus Eee PC 1000. Even though the Eee PC 1000 has a display that is only one inch bigger than the 900 and 901, the actual unit itself is a fair bit bigger. You get a more user-friendly keyboard and a larger mouse trackpad as well.
Be sure to check out our articles on the Asus Eee PC 901/1000 launch event and the compact notebook PC highlights for more great reading.
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