Futuristic ASUS concept whets the appetite

Turkish designer Emir Rifat Isik has created a conceptual futuristic design for an ASUS Flexible laptop model. With its stunning looks and wafer-thin body, you could call it the Cheryl Cole of the concept laptops industry right now. It could easily pass as being designed for Apple rather than ASUS – a back-handed compliment.

The keyboard is high-tech with LED touch keys but could be a case of style over substance; it remains to be seen if  the aesthetics can provide a user-friendly typing experience.

Either way, we certainly hope to see this concept in the laptops domain in the near future.

Asus unveils Nvidia 3D gaming laptop

Asus has announced the G51J 3D which, combined with Nvidia’s 3D Vision, brings 3D graphics to gamers both at home and on the move. The laptop will be available from February at around £1,699 including VAT.

For this you get a Core i7 720QM processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, Windows Home Premium 64-bit, two 500GB hard disks and a Blu-ray drive. Of course, the 15.6in LED screen and GeForce GTX 260M are arguably the most important components for gaming. The screen has a resolution of 1,366×768 and crucially supports the 120Hz refresh rate that is needed for Nvidia’s 3D Vision shutter glasses.

The glasses block alternate frames shown on screen, so each eye sees only 60 frames per second. The frames for the left and right eyes are subtly different and fool the brain into thinking it is seeing a true 3D scene. Over 400 games work out-of-the-box with 3D Vision – including recent releases Resident Evil 5, Borderlands, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Star Trek D-A-C.

“Nvidia is excited about the world’s first 3D Vision laptop” said Phil Eisler, General Manager of 3D Vision. “The Asus G51J 3D will set the standard by which gaming and 3D laptops will be judged. Congratulations to Asus for achieving this monumental milestone!”

Half-day battery life for new ASUS laptop

An ASUS laptop quietly on display at CES packed two GPUs, a high-end NVIDIA GeForce 310, and a humble Intel GMA and intelligently switched, second-by-second, between them. The UL80JT can also re-clock its Intel Core i7 CPU on a second-by-second basis. The end result is a miraculous 12-hour battery life!

Laptop design is at least partially a tradeoff between components and battery life; laptops jammed with high-end components last an hour or two, while power-sipping netbooks can last all day. ASUS is trying to close the gap by allowing its laptops to decide how much power is needed and spend their power budgets more intelligently.

Apple’s solution for dual GPUs on the Macbook Pro requires the user to change settings under “Energy Saver,” which is counterintuitive and makes you log out in order to switch. It wouldn’t surprise us if owners never use this feature.

ASUS’s solution is different because it’s user-transparent; even a novice user will get the fullest possible benefit because the laptop itself is deciding when to switch.

Asus unveil Bang & Olufsen designed laptop

Asus has unveiled its latest Bang & Olufsen designed laptop, the Asus NX90Jq, featuring dual, turntable style touchpads that sit on either side of the keyboard.

The Taiwanese computing giant is certainly trying to think differently with the design of its latest mobile computer, clearly taking notes from the cutting-edge designs of Sony Vaio and Apple MacBooks.

Asus’ latest release features a polished aluminium casing and a high-definition 18.4-inch display, in addition to a Core i7 processor under the hood.

For audiophile-level sound reproduction, you also get B&O ICEpower speakers, an NVIDIA GeForce GT 334M graphics chip for perfect movie viewing and mid-level gaming and up to (an incredible) 1280GB of storage, should you really need it.

All of this is topped-off with a slot-in Blu-ray drive and USB 3.0.

Asus dual-core netbook gets debut release

Asus laptops have been competing at the forefront of the industry for a decade and are once again looking to drive the market forward with its ION-powered Eee PC 1201N.

This 12.1-inch machine boasts a host of innovative features, including the first dual-core Intel Atom processor to be seen in a netbook. With multi-tasking a possibility, performance should easily better all current, single-core netbooks.

The ION chipset also brings a dedicated nVidia GeForce 9400M graphics card – offering enough power to play HD videos, stream flash content from the internet and even carry out light gaming.

The 250GB hard drive is a nice touch, but it’s the 500GB of accompanying online storage that really sets this machine apart, letting you upload all of your media files without fear of losing them.

With rounded edges and an isolated keyboard design, the 1201N is also an attractive and eye-catching choice. Available now, the Eee PC 1201N costs £399.

Asus to launch Eee Tablet?

All eyes may be turned to Apple in expectation of the mystery Mac tablet, but Taiwanese hardware makers aren’t skipping a beat. The folks at DigiTimes have gotten word from “industry sources” that Asus is “making preparations to launch” a tablet device of its own.

It will have a 4″ or 7″ display and a blend of tablet PC and mobile Internet device functionality. “Current details of the ‘Eee Pad’ suggest the product has been inspired by the rumors of Apple’s planned tablet device,” the site adds. And… that’s about it as far as details go.

Taiwanese firms like Asus are no strangers to the concept of borrowing a good idea and turning it into commercially successful products, of course. Back when everyone was still excited about the One Laptop Per Child project’s famed “$100 laptops,” the rumor mill suggested that original design manufacturer Quanta Computer could release a commercial version of the system for first-world nations. Just over two months later, Asus unleashed the original Eee PC netbook at the Computex 2007 show in Taipei. The rest is history.

Asus and Nvidia team up for two new laptops

Asus has joined forces with Nvidia to release two 3D laptops, which are the first in the world to use Nvidia’s 3D Vision technology.

The two models couldn’t be much further apart in terms of specification: the G51J is a gaming machine that boasts an Intel Core i7 Mobile processor and Nvidia GeForce GTX 260M GPU along with all of the usual mod-cons, including a full HD screen and Blu-ray drive.

The second, the UL50VS, is powered by a low-power Intel CULV processor and will be shipped with a more modest specification, which includes an Nvidia GeForce GT210M graphics chip, a 15.6in screen with native resolution of 1,366 x 768 and an alleged 12hr battery life.

While the G51J should be powerful enough to handle most of the 400 games that have 3D Vision “inherently built in”, Asus’ CULV-powered UL50VS won’t have the grunt needed to deliver a top-class gaming experience.

Speaking at the launch of the new products, Asus Marketing Specialist John Swatton said that the laptops would deliver “a truly immersive experience in 3D” and confirmed that both PCs would be released “mid-January”, although he wasn’t able to provide details on price.

Rock Xtreme and Asus laptops hailed

Tech magazine T3 has announced its Top 10 laptops and graded each one out of five stars, bestowing the full handful of stars to just two laptops – the ASUS G50V and the Rock Xtreme 780, beating of competition from the likes of Sony VAIO and Apple’s MacBook.

The Asus G50V, retailing at £975, was praised for its powerful and well-spec’d performance, and described as ‘oozing style and ideal for gamers and multimedia fans’. It was said to be reasonably priced given the wealth of features and hardware spec that you get for your money.

The Rock Xtreme 780 got the five-star treatment for its amazing etched aluminium finish and gaming capabilities.

It comes with mobile GPU and Blu-ray player on board, and is cheaper than the rival Alienware M15x laptop, retailing at £1,465.

Lenovo disputes reliable laptops survey results

Last week, we reported on the SquareTrade survey that hailed Asus and Toshiba as the most reliable laptops around, but Lenovo have taken serious umbrage and hit back with vengeance.

Lenovo didn’t come out too well in SquareTrade’s comparative analysis of laptop brands, with the company now attempting to discredit the research methodology.

SquareTrade looked at laptop reliability based on 30,000 laptops from various brands over a three year period, claiming that Lenovo’s notebooks were not as reliable as those manufactured by the likes of Asus, Apple, Toshiba, Dell, and Sony.

Ray Gorman, executive director of external communications at Lenovo, claims that the “total number claimed in this report is not a statistically significant sample for a study where no attempt is made to control key variables affecting repair rates, such as comparable machine types, end users, geography, and applications.”

He goes on to argue that SquareTrade “has a vested interested in showing scary failure rates as they have done here [as] they are in the business of selling after sale warranties,” adding that Lenovo’s internal data shows that its own laptop failure rates are “two-thirds lower than what is claimed in the Square Trade survey.”

“This study is full of holes, the method is flawed, the data is inaccurate, and the conclusion is wrong,” the Lenovo man adds.

New Asus laptops range has 12-hour battery life

Asus are the latest manufacturer to unveil a new thin-and-light laptops range which uses Intel’s new CULV (ultra-low voltage) processors.

The UnLimited – or UL – series will come in two different screen sizes (13.3in and 15.6in) with a classy brushed aluminium case. The smaller model – the UL30 – will cost £599 including VAT.

The larger-screened models, the UL50AG and UL50VG will cost £699 and £799 respectively, with the latter getting a dedicated graphics card. Both will have DVD writers, while the UL30 won’t.

Asus claims that all models will last 12 hours between charges, which would make the UL series the longest-lasting laptops currently available.