Asus also introduced New line of Netbook and Laptops. Asus introduced a number of new laptops at CES 2009. Among them are an ultraportable that runs like a race car (the Lamborghini VX5), a tablet PC (the Eee PC T91), and an even slimmer, sleeker netbook. We can say that the high-style Lamborghini VX5 is a premium machine. The VX5 is largely black, with yellow highlights inside and a whole lot of Italian leather stitched into the carbon-fiber chassis.
Other highlights include a backlit keyboard/mouse combo and an ambient-light sensor akin to what you see on the MacBook Air. Revving underneath the hood (and you think I’m just being metaphorical…when you powered up the VX3, you’d hear a car roar) is an Intel quad-core processor, up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM, room for two SATA hard drives, and "the latest GPU."
Besides being able to run Windows Vista on its 16-inch, 1920-by-1080-pixel display, the VX5 also offers an ExpressGate mode; this Linux shell boots up in 8 seconds and provides access to the most basic multimedia and online functions. Among the other features are a 2-megapixel Webcam, a TV tuner, and 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR support. That’s saying nothing of the wireless broadband built into the device, and the fact that it is WiMax-ready.
Asus’s second model, is the S121, technically isn’t a netbook. Nor is it a further refinement of the already-refined N10Jc, according to Asus. The less-than-an-inch-thick metallic frame with leather trim houses a machine that attempts to fill the void between netbook and notebook. While the S121 does have an Atom processor, nobody will mistake it for a budget box after a look at its 12.1-inch, LED, active-matrix TFT, 1280-by-800-pixel display (presented with edge-to-edge glass) and its roomy 128GB solid-state drive. the S121, Asus claims, can survive upward of 10 hours on an internal and external battery working together.
The S121 could be a great, lightweight (about 2.6 pounds), road-ready companion. But it will be facing a lot of stiff competition in the coming year, from, say, the surfacing of a new tweener class of portables using everything from nVidia’s Ion platform to Via Nano processors and whatever else AMD has to show off.
The other big laptop coming from Asus’s stables is the only one clinging to the Eee name: the Eee PC T91 Tablet. Think of it as a touch-screen variant of the 8.9-inch, 901-series models that broke out on the scene in 2008. This hybrid netbook operates the same way as full-blown convertible laptops do, offering a screen capable of rotating 180 degrees. The T91 will offer built-in GPS functionality, a TV tuner, and an FM transmitter. It has the potential to be one well-rounded, affordable, portable entertainer.
So here you are and more to be revealed this week with CES 2009.
