14 DAY TRIAL // We have already managed to get a pretty close look at the two Republic of Gamers motherboards that ASUS is demonstrating at CeBIT 2010 in Hanover, Germany, but it seems that power gaming and ultra-high-end performance are not the only areas that the company aims to excel in. While supposedly planning on introducing an e-reader, the Taiwanese company will also be demonstrating its Bamboo laptop series.
The two models that the company has on display are the U33JC and the U43JC. Both models have the same overall design and a casing that, as the series' name implies, is constructed with bamboo, thus reducing the quantity of used plastic by 20%. As for the actual product specifications, both notebooks have, mostly, the same hardware, with the only differing features being their screen size, type of battery and overall weight.
The U33JC has a 13.3-inch HD, LED-backlit display with a maximum resolution of 1366 x 768, whereas the U43JC is somewhat larger, with a similar screen measuring 14 inches. These two siblings are based on the mobile Intel HM55 chipset and can be powered by Intel Core i3, Core i5 or Core i7 central processing units. The notebooks also boast up to 4GB of DDR3, with a frequency of 1066MHz, and an SATA hard disk drive. This HDD can have a storage capacity of up to 500GB, and a rotary speed of 7200RPM, or even 640GB, if the end-user is satisfied with 5400RPM.
The exact measurements of the two devices are 328 x 232 x 15-31mm for the U33JC and 344 x 241 x 22-31.8mm for the U43JC. The laptops weigh 1.7kg and 2.6kg and come with eight-cell or six-cell batteries, respectively.
ASUS took the liberty of implementing NVIDIA's Optimus technology into both of its new machines. Through this functionality, the systems will automatically choose between the Intel GMA HD integrated graphics and the NVIDIA GeForce 310M with 1GBVRAM, using the former for basic tasks and the latter only when running more graphically intensive loads. This, combined with the ASUS Super Hybrid Engine Technology, will enable a high energy efficiency and, thus, a longer battery life.
There is no pricing or availability information at this time, but the company should make the formal announcement soon.
Live report by Traian Teglet from CeBIT 2010 in Hanover, Germany.
