ASUS Presents Affordable Bamboo Laptops

On the IT market, especially on the PC front, there are certain products that, by their very nature, exclude any possibility of being even remotely affordable to the majority of consumers. Gaming-oriented and enthusiast-grade hardware are just one example of such product. Another example would be a certain electronic that is constructed in an unusual way or out of unusual materials. Such an example could be laptops whose enclosure is made of bamboo. Still, there will always be companies that try to shatter these barriers, and ASUS seems to have done just that with its U43JC and U43F laptops.

ASUS hasn't exactly announced the existence of these two by means of a press release, but they have show up on BestBuy. Both of them have the same screen size of 14 inches and have prices of under $1,000, which is unusual for mobile PCs dressed in bamboo. ASUS also did its best to offer as high a performance level as it could, at least as far as the so-called price limit allowed.

The U43JC is powered by an Intel Core i5-450M central processing unit and boasts an NVIDIA GeForce 310M graphics solution. This GPU provides a significant level of video and, of course, multimedia capabilities.

What's more, ASUS threw the NVIDIA Optimus technology into the mix, making sure that the efficiency issue is also taken care of. Naturally, this lengthens battery life. As for storage, a 640GB HDD should be enough for a great many videos and other files.

The U43F is, more or less, identical to its sibling but lacks the discrete GPU. Obviously, this means that NVIDIA Optimus is also absent and that the full video output responsibilities fall to the Intel GMA HD Integrated graphics. The ASUS U43JC and U43F will only start shipping towards the end of July but have already been priced, at $999 and $950, respectively.