14 DAY TRIAL // When it first introduced the special edition N43SL Jay Chou notebook in mid-summer, Asus said that the laptop will only be available in select Asian countries, but it now seems like the company changed its mind and that will release this model in the US as well.
This special edition notebook designed together with the Green Hornet movie star was recently pre-viewed on the company’s Campus Life website, where it was revealed that it will cost $999 (763 EUR) in the US.
Best known in Asia as a singer-songwriter, Jay Chou has tweaked the notebook to sport a series of motifs from its personal work such as a palm rest that is enhanced with notes from the soundtrack of the movie "The Secret" as well as a series of special start-up and shut-down sounds.
The special edition N43SL laptop is only available in black, but users can choose the color of the semi-circular decoration placed on the cover, which can be painted both in gold and peach.
Taking a look under the hood of the notebook, users will be greeted by a dual-core Intel Core i5-2430M processor with a base frequency of 2.4GHz and a max Turbo frequency of 3GHz.
This is accompanied by 6GB of DDR3 system memory that works at 1333MHz, a 750GB hard drive with a spindle speed of 7200RPM and by an Nvidia GeForce GT 540M dedicated graphics card.
The standalone GPU is also compatible with Nvidia's Optimus technology in order to deliver improved battery life.
The rest of the specifications list includes a 14-inch screen with a resolution of 1366x768 pixels, a DVD burner, a pair of USB 3.0 ports as well as an HDMI 1.4 video output.
Just as the regular versions of the N-Series notebooks, the Jay Chou-designed N43SL sports an audio setup developed by Asus in collaboration with Bang & Olufsen.
Right now, we don’t know when the N43SL Jay Chou Edition will start arriving in North America, but Asus plans to ship only 100 units.
