14 DAY TRIAL // Like all of its peers, ASUS placed a special emphasis on laptops over the past month, mostly because AMD and Intel finally started to compete against each other on the laptop front. On the one hand, Advanced Micro Devices released the Danube platform for notebooks. On the other hand, Intel created new Atom CPUs that give netbooks support for DDR3. For PC makers than use hardware from both chip makers, such product launches always translate into the opportunity for higher revenues.
ASUS obviously plans on making the best of this competition. The AMD-based Eee PC 1015T turned a few heads when it was unveiled, for instance. Now, the Taiwanese player has added a pair of new models to its U Series, specifically the ultrathin U35 and U45. With screen sizes of 13.3 inches and 14.1 inches, both seek to satisfy consumers in terms of not just performance, but also portability and lifespan.
The newcomers are centered on the Intel Calpella platform, namely Core i3 or Core i5 CPUs, depending on user preference. Whichever CPU is chosen, it is backed up by at least 2GB of DDR3 memory and a hard disk drive with 500GB of storage space.
Furthermore, ASUS decided to throw in an NVIDIA GeForce G310M graphics solution and even the Optimus technology, which dynamically switches between the integrated GMA HD and the discrete GPU, depending on application demand.
It should probably be noted that, even though the two laptops are less than one inch thick, they still managed to integrate Altec Lansing speakers and SRS Premium Surround Sound. Finally, the U35 and U45 come with 8-cell batteries which, aided by the aforementioned Optimus, can last for as long as 11.5 hours. Unfortunately, the company chose not to provide any details on pricing and availability in its official press release.