ASUS brings the U6 laptops Stateside

For those of you infatuated by the Eee's stylish looks, but in need of something a little more powerful, it looks like ASUS may be answering your prayers today. Enter the U6S and U6E laptops, two handsome new models that should fit your power-hungry needs. The systems are built atop the much-loved Santa Rosa chipset, Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs (in a variety of speeds), up to 2GB of RAM, 250GB hard drives, and offer either the NVIDIA GeForce 8400M G or Intel's GMA X3100 GPU, 802.11a/b/g/n or 802.11a/b/g, plus a whole nasty mess of ports, jacks, inputs, outputs, and assorted doohickeys. Both are available now, starting at $1,749. Oh yeah, the laptops also utilize their built-in webcams to verify users via face recognition -- hit the videos after the break to see Engadget Chinese easily fake out the security.

[Kamall @ Dec 10th 2007 1:45PM]

Jeez, you guys are behind, they've been here for a while at BestBuy and PortableOne for instance.

[athousandleaves @ Dec 10th 2007 3:03PM]

since when was apple known for their originality?

[js @ Dec 10th 2007 1:46PM]

Too bad it's a PC... macbook pro is way better.

[seoultrain @ Dec 10th 2007 1:59PM]

now that you mention the macbook pro, the keys on that keyboard look very familiar...

[mmh @ Dec 10th 2007 2:04PM]

OMG ur rihgt!!!11 teh same qwerty keys!! fukin ripoffs.....

[seoultrain @ Dec 10th 2007 2:14PM]

umm, sorry, mmh, but the color, finish, and shape of the keys is pretty similar. And it's not fanboy talk. I don't own a mac or an ipod.

[theletterj @ Dec 10th 2007 2:26PM]

FYI: Asus was the original ODM on the Macbook

[Argot @ Dec 10th 2007 2:51PM]

Yeah, Apple stole the keyboard from Sony. Guess ASUS did the same. Too bad a big company like Apple can't come up with an original idea.

[athousandleaves @ Dec 10th 2007 3:04PM]

since when was apple known for their originality?

[Dan Parmelee @ Dec 10th 2007 2:07PM]

That thing is hideous....styling looks to be five years old on it.

[Harrison Greer @ Dec 10th 2007 2:10PM]

It looks ok, but I'll keep my VAIO SZ for now.

[Waveblade @ Dec 10th 2007 2:09PM]

Only the 8400 G? Too bad, at least the GS would be good.

[Adam F @ Dec 10th 2007 2:50PM]

you guys are on the crack, they keys on the mbp are different, the cursor keys on the mbp are like half height, that keyboard looks like ye ole laptop keyboard only silver instead of black.

http://www.geardiary.com/wp-content/photos/mbp_keyboard.jpg

vs the U6, also notice the U6 has the pageup and down on the right hand side..

not everything in the world that is not a black laptop is a mbp rip off :P

[Brian @ Dec 10th 2007 2:39PM]

Haha, the fake-out video answered my only question about the face recognition software; "What happens if you just hold up a photo?" Nothing like some good old visual hackery.

[Naveed @ Dec 10th 2007 2:51PM]

theyll get my CC when they put a 13.3" screen on that exact same frame/size. that bezel is ridiculous and could easily fit a 13.3" screen

[shifuimam @ Dec 10th 2007 3:03PM]

Sigh...repeat after me class: The chipset is not Santa Rosa. The chipset is not Santa Rosa. The chipset is the Intel 965, AKA Crestline.

[Jeff @ Dec 10th 2007 4:06PM]

*sigh* Repeat after me. Crestline *IS* Santa Rosa. Crestline *IS* Santa Rosa. That's an own goal if I've ever seen one.

http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=2845&p=2

[shifuimam @ Dec 10th 2007 4:52PM]

Santa Rosa = Intel 965 (Crestline), Merom or Penryn Core 2 Duo, and PRO/Wireless 802.11a/b/g/n wifi card. So, yes, Crestline is part of Santa Rosa, but Santa Rosa is specific to the Centrino line from Intel. Unless it's got the Intel wifi card, it's not Santa Rosa.

[shifuimam @ Dec 10th 2007 4:53PM]

P.S. From the article you linked:

"A requisite part of Santa Rosa will be Intel's Kedron 802.11n wireless solution, which for the first time in Intel history will be a Centrino bundled wireless solution released before a finalized IEEE spec."

It's like saying that all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. All Santa Rosa uses Crestline, but not all Crestline is Santa Rosa.

[celeritas @ Dec 10th 2007 7:37PM]

If you hit up the read link, the spec sheet for the U6E lists a Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T7500, Intel® 965PM chipset and Intel® Next-Gen Wireless-N Network Connection Technology - 4965AGN (Optional). So based on your own definition, how is this laptop not Santa Rosa if you get the optional wireless-N?

[shifuimam @ Dec 10th 2007 7:53PM]

The issue is misusing "Santa Rosa" to describe the chipset. The chipset is Crestline - the PLATFORM of the processor, chipset, and wifi card, is Santa Rosa. All over the Internet, tech blogs and news sites are continuing to use Santa Rosa to particularly refer to the Crestline chipset, which is incorrect information.

[Ollie @ Dec 10th 2007 8:37PM]

Jesus christ, do you wanna be any more pedantic? Honestly, do you think anyone cares? Get a life.

[Yem @ Dec 10th 2007 3:33PM]

ASUS have WAY too many notebook lines. At least they need better web tools for selecting one based on your requirements. Eg 13", 250Gb, C2Duo, 1.5-2.0 kg.
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=5 what a mess

[Marc @ Dec 10th 2007 5:56PM]

Kinda reminds me of the Lenovo that I just bought on Black Friday from Office Depot (for a mere $599...Most people in line wanted the 17-inch HP with AMD CPU).

Lenovo 3000 Y410; Core2Duo T5450 1.66GHz, 2GB DDR2, 802.11a/b/g Wireless, 160GB SATA HDD (5400rpm), 14.1-inch widescreen display (1,280x800 resolution), Integrated Intel X3100 graphics, 6-in-1 card reader, USB 2.0, FW400, Dolby Home Theater audio with a sub-woofer, Play Audio CDs without booting the system, 1.3-megapixel Webcam
VeriFace software (face recognition security feature), Vista Home Premium (downgradable to XP).

[Joey Geraci @ Dec 10th 2007 6:42PM]

The Best Buy site says the laptop has an Nvidia 8600M G, pretty huge difference.

[Michael LaFramboise @ Dec 10th 2007 6:55PM]

minus the keyboard and the webcam which look completely out of place, this is actually not too shabby :/

[Rob @ Dec 10th 2007 9:50PM]

I own the Asus W3J, and must say that its build quality is excellent, not to mention the power it packs.

[N30 G30 @ Dec 10th 2007 10:52PM]

ASUS is coming up with really good stuff for about 80% of the price of others in it's class. If you want an SZ series or an m1330, consider an ASUS.