Asus shipping 11- and 12-inch bamboo laptops in June -- Mother Jones nearly smiles

Finally, after kicking its bamboo laptops around trade shows for more than a year, Asus is set to roll out the eco-themed lappies in June. No details were provided except a rough price of about $1,650 for the 11-inch S6 and 12-inch U6. Really though, does it matter what's inside? It'll look great at the local cafe propped-up conspicuously next to your organic, Fare Trade coffee harvested by newly white-collared neo-peasants.

[Justice Kibbe @ Apr 23rd 2008 8:18AM]

Yeah, I like this photo better than the first one.

[OneLove @ Apr 23rd 2008 6:14PM]

Mother jones to get some wood

[Rob @ Apr 23rd 2008 8:24AM]

Does the warranty cover panda attacks?

[Alex Kirby @ Apr 23rd 2008 8:40AM]

They do realise that cutting bamboo trees and putting them on laptops is not very eco-friendly?

[Ryan @ Apr 23rd 2008 9:13AM]

Some species of bamboo grow a foot in a day. It's not exactly in shortage.

[Miranda Kali @ Apr 23rd 2008 9:14AM]

You can help the environment, Alex! Just plant some bamboo in your back yard to help with the bamboo shortage that's sure to come!

[kev @ Apr 23rd 2008 9:14AM]

@Ryan,

No, but copper will be if we keep creating frivolous electronics that no one really buys...and this will be one of them.

[Elaine @ Apr 23rd 2008 9:19AM]

At least it's better than the leather they used for the U6 series.

[Corey @ Apr 23rd 2008 12:52PM]

Bamboo is not a tree, its a grass

[Pete Pasteris @ Apr 23rd 2008 8:50AM]

I think it is a cover up :>

[Ninjakamster @ Apr 23rd 2008 8:57AM]

The 11.1" WXGA S6 was introducted in early 06 in a leather flavor, their first leather notebook. I hope they change it from the previous S6 since it lacked things like a fingerprint reader and web cam when its direct competitors, the Vaio TZ and Asus U2E have them for example.

The S6 was nice that it used 2.5" HDDs and Low Voltage processors vs 1.8" HDD and Ultra Low Voltage in the TZ and U2E. But the S6 was also considerably thicker and less battery life, not good for a notebook that small right?

[bamboo @ Apr 23rd 2008 9:01AM]

@Alex
Bamboo is not a tree. Please don't post if you have no clue what you are talking about.
And thank you Mark for trying to set him strait.

[Esat Dedezade @ Apr 23rd 2008 9:13AM]

That was a bit harsh wasn't it?

I mean I know he was wrong, but it's not like a fanboy who blindly and knowingly spins things that are wrong.

The statement wasn't that bad.

Any one would have thought that he said that the MBA was better due to the fact that it's thinness is so awesome that it reverses global warming.

Because if some one did say that, then they desrve to be flamed till crispy.

[heri623 @ Apr 23rd 2008 11:00AM]

HE never said it was a tree

[Cal @ Apr 23rd 2008 12:20PM]

"Alex Kirby @ Apr 23rd 2008 8:40AM

They do realise that cutting bamboo trees and putting them on laptops is not very eco-friendly?"

Now I don't know about you, but I can see the words "bamboo trees" in there...

[Mark @ Apr 23rd 2008 9:25AM]

Bamboo is a cool material. I've used the same bamboo cooking utensils for years because they don't split even after repeated dish washer cycles.

I do question why you would want laptops made of bamboo, and even if you did, why you would pay a large premium to do so. Bamboo is a dirt cheap material and easily moulded into all kinds of preformed shapes. It should not be significantly expensive to produce a laptop case out of the material.

[Timmy @ Apr 23rd 2008 9:48AM]

Tree huggers love to pay premium prices, its in their bylaws.

[Timmy @ Apr 23rd 2008 9:52AM]

What will happen when the Bamboo has its mass die off which it is known to do, what will they use then.

[Bull @ Apr 23rd 2008 10:05AM]

it's not practical any way, and way too over priced.

[gabe @ Apr 23rd 2008 10:20AM]

What would it take for you guys to bang grandma?

a free mini notebook?

a portable harddrive?

a 1 year subscription to WoW?

:nerd:

[Tyler @ Apr 23rd 2008 12:28PM]

I think he meant Fair Trade.

[JerryA @ Apr 23rd 2008 12:41PM]

Yeah, free trade rarely leads to fair trade. 2 different things entirely.

Also, I worked at a hipster eco-friendly cafe in college and they also sold eco-friendly home furnishings. The would have sold this in a second but the owner won't use any computer that isn't made by Apple. He even bought a Mini to virtualize Windows to run one label printing program that was Windows-only.

[pollard71 @ Apr 23rd 2008 12:55PM]

@jerry
Cause that's eco-friendly.

[sotec_productions @ Apr 23rd 2008 1:05PM]

Yay! Another small, gimmicky, under-performing, useless mass of garbage to insult!

:|

When will it stop? I'm running out of snide and negative comments here! Post another Apple article to me to insult Engadget, I'm getting bored with these microtops!

;)