Gigantic ASUS periodical reveals and specs numerous new laptops

By Sean Hollister

posted March 30th 2010 12:01AM

Curious what's inside a new ASUS laptop? Then Notebook Review has the treat for you -- earlier this month, forumite David took the time to download the company's massive 108MB ASUS World Magazine PDF and laid out the spec sheets for not one, not two, but a veritable smörgåsbord of potent portables. There's 36 in all; we've told you about some of them before, to be sure -- but others are getting solid specs for the first time, and there are even a few diamonds in the rough. Enough chit-chat, on with the show!

U-series: Otherwise known as ASUS' Bamboo Collection, the U-series laptops were highlighted at CES, where we discovered they would have Core i5 CPUs and USB 3.0 support. Well, that's not the whole story. They've also all got NVIDIA Optimus auto-switching graphics between an onboard Intel GMA HD and the GeForce 310M 1GB. Oh, and forget Core i5 -- these machines support processors all the way up to the 2.66GHz Core i7-620M. Highlight: The U30JC, with a combo Blu-ray drive and a chiclet keyboard that won a iF Product Design Award.
UL-series: ASUS for "UnLimited," you can read UL as "ultra low," as in Intel's ultra low voltage (ULV) processors that provide 8+ hours of battery life and let these notebooks stay cool despite being under an inch thin. We saw the UL80JT sport NVIDIA Optimus at CES and got hands-on with the Optimus-equipped UL50VF; now, the UL30JT now has it as well. Highlight: That same UL50VF, with an estimated 12+ hours of battery life.

More after the break -- save pricing and availability, unfortunately -- or feel free to hit up the source link to download the entire electronic magazine for yourself.

ASUS eMagazine for March 2010

NX-series: Remember that 18-inch behemoth with twin touchpads? Apparently it weighs 10.5 pounds.
N-series: The ASUS "eNtertainment" series, as reported, has several models with USB 3.0, and several with sound by Bang & Olufsen. There are also a couple with NVIDIA Optimus, a couple with multitouch touchpads, and all have the apparent ability to automatically upscale DVDs to 1080p. Highlight: The N43JF, which reportedly features "GeForce 400-series high end graphics." Mobile Fermi, anyone?
K-series, A-series: ASUS' lower-end laptops, with a wide variety of specs and features, where nothing particularly stands out save an ergonomic "chocolate" keyboard that won a reddot design award.
PL-series: Low-voltage Core i5 processors and NVIDIA Optimus switchable graphics give these fingerprint-reading, aluminum-lidded business laptops an estimated 10 hours of battery life.
G-series: Now we're talking games. We've got additional specs here on the Radeon HD 5870-equipped G73JH we told you about last month, which can apparently support a Blu-ray drive and a pair of HDDs; the 3D-ready G51JX 3D, a Core i7-720QM and GeForce GTS 360M-equipped update to the G51J we saw last year; and a similarly specced but low-res 16-inch gaming notebook in the G60JX.

Since ASUS is an international brand with a diverse product lineup, it's not certain whether any individual laptop will make it to the US or when, but at least now you know what the company has to offer the next time your wallet has an itch. Good hunting!