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ASUS' $1,500 Core i7-equipped G51J gaming laptop gets reviewed

by Darren Murph posted Nov 10th 2009 at 12:23PM

Here's hoping you held off on purchasing that Core 2 Duo G51 just a few months ago, 'cause ASUS has just pushed out the exact same laptop with a Core i7 within and a price tag that's $200 skimpier. The G51J-A1 was launched alongside Windows 7, and the crew over at Hot Hardware managed to toss it on the test bench to find out what kind of gains could be expected when going from Intel's last-gen CPU to the newly-announced Core i7-720QM. The long and short of it is this: the new CPU enabled this machine to smoke the C2D sibling in every test, with graphical performance being nothing short of astounding. 'Course, the omission of a Blu-ray drive was somewhat of a bummer, but for just $1,499, it's not like we really expected one to be included. Hit the read link for the full skinny, but only if you've got some disposable income that you don't mind parting with.

Gigabyte fixes iPhone sync issue with BIOS update

by Vladislav Savov posted Nov 9th 2009 at 8:47AM

The Intel P55 Express chipset snafu that caused iPhones to lose their syncing minds has now been remedied -- at least by one motherboard maker. Gigabyte has issued a BIOS update making things all hunky-dory between the phone and the mobo, putting your troubles to an end. The P55 is Intel's latest midrange chipset and orchestrates things for newer Core i5 / i7 machines. The other two P55 purveyors, ASUS and MSI, were also caught by the bug, and there are anecdotal reports of success with an ASUS BIOS update, but not official fixes as of yet. Given the competitive nature of this market, though, we'd be surprised if those two companies didn't quickly follow suit. All's well that ends well, right?

Read - Gigabyte Beta BIOS download page
Read - Update fixes iPhone sync problem

ASUS delivers Eee PC T91MT to Amazon.com, completes world tour

by Richard Lai posted Nov 9th 2009 at 1:11AM

It was only two weeks ago when the ASUS T91MT -- the first-ever Windows 7 convertible netbook -- dropped by Amazon's German site, and now the Eastern wind from Taiwan has finally reached US soil. Amazon.com buyers are offered pretty much the same configuration as their European counterpart: Intel Atom Z520, 8.9-inch multitouch swivel screen, 1GB RAM and Windows 7 Home Premium. While there's only one color option available for now, those who're cool with white will be spoiled with a 32GB SSD -- twice as much as the German version yet $200 cheaper. Any students out there going to pick one of these up for some improved note-taking before Christmas exams?

[Thanks, Bernard]

ASUS O!Play AIR HDP-R3 arrives with WiFi and card reader

by Darren Murph posted Nov 6th 2009 at 10:06AM

We had a sneak peek at ASUS' BR-HD3 just a week few back, and rather than holding out on us any longer, it looks as if the company has come forward to make things official. The O!Play Air HDP-R3 isn't a tremendous update from the previous edition, though the addition of 802.11n WiFi and a multimedia card reader are certainly appreciated. Reportedly, the media player packs an HDMI 1.3 socket, support for just about every file format known to man and a respectable price tag of around €90 ($133). Too bad the Yanks in attendance are left in the lurch.

[Via Engadget Spanish]

ASUS to dizzy eyes with G51J3D and G72GX 3D laptops

by Darren Murph posted Nov 6th 2009 at 7:51AM

Well, lookie here. ASUS has just jumped in on the 3D bandwagon. Just a few weeks after the 5738DG was unveiled, two more 3D laptops are now said to be on tap. Yeah -- as if the planet really needs another duo of laptops that require glasses to fully enjoy. All misplaced bitterness aside, the 15.6-inch G51J3D and 17.3-inch G72GX both tout a fairly respectable NVIDIA GPU (the 1GB GeForce GTX 160M was specifically mentioned in the former), and while the tester was indeed stuck looking like the dude above (exactly like that dude, in fact), he felt that the 3D playback was nothing short of incredible. Both machines will also be equipped with a Core i7 processor, oodles of HDD space and the ability to show off 3D content to up to 15 people who circle around it. We're told that the G51J3D will ship out next month, while the G72GX won't land until Q2 2010 (at least in the UK).

ASUS retools Eee Keyboard, swaps in capacitive touchscreen

by Darren Murph posted Nov 4th 2009 at 3:02PM

At this point, we're beginning to wonder if we'll ever see ASUS' Eee Keyboard on store shelves. Heck, we've even see it drop by the all-knowing FCC, yet the company has apparently delayed the official debut once more. The kids over at Register Hardware were able to sit down with a tweaked version of the device, which is now slated to ship in early 2010. What's different? ASUS threw out the old resistive touchscreen that we'd played with before and swapped in a capacitive panel like the one in SE's XPERIA X10, Apple's iPhone and Nokia's X6. Engineers assert that touch response was far better with capacitive, and at least in this application, it simply made more sense. We're also given a good look at the external WiFi / UWB antenna that we spotted in the aforesaid FCC filing, which is being used over a sleek internal option due to possible interference from the metallic enclosure. Other than that, most everything else has remained the same, though we are told that a non-metallic iteration is in the works for those who hate awesome things.

USB 3.0 and SATA 6G put to good use: benchmarks

by Paul Miller posted Oct 31st 2009 at 1:26AM

The fine folks at both HotHardware and PC Perspective have run the new ASUS P7P55D-E Premium motherboard through its paces, which has the particular distinction of handling both USB 3.0 and the up-and-coming SATA 6G through controllers by NEC and Marvell, respectively. Lucky for us, both sites' tests came to similar conclusions. The Seagate Barracuda XT SATA 6G drive has almost zero improvement over SATA 3G, other than in some burst speeds due to the fancy cache on the 6G -- the bottleneck here is the drive, not the controller. Meanwhile, USB 3.0 has speeds that are roughly 5 to 6 times faster than USB 2.0 with the same drive, a huge win for fans of external storage the world over. Perhaps even better news is that an ASUS US36 controller card with USB 3.0 and SATA 6G support is a mere $30, so this stuff is already basically within reach to the average desktop user.

Read - HotHardware
Read - PC Perspective

ASUS' Android-based 'secret weapon' smartbook launching in Q1

by Thomas Ricker posted Oct 30th 2009 at 2:48AM

We got our first glimpse at a computing future filled with low-cost, ARM-based ASUS smartbooks running Android on a 1GHz Snapdragon processor all the way back on June 1st. Since then, however, the pencil-spinning boys in Taiwan have been poo-pooing plans to launch such a device due to what ASUS called an uncertain market opportunity -- or was it pressure from Wintel, we never can tell? Then yesterday, ASUS' Jerry Shen pulled an about-face at an investor meeting in Taipei with talk of launching a $180 smartbook in Q1 of 2010. Bristling with confidence, Shen goes so far as to call it a "secret weapon" in a category offering potential for huge, Eee PC-like growth. Well, with the first big-name smartbooks just starting to ship, even a dozen or so sales could be considered statistically significant.

[Via Shanzai]

ASUS to launch 3G, WiMAX-equipped e-book readers by March, 2010?

by Donald Melanson posted Oct 29th 2009 at 2:02PM

We've already heard some talk that ASUS might possibly be launching an e-book reader before the end of the year that may or may not be the world's cheapest, and it looks like some unnamed execs at the company have now dropped a few more details on the matter. While it's all still far from official, CENS reports that ASUS' e-book reader could hit both American and European carriers by March, 2010, and that it'll include both 3G and WiMAX versions (plus WiFi, naturally), but presumably not a version with both 3G and WiMAX. As previously rumored, the e-book reader is also said to have a larger than usual 9-inch screen, and those same unnamed execs reportedly say its price will be "competitive" with the Kindle and Sony's e-readers.

[Via SlashGear]

ASUS changes course, unveils 'first' USB 3.0 / SATA 6Gbps motherboards

by Darren Murph posted Oct 28th 2009 at 12:46PM

Can it be? Has the same company that dashed dreams by axing its USB 3.0-laden P6X58 motherboard back in July really just revived our hope in humanity? Out of nowhere, ASUS has just unveiled the first range of motherboards to support USB 3.0 and the newest SATA specifications, the latter of which brings along 6Gbps data throughput. The one-two punch belongs to the Xtreme Design P7P55D-E series of mainboards, which support the latest Core i5 and Core i7 processors. Sadly, just two USB 3.0 ports are onboard, while a total of ten dedicated USB 2.0 sockets are scattered about. Feel free to pore over the detailed specs in the release past the break, and get ready to find the P7P55D-E Premium mobo ($299) and U3S6 expansion card ($29) at retailers next month.

Continue reading ASUS changes course, unveils 'first' USB 3.0 / SATA 6Gbps motherboards

Asustek announces a 1.1 Teraflop, Tesla GPU powered supercomputer

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Oct 28th 2009 at 1:18AM

Some of us love nothing more than a portable and convenient netbook -- something that Asustek knows all too well -- but how about those of us who need real computing power? To that end, Taipei's choice for all things ultraportable has just announced its very own 1.1 Teraflop supercomputer. Dubbed the ESC 1000, this (albeit large) desktop-sized machine sports a 3.33GHz Intel LGA1366 Xeon W3580 microprocessor and three CUDA-based Tesla C1060 GPUs, the likes of which we last saw in Dell's Precision "personal supercomputer" line. Shipping with 24GB of DDR3 DRAM (1333MHz) and a 500GB SATA II hard drive, the machine is said to have a cost structure of $14,519 over five years. We're guessing that you'll be able to both surf the net and watch HD quality video on the thing, although you probably won't be taking it along with you to Crazy Mocha any time soon. According to a company spokesperson, this thing is ready to ship now, although a launch date and street price have yet to be determined. One more pic after the break.

Continue reading Asustek announces a 1.1 Teraflop, Tesla GPU powered supercomputer

New Eee PC Seashells sport Windows 7 Starter, less battery life

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Oct 21st 2009 at 6:44PM

Ah, Windows 7 Starter -- you're adding to the retail cost of netbooks, and for what? Lack of support for multiple monitors, DVD playback, or remote media streaming? Lack of Windows Media Center? Granted, these things aren't at the top of your list if you're rocking a netbook (and DVD playback won't be on your list at all) but we have principles, y'know? And that leads us to the next batch of Eee PCs that will fly the flag of the aforementioned OS. Both machines sport your standard Atom N280, 1GB memory, IEEE802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth, and customary 10.1-inch display. Of the two, the 1005HR-WS sports WXGA, a 250GB HDD, and will run you ¥49,800 (about $546). The 1005HE-WS, however, is WSVGA and comes in two capacities: 250GB HDD for ¥46,800 ($513) or 160GB HDD for ¥44,800 (about $490). In addition to that jive Starter edition of Windows, battery life for these guys has decreased to about 8.4 hours. Available in Japan come mid-November.

[Via Engadget Japan]

ASUS Designo MS gets handled, gushed over

by Vladislav Savov posted Oct 21st 2009 at 12:31AM

ASUS' stylish Designo MS monitors might not be quite on the same diet as the world's thinnest LCDs, but they're plenty svelte enough to collect glances of envious admiration. Suffering from a rather severe case of techno-lust, the Electric Pig crew got to handle a 23.6-inch sample and couldn't stop talking about the sex appeal of the exterior -- they were even big fans of the circular stand on the back of the display, which we suspect will have as many supporters as detractors. In spite of packing a full 1920 x 1080 resolution, the MS246 failed to impress with the quality of its output, but then if it was as gorgeous on the inside it'd have an Apple sticker on the front. Right? We kid, honestly. Calm down with a gallery of images at the read link.

ASUS' 12.1-inch Eee PC gets pictured, a little more real

by Darren Murph posted Oct 20th 2009 at 11:33AM

Not that we've never heard of a 12.1-inch Eee PC before, but given the abundance of 10-inch options currently saturating the market, we'll take all the expansion we can get. Slated to arrive as the largest Eee Seashell member of all time, the 1.4 pound Eee PC 1201HA is now staring at a mid-November release (at least in Italy), and it should bring along a "full-size" keyboard (with a borked Shift key), a 250GB hard drive, Windows 7, a 6-cell battery good for "up to eight hours" under ideal conditions and your choice of four colors: black, red, silver or blue. You'll also find WiFi, a built-in webcam and a price tag of €399 ($596), though only time will tell if it's saddled with a near-ancient Atom N270.

ASUS throws XP Professional on Eee PC 1005HA, dubs it 'business edition'

by Donald Melanson posted Oct 20th 2009 at 1:46AM

Alright, so ASUS' Eee PC 1005HA is certainly decent enough as it is, but we can't help but think that the company is stretching things a bit with its new "business edition" of the netbook. Apparently, all that's needed to earn that designation is Windows XP Professional for an OS, and a standard 2GB of RAM, which no respectable businessperson would ever be without. Otherwise, you'll get the usual 10.1-inch display, Atom N280 processor, 160GB hard drive, and a promised 10.5 hours of battery life -- all in the very same Seashell enclosure, of course. Still no official word on a release over here, but it looks like folks in Japan will be able to pick this one up on October 20th for just over the Yen-equivalent of $700.

[Thanks, TheLostSwede]