Right, we saw it coming – ASUS to debut netbook Flare at CES 2012. It’s now official with the company’s new Eee PC Flare 1025C, X101CH and 1025CE netbooks, and without ado let’s get down to basics. The 1025C sports built-in Intel UMA graphics (720p output), a 10.1-inch LED display (1,024 x 600), N2600 dual-core GPU at 1.6GHz, 1GB of DDR3-1333 memory, integrated Altec Lansing stereo speakers, a hard drive of 5,400RPM, 0.3 megapixel webcam, a set of USB 2.0 ports, an Ethernet port, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, 2-in-1 media card reader and HDMI /VGA outputs. The entire machine tips the scales at 1.2kg, while housing a six-cell (56WHr) battery which is allegedly to take you some 10 hrs of usage.  It ships with Windows 7 Starter, and a $299 will get you one in black, blue, pink or red in February.

Another great piece is the 1225B, a 12.1-incher that gets powered by AMD E-450 dual-core chip at 1.6GHz, graphics included, native resolution at (1,366 x 768), 2GB of DDR3-1333 memory, a 5,400RPM HDD,  a set USB 3.0 sockets (and a separate USB 2.0 socket), a 0.3 megapixel webcam, WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 plus a 2-in-1 media reader. It should press your lap at 3.1 pounds including a six-cell battery, and a (32-bit) Windows 7 Home Premium OS onboard. For color fanatics – well, you’ll be smacked in black, red or white. Ultimately, the Eee PC X101CH’s entry-level should steal $269 affording you a 10.1-inch panel (1,024 x 600) resolution, integrated graphics, 1GB of RAM plus the standard complement of ports.

Source: Engadget

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Next week some 150,000 people are estimated to attend the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), and most of these people kick the netbooks to the curb while they rush creeping towards the pricey ultrabook and cost effective full-sized laptops.

Of course, you should expect netbook announcements at CES; however this type of hardware is on its final stride – at least when you talk of Western markets.

Manufactures have already begun pulling back. In fact, just the previous month, Dell confirmed its intention to end its netbook wing of production. But prior to bidding netbooks a warm farewell, it’s important to appreciate the way they’ve changed the world of computing as well as pin the guilt on those accountable for their downfall.

Netbooks were brought down largely by three crucial things: a PC business that sets inflexible rules on memory; an already incorporated Microsoft’s Windows 7 “Starter” edition that distributes with netbooks and the press that mostly parrots PC market alleges that netbooks are only excellent for email and Web browsing.

Netbooks will stay feasible, functional and economical, and their performance levels will only get improved with Intel’s latest Atom chip. Named, the Cedar Trail, which is a dual-core Atom 32-nanometer chip that clock speeds of close to 2.13GHz.

Although netbook manufactures are looking to display their latest models at CES that will basically be relegated to the shadows by what’s likely to be quite a number of ultrabook announcements. The biting wit is that at CES, open power outlets will be difficult to locate, netbook consumers will be lucky to survive the convention with working PCs.

Considering netbook’s six-celled batteries, most will deliver battery time of about 7-9 hours. Plus it’s simple to carry a backing battery in a bag since netbooks don’t consume a lot of space.

Netbook in itself as a product group was first released in 2007. A few of the early models were lemons, as well as a 4GB flash drive Linux  version manufactured by Asus that sold with about 95 percent of the hard-drive consumed up by pre-installed applications. Yet it’s difficult, in retrospection, not to respect the originality and experimentation the group produced.

Undoubtedly, shipments of the iPad destroyed the netbook industry, as did the entrance of the Apple’s take on the lean, MacBook Air, glossy and sexy ultrabook class. Slim and lightweight, with a standard keyboard, ample storage capacity and a fairly fast processor, the MacBook paved the way something fresh. Like the Ultrabooks that may ultimately prove to be superior, although not cheap. And you can guess why at CES 2012 will be: All salute the ultrabook.

Source: PC World

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Another notebook called the Eee PC 1225B has just popped out on the ASUS website this weekend. While it still has more unofficial details, the model number suggests the new machine will be having a 12.1 inch display and an AMD processor. In other words, this should probably follow the Asus Eee PC 1215B which was released earlier this year.

There are few retail websites that listed some of its additional details. There are rumors that the laptop could have a 1.65 GHz AMD E-450 dual core processor, 4GB of DDR3 memory, a 500GB hard drive and Radeon HD 6320 graphics. Other features could include USB, VGA, HDMI, WiFi, Bluetooth, VGA, and HDMI.

The Eee PC 1225B might show up at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, next year. There’s no word yet on its availability and pricing, but with all the mentioned features. This may be one of ASUS’s best notebooks yet.

via liliputing

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ASUS had initially made some handsome wedge of magnesium alloy in US late last year. Well, it now appears the ultraportable notebook finally graces folks in the UK as well. The 13.3-inch U36′s notable  features include a svelte 19mm thickness, second-gen Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM (upgradable to 8GB), NVIDIA GeForce GT 520M graphics card, and a USB 3.0 toggle (for an approximated 11.5 hour battery life).

The U36S’s touchpad and keyboard are fairly basic. The keyboard sort of small Chiclet-style keys, which is comfortable enough to type on although a bit firm at times. Its touchpad is smooth while supporting multitouch gestures for example pinch-to-zoom.

U36S’s hardware seems heavy now that we’ve already played with the ASUS’s UX21 ultrathin, but of course at price point of £699 (just above $1,200) it’s hard to whine much. And heck, if Asus just included some real speakers in this gamble; it would basically be an almost perfect ultraportable. If your hands already sweating for the thrill, it’s available at major stores in your choice of black or silver.

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Can you recall the display on your first handset? It was perhaps big enough to fit a whole telephone number – live alone a text message or a contact name. What about your smartphone? Whether displaying leveled-down, WAP versions of web page was asking too much. Now, such handsets we couldn’t live without, and even sometimes, still, we surreptitiously wish they had bigger displays. Ultra-thin and lightweight laptops seek to feature even higher resolution displays come next year: Super-sharp “retina-quality” displays.

So, hold that bulk you intend to spend on a laptop for a few weeks to get these Ultrabooks. VR Zone confirmed that beginning next year, when Ultrabooks housing Intel’s latest tech Ivy Bridge processor land, we can anticipate to see their 13.3-inch or 15.6-inch displays running resolutions as high as 2560 pixels by 1440 pixels – similar to the Apple’s iPad 2 resolution (1024 pixels by 768 pixels).  

This sketch graph availed at the Intel Developer Forum a few weeks ago implies Intel is trying to copy the iPhone’s fashionable Retina display in providing a screen with that kind of pixel density even the human eye can’t differentiate individual pixels. Meaning, Ultrabooks could soon get smartphone-quality screens. In fact, this week Asus alleged that its 13.3-inch Zenbook UX31 brags a stunning high-resolution display (1600 pixels by 900 pixels); higher compared to both the Ultrabook Acer Aspire S3-951 and the MacBook Air.

But for those who need extremely high resolution display, they’ll have to wait about six months for such Ultrabooks to land.

Source: PC World

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Far from unifying the smartphone and tablet PC markets, it looks like the introduction of Google Android 4.0 a.k.a. Ice Cream Sandwich may have made the gap between the two market spaces even wider. Android 4.0 brings many improvements over Honeycomb, its predecessor which can be found on many of today’s most popular smartphones and a handful of tablet PCs. Although you might think that PC vendors would love the idea of Google unifying all development efforts towards just one operating system, the reality is a lot more complicated than that.

At the official announcement Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich yesterday, the focus was mainly on Samsung’s new Galaxy Nexus, a device with a very large screen, to be sure, but is certainly not something that would be considered a tablet PC. What has gotten certain PC makers and some market watchers a bit worried is the fact that Google made no mention of tablets at all at yesterday’s official Ice Cream Sandwich announcement. Does this mean there will be a renewed focus on the smartphone space and tablet PC makers will be left out of from now on?

This is a major concern for tablet PC makers who are pinning their hopes on Android to compete with Apple’s iPad. With the imminent launch of the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, Google is expected to give a lot more than just a few new UI enhancements and novel features for the market of Android tablets to really catch up to the competition.

Via Digitimes

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A tablet PC with a built-in keyboard, but somehow not quite like a convertible touchscreen netbook. That’s essentially what the Asus Eee Pad Slider SL101 tablet PC is. It has a 10.1-inch touchscreen display, a slide-out keyboard, and lots and lots of fun in between. I managed to get my hands on one a couple days ago, and here are my first impressions of the said device after having used it for a while.
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Read the rest of Asus Eee Pad Slider SL101 tablet PC first impressions (579 words)

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 ASUS’ newest netbook,  Eee PC 1008HA,

 features  an all-new chassis inspired

 by the natural curves of a seashell.

 ASUS has created some nice-looking

 netbooks, including its Swarovski-

studded Eee PC S101, but the Eee PC

1008HA takes a more subtle approach.

 The system overall sports a sharp and

 clean design, largely a result of the

 curved panels that extend over its

edges and hide the ports.  The glossy

 black lid (also available in white;

blue and pink will come later this

year) is covered in a new Infusion

finish that allows the 1008HA to be

scratch resistant; but it’s far from

 fingerprint resistant. The 1008HA is

 thinner than most other laptops in

 its class measuring 10.3 x 7 x 1.0

 inches. All of the ports on the

1008HA are covered with plastic tabs,

 giving this netbook its uniform look

. Despite its size and dimensions it

 packs a comfortable and spacious

 keyboard. Unlike the island keyboard

 of the 1000HE, there are no spaces

between the raised black matte keys

which was found to be pretty flat.

ASUS keeps the correctly placed keys

 it mended with the ASUS Eee PC 1000HE.

 The right Shift key is full size and

directly below the Enter key. A Wi-Fi

and touchpad on/off buttons sits above

 the keyboard. The trackpad on this

netbook is pretty different from the

 rest. Blending in with system’s deck,

the 2.5 x 1.5-inch pad is covered with

 small braille-like dots. Unlike most

netbooks, the pad had very little

 friction, and navigating the desktop

 didn’t require much backtracking. As

 with other Eee PCs, the touchpad also

 supports multitouch gestures; using

two fingers to pinch the pad and zoom

 in on a picture was easy, and the

image quickly rendered in its new size.

 The single mouse button was comfortable

 for making selections, although we

prefer the 1000HE’s dedicated right and

 left buttons. The screen is pretty

 impressive with the 10.1-inch,

1024 x 600-pixel resolution backlit LED

 display and thus it allows the web pages

 and windows to fit to size on the screen.

 From afar, the inch-thick glossy black

bezel looked as if the screen was flush

with the frame, though on a closer

inspection one can easily notice the

upright frame. Above the display, a 1.3

-megapixel Webcam provided extremely clear

 images in a Skype video chat. The speakers

 located at the bottom front edge of the

 system allowed us to hear his voice loud

 and clear from across the room.  As far

 as performance is concerned   with the

same 1.66-GHz Intel Atom N280 processor,

 1GB of RAM, and Windows XP as the ASUS

Eee PC 1000HE, not much of a change in

everyday performance or benchmarks on the

 1008HA Seashell can be seen.

Source

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Apparently, Intel still won’t budge and just won’t give PC makers such as Acer the CPU price subsidy necessary to launch sub-$1000 ultrabooks. And even though people like Acer Taiwan president Scott Lin appear confident about future sales of ultrabooks (compared with tablet PCs), it seems that the whole industry is a bit cautiously optimistic about the whole thing.

Knowing that PC makers are at least going to need something to help further adoption of ultrabooks once they actually become available, Intel plans on increasing its marketing subsidies to notebook vendors to attract them into promoting the new devices, according to a report on DigiTimes. Now, this might mean that Acer, Asus, and other ultrabook vendors will have to come up with some ridiculous promos to get people to buy their stuff, but let’s just give them the benefit of the doubt.

The good news is that sub-$1000 ultrabooks are still indeed on their way. Unfortunately, these might not make it to market until the 2nd quarter of 2012, in April, with the introduction of Intel’s Ivy Bridge platform. So if you aren’t in a hurry to purchase an ultrabook, you’re in for a great big discount provided that you can keep waiting it out for the next six months.

Via DigiTimes

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Acer Taiwan president Scott Lin knows that tablet PCs are currently selling like hotcakes. Yes, as someone who leads a company that sells devices being taken over by these slate-like contraptions on the market, Lin is bound to realize just how much of an impact tablet PCs are having on computers such as notebooks these days. Well, the tablet PC may be enjoying its ride in the waves of success right now, but according to Lin, upcoming Ultrabooks such as the Acer Aspire S3 will be the ones having the last laugh. Lin’s theory is that since ultrabooks can go toe to toe with tablet PCs not just in terms of performance but also in terms of thinness and lightness, consumers will soon realize that it’s ultrabooks that they want to buy instead of another iTablet from some fruity company in California. Lin bets that Windows 8-powered ultrabooks will be the prime driving force of PC makers in taking the market back from tablets. In a few months, we should be able to see if there’s any truth at all in what’s been said above.

Via DigiTimes

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