Just after you were thinking the pandas had gobbled up all of the bamboo laptops, ASUS has finally shipped some of its latest offerings to the UK. Unlike the US, however, the lucky tea-sipping Brits are spoiled with two size options: the 13-inch, 3.75-pound U33Jc and the 15-inch, 6.1-pound U53Jc. Moreover the extra inches and the bonus DVD burner on the U53Jc, these two Windows 7 machines are almost identical: there\’s a 2.26GHz Core i5-430M CPU, 1,366 x 768 LED-backlit LCD, NVIDIA GeForce 310M with Optimus technology, 4GB DDR3 RAM, and one USB 3.0 port besides two 2.0 ports. The prices? £849 ($1,292) and £899 ($1,368), respectively. Before you whip out your credit card, though, make sure you keep a watch out for our forthcoming review.
ASUS Bamboo Series Notebooks: Inspired by Nature. Designed for Style.
ASUS have today announced the UK launch of the U33/U53 Bamboo notebook series.
Green living is a super. An aspiration. Chiefly, a decision. As component to ASUS\’ continued innovation within the area of environmental sustainability, the hot U33/U53 Bamboo Series is manufactured using environmentally-friendly bamboo. Delightfully slim and light-weight, and sublime due to the incorporation of brushed aluminium, the Bamboo notebook boasts a smoky-brown bamboo exterior similar to contemporary designer furniture, bearing natural patterns which might be unique to each notebook and providing individuality in a green-inspired product.
Combining this stunning bamboo exterior, modern technologies and eco-friendly credentials, the U33/U53 bamboo notebook range is as much for the golf green consumer as this is for the performance-demanding style icons.
Super Hybrid Engine and NVIDIA Optimus use intelligent monitoring to keep energy levels efficient and reduce CO2 emissions, whilst USB 3.0 delivers the fastest transfer speeds. With new Intel® Core™ i5 processor the U33/U53 notebooks deliver superior performance with up to 10 hours battery life.
The notebooks will likely be available from a number of retailers and e-tailers including Micro Anvika, Selfridges, PCWorld.co.uk, Ebuyer.com and Amazon.co.uk at a value of £849 and £899 inc VAT SRP.
To look at the promotional video of the Bamboo Series please visit: http://www.youtube.com/asus
Key Features:
* Stylish bamboo exterior and packaging
* 13.3\” (U33) or 15.6\” (U53) HD Color-Shine LED backlit 1366 x 768
* Intel® Core™ i5-430M processor (3MB cache, 2.26GHz)
* Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
* NVIDIA Optimus auto-switching graphics
* ASUS Super Hybrid Engine
* USB 3.0
* Seamless chiclet keyboard
* 2.0M Web camera with on/off slider
* 2 year global collect and return warranty
Bamboo materials deliver an eco-friendly yet stylish innovation:
The U33/U53 Bamboo notebooks deliver a high-quality harmony of fashion, practicality and environmentally-friendliness – making it a great no-compromise computing solution for image-conscious users who wish to look good whilst playing their part in saving the planet.
The notebook exterior is encased in a natural smoky bamboo material – reducing traditional plastic use by around 15% and exuding organic appeal through both appearance and touch. Even the outer packaging is stylishly green; the wrapped gift box made out of 100% recyclable bamboo materials provides a thoughtful final touch.
Bamboo is likely to be the best renewable source of wood material. Compared with traditional wood sources, it has a far faster re-growth period (reaching maturity in 4 years), doesn\’t need re-planting and has higher levels of CO2 absorption – making it ideal to harvest without damaging our surroundings. What\’s more – excluding its ultra-green properties, bamboo is quite hardwearing; so the U33/U53 notebook is more than gorgeous and green, it\’s also a highly robust and practical choice too.
The U33/U53 Bamboo notebook also boasts a pretty seamless chiclet keyboard with fingerprint-resistant brushed aluminium surfacing to eliminate those unsightly smudges.
Stay energy efficient and reduce C02 emissions with Super Hybrid Engine and NVIDIA Optimus technology:
Whilst bamboo materials keep the U33/U53 notebook green on the surface, a bunch of innovative features inside keep the technology energy efficient whilst maintaining a high level of performance when users need it most.
ASUS Super Hybrid Engine technology automatically manages power levels making sure that users have high performance once they need it most (which include when watching videos or playing games) yet don\’t waste much-needed battery life when enjoying less power-hungry applications equivalent to email or word-processing. The innovative technology not only boosts performance by up to 11% but can extend battery life to twice that of competitor models – giving users up to 10 hours of entertainment between charges.
Super Hybrid Engine also helps to scale back the CO2 emissions of both notebook models – the U53 can reduce emissions by 18.43Kg whilst the U33 by 22.24Kg in comparison with that stipulated by the ErP standard.
Also squeezed into the efficient bamboo package is NVIDIA Optimus – a clever technology which quietly monitors which programs are being used and automatically switches between high performance discrete graphics (for movies, games and other graphic-intense programs) or low performance on-board graphics for everything else. Traditionally users would want to try this manually, rebooting applications before the change took effect – but with the U33/U53 bamboo notebook, NVIDIA Optimus takes the effort and complication out and makes this intelligent concept available to even novice computer users.
USB 3.0 cuts the waiting around with super-fast transfer speeds:
The U33/U53 Bamboo notebooks integrate the cutting-edge USB 3.0 technology. Over 10x faster than previous USB 2.0 standards and delivering super-fast transfer speeds to learn users, USB 3.0 connections take only 70 seconds to transfer a 25GB Blu-ray movie and reduce iPhone charging times by 45% – so users can spend less time waiting around and more time having fun.
Specifications – U53Jc
Intel® Core™ i5-430M processor (3MB cache, 2.26GHz)
15.6\” HD Color-Shine LED backlit 1366 x 768
NVIDIA Optimus technology with NVIDIA GeForce 310M DDR3 1GB & Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics
4GB DDR3 1066 MHz
640GB SATA harddrive (5400 rpm)
DVD Super-Multi Combo
2.0M Webcam
1 x USB 3.0 + 2 x USB 2.0
1 x VGA port/1 x RJ45/2 x audio jack/HDMI port
6-cell 2.2Ah/ 8-cell 2.2Ah/8-cell 2.8Ah
Dimensions: 386 x 257 x 31.6-33.09mm /2.76kg with 6-cell battery
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Specifications – U33Jc
Intel® Core™ i5-430M processor (3MB cache, 2.26GHz)
13.3\” HD Color-Shine LED backlit 1366 x 768
NVIDIA Optimus technology with NVIDIA GeForce 310M DDR3 1GB & Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics
4GB DDR3 1066 MHz
500GB SATA harddrive (5400 rpm)
2.0M Webcam
1 x USB 3.0 + 2 x USB 2.0
1 x VGA port/1 x RJ45/2 x audio jacks/HDMI port
6-cell 2.2Ah/ 8-cell 2.2Ah/8-cell 2.8Ah
Dimensions: 328 x 232 x 14-32 mm/1.7kg with 6-cell battery
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
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