Asus Adds Touch to Netbook Lineup

Asus kicked off this year's Consumer Electronic Show with a pre-show briefing that showcased touchscreen netbooks and notebooks, as well as several digital home devices.
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The sudden rise and tremendous success of netbooks made 2008 a year to remember for Asus. At this point, Asus has the most variants of netbooks, with at least ten, primarily the EeePC family.

The company will soon add two new devices to its netbook lineup: a glamorous, 12-inch netbook called the S121 and a touch-equipped convertible tablet, called the EeePC T91 Touch Screen.

Gigabyte has been floating a convertible netbook for quite some time now, and Asus is not letting it go unnoticed. The EeePC T91 is its first netbook with tablet capabilities. It incorporates touch capabilities, one of which is the ability to manipulate images. The machine can also manipulate maps, since the unit comes with a built-in GPS and features both a TV tuner and FM transmitter, both first-to-market netbook features.

Asus elected to go with an 8.9-inch widescreen display, not the more popular 10-inch ones, and will be using both a spinning hard drive and SSD, for a combined storage capacity of 52 Gbytes. It runs the Windows XP Home package, which includes 1 GB of memory and Intel Atom platform. Different colors are also available.

Dave Fester, general manager of marketing for Microsoft's OEM division, said the device will eventually support Windows 7 as well.

The T91 is about 1-inch thick and weight approximately 2lbs.

"This new generation of netbooks actually is a multi-touch network," said Asus chief executive and chairman Jonney Shih. "It's the superset of the original tablet PC."

Adding functionality for other operating systems like Linux is "possible" but there are not definite plans at this point, Shih said.

The S121, meanwhile, is a more luxurious netbook, which is why it doesn't carry the EeePC moniker. Additions such as the leather palm rests, the edge-to-edge glass, and Swarovski crystals on the hinge are Asus engineering at its best.

The unit weighs 2.6 pounds and is only 0.75-inch thick. Its 12-inch widescreen is backed by LEDs and possesses a 1,280-by-800 resolution. Other luxurious features include a 128-GB SATA solid-state drive and twin batteries that can provide up to 10 hours worth of battery life. The only netbook trait that the S121 really has is that it runs the Intel Atom platform.

The S121 should get up to 8 hours of battery life, Shih said.

Shih said he expects that the S121 will debut later this month. Shih declined to provide exact pricing details, but said it will likely run in the $1,649 range.

The touch-based offerings will likely hit store shelves in three to six months, he said.

Asus also demoed the N20 touch-screen and the M50 notebooks.

The N20 will incorporate the company's AI Touch Media software to let users navigate all media like music and movies using touch.

The M50 notebook is two separate notebooks in one chassis, Asus said. It includes a 4.3-inch widescreen display below the keyboard that includes a collection of widgets – like calendar, text messaging, or e-mail - intended to allow easy access to key applications without wasting power.

Users can access this smaller screen without having to wait for the main computer to boot, but also launch a movie in the small screen and project it to the larger, main screen – sharing the notebook's main battery.

Shih also highlighted two offerings meant to enhance the digital home experience.

The Eee Keyboard is the first wireless media center enabled by ultra wideband HDMI. "It looks like a keyboard, but it's actually a computer," he said.

Turn your TV into a large display to show photos or into a fully functional PC, Shih said. The "keyboard" connects to any existing displays like monitors, HDTVs, or projectors, and weighs less than 2lbs.

The Eee Top, meanwhile, is a touch-screen interface intended to connect family members throughout the home. It will include a stylus that lets users write digital post-it notes, and incorporates an enhanced Opera browser with touch capabilities.

Asus is also updating one of its longest tenured models, the elegant Lamborghini media center. The Lamborghini VX5 features a new 16-inch design and a quad core processor.

Dubbed the Lamborghini VX5, this media center is heading to the 16-inch space, meaning its 16-inch widescreen is consistent to the 16-by-9 form factors of the HP HDX16t, the Acer Aspire 8930G-6723, and the Sony VAIO VGN-FW198UH. The resolution is 1080p, or 1,920 x 1,080. It retains its predecessor's—the VX3—leather stitching on the palm rests, signature Lamborghini logo, and carbon fiber black finish. New features include an illuminated keyboard, WiMax onboard, and ExpressGate – a Linux environment that boots in about 8 seconds.

The VX5 is nothing short of powerful, integrating the top-of- the-line Intel Core2 Duo and for the first time, Asus is offering a mobile quad-core processor as well. Dual SATA hard drives are also supported, for capacities of up to 1 Terabyte. The VX5 will also have an option for a TV tuner and the latest discrete GPU (no word on who the provider is).

Shih also showed off the previously announced U6B, that includes a bamboo cover.

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BY Chloe Albanesius and Cisco Cheng
Source：PCMAG