ASUS brings Bamboo casings to life in notebook

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 13 November 2008 10:59

Opinion and Analysis

Importantly, the Bamboo’s looks come with some solid power and storage behind it, ensuring this Asus is no mere netbook, but a powerful Core 2 Duo notebook that should blast through most computing needs with ease.

Asus advise that the Bamboo comes with an Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 processor running at 2.53GHz, 4GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive and Vista Ultimate.

Also included is Asus’ own “Super Hybrid Engine” battery power saving software which “preserves power internally by intelligently monitoring component power requirements and automatically adjusting to meet current consumption needs – thus optimising system performance and energy efficiency.”

The 12.1-inch LED-backlit WXGA widescreen LCD provides the view into the bamboo clad digital nirvana, NVIDIA graphics power that view, while 802.11 a/g/n wireless and gigabit Ethernet yanks your conscious back to the physical plane where you can interact with the modern world.

Only an 0.3 megapixel camera is included – a 1.3 or even 2 megapixel camera would have been better at the price, while other features include “fingerprint authentication and TPM security.”

Two batteries are included – a 3 cell and a 6 cell, something that’s interesting – I can’t remember a notebook ever coming with a second battery as a standard feature, and this could well become a standard feature at least for high end notebooks as one extra point of difference between brands.

The exact specifications are as follows:

- Intel Core 2 Duo (T9400 2.53Ghz, 1066MHz FSB, 6MB L2 Cache)

- Windows Vista Ultimate

- 4GB RAM (2 x DDR2 800 modules)

- 12.1-inch WXGA LED-lit LCD screen

- Intel PM45 chipset

- NVIDIA G9300M GS graphics card with 256MB RAM

- Bluetooth and 802.11 a/g/n

- 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet

- DVD/RW S-Multi drive

- 320GB 5400 SATA hard drive

- 3xUSB 2.0, 1xe-SATA, Express Card, VGA Port, Headphone/SPIDIF Out, Mic in, LAN, Modem,
WLAN swtich, HDMI Port

- Two batteries – a 3 and 6 cell battery (3cell Li-Ion 2400mAh, 6cell Li-Ion 4800mAh)

- Notebook Bag and Mouse

- DM / Weight    300 x 220 x 25.3~31.6mm, 1.57kg with 3-cell battery

Available in December 2008, the recommended retail price is AUD $3,499.