Asus launches three new laptop lines

Darius Chang | Mar 11, 2009

In time for the upcoming IT Show in Singapore this week, Asus has launched three new laptop lines for the entertainment crowd. But instead of mere upgrades, each machine has distinct features which separate them from competitors. The Asus N51Vg is the first to use the new Nvidia graphics card, while the X61Gx brings the price point for 16-inch machines to a new low. The flagship model, the Asus W70, leads the pack with the latest Intel X38 chipset which comes with three RAM slots.

The S$2,298 (US$1,656.57) Asus N51Vg is one of the first notebooks to sport the new Nvidia GeForce G105M graphics card. According to the Taiwanese maker, this gives the 14.1-inch machine an exceptional score of 5,431 on the 3DMark06 gaming benchmark. The chipset supports Hybrid Graphics, which means the laptop can switch between the discrete Nvidia chip for better performance (3-hour uptime) and the integrated video processor for an additional hour of battery life.

At S$1,398 (US$1,007.79), the Asus X61Gx is possibly the cheapest 16-inch laptop in the market. However, some compromises were made to keep the cost down. The X61Gx does not have a Blu-ray drive and uses the integrated Nvidia GeForce 9400M video processor, the same found in the current crop of MacBooks. Fortunately, the screen has a high resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels in 16:9 aspect ratio, which can display widescreen movies without stretching.

The top-of-the-line model is the Asus W70. For S$4,298 (US$3,098.33), you get a full-HD 18.4-inch display with a Blu-ray combo drive. Since it's based on the a new Intel X38 chipset, the system has three memory slots and comes with 6GB RAM as standard. Combined with the bundled 64-bit Windows Vista Ultimate operating system, this should give a significant performance bump. The system has two harddisk bays and comes with 1TB of storage (500GB x 2).

All three models come with two-year warranty coverage.

Filed under: Notebooks
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