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New 11" & 13" Zenbooks with 1080p IPS screen and Nvidia Graphics

I'm impressed. I would get one if I wasn't frantically waiting to escape from Windoh's.

C'mon Apple, announce the new Air's!!
 
WOW that is a beast for an ultrabook. I wonder how can they deal with heat output.

But at any rate, well done ASUS!
 
That's definitely a hell of a gauntlet they've thrown down to Apple.

I'm not sure how i would feel if they made the air thicker... I would say I can't see Apple doing that, but they just did it with the 'new iPad' and packed a lot more in - so can we expect the same? 1mm thicker with a real gpu and a higher res display?
 
The specs on that look great! I hope Apple ups the ante with the new Air.

I wonder if we'll see "Retina" level displays on the new Air. 1400x900 doubled to 2800x1800?

I've got a 2011 model with 256GB and I love it! School, work, and vacations are easy. I have bootcamp and I've played Skyrim and Civ 5.

I would love to see a bit more space, USB 3.0, and a better graphics chip.

If they up the SSD space, I'll seriously consider buying it.
 
I agree on the OSX vs. Windows thing. No contest.

That said, I've been considering making the switch to Linux (I use my machine for primarily software dev...).

More than anything my main interest is battery life.
 
KohPhiPhi said:
WOW that is a beast for an ultrabook. I wonder how can they deal with heat output.
Click to expand...

I don't typically speculate on that. It seems like a lot for such a tiny case, but you can always wait for reviews. It is surprising to see IPS displays. I wonder how well they're implemented. Apple may use TN currently, but they're implemented pretty well on the macbook lines. I suggest that people look for at least reviews on the display in use rather than concern themselves with specs unless X panel has whatever known problem.
 
Reidan said:
Hmmmm, an ASUS ZenBook Hackintosh anyone???
Click to expand...

That's a serious consideration. I know a few people with current gen Zenbooks and they love them. They're a really nice machine (except I couldn't stand no backlighting) and they look awesome, albeit not as good as the Airs imo. If they up the ante like this and Apple doesn't come back in some way, I'd definitely consider getting a Zenbook and going the Hackintosh route.
 
Oli3000 said:
That's definitely a hell of a gauntlet they've thrown down to Apple.

I'm not sure how i would feel if they made the air thicker... I would say I can't see Apple doing that, but they just did it with the 'new iPad' and packed a lot more in - so can we expect the same? 1mm thicker with a real gpu and a higher res display?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't be against a slightly thinker Air if it meant a more powerful machine. I never really liked the 'slice' shape of it anyway. I would rather it be straight across AND thin. Like a thin Pro.
 
Very impressive. Though I'm still waiting for a windows notebook to come with a solid touchpad. It's amazing how horrible some of these touchpads are. This hardware won't mean anything if they pair it with a crappy touchpad.
 
I think when they priced it correctly (i.e. less than the MBA), it made much more sense. Originally I recall seeing them at 1299/1599 just like the MBA 13

Now at 999 and 1299, they're pretty good (even less if you're talking refurb/openbox). I haven't read any details on concrete pricing, but if they play this right, there will finally be an MBA alternative for Windows users. That said I don't see this forcing MBA to be any cheaper, if anything the SSD will be upgraded (hopefully) and then the natural upgrade to ivy, but not much else.
 
I made the original thread about this laptop a couple months back and was super excited about this laptop and the fact that it would set a new standard for ultrabooks.

Turns out it's not that good...

First, it uses GT620M graphics, which is in fact just a rebranded GT520M...
Benchmarks show that Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics are about 50% faster than a GT520M. So not only will the graphics be slower, but they will also use more power than if they simply used Ivy Bridge's iGPU, meaning less battery life as well. It appears to be done 100% for marketing...

Also, this laptop doesn't come with SSD. All you get is a hard drive with 24 GB of integrated flash caching, which sucks for a high-end 2012 laptop they call an ultrabook. They probably decided to cut corners on that part so they could afford putting their useless discrete graphics in just for marketing purpose.

They had to make it thicker than the MBA and original Zenbook to fit that hard drive in, so even if you were to replace the hard drive with a SSD you'd be left with a laptop thicker than most ultrabook for no reason.

The only good thing is the 1080p display, which comes in option on top of the 1100$ base price, which would probably make it around the same price as a MBA, but I personally wouldn't sacrifice the SSD, good battery life, thinness, backlit keyboard and good trackpad drivers of the MBA just to get a 30% DPI boost.
 
That is the PC chipset though, and not the ULV version of Ivy Bridge. That would probably have a significant impact on those graphic benchmarks, no?

Also surely the 1gb of dedicated RAM in the GT 620 would give it the edge over the shared HD 4000?

Would be interesting to see a true benchmark when released. Seems like a bizarre move if it makes no real difference!

Indeed the fact that it has a hybrid HDD/SSD is a bit pants, but I would not expect Apple to go backwards on that. It's just interesting to see what Apple ultimately has to 'compete' with and which features they will want to outdo them on - presumably the whole package!
 
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