Arriving in Vegas, our first order of business was heading to the Venetian for the ASUS press conference. Brian’s dysfunctional bowels prevented us from getting to the conference on time so we missed the introduction of new EeePC models (yawn) and a Republic of Gamers notebook which proved to be much more interesting (more on that in a second). We got there just in time to see the unveiling of the new Bamboo-series laptops and a swank-but-expensive Bang + Olufsen designed desktop replacement setup. ASUSTek Chairman Jonney Shih finished off the gig with the introduction of WaveFace, a cool concept design from the company’s studio.
If you skip through the PR talk and noise, there wasn’t much new to be seen at the event. The Republic of Gamers G73Jh laptop is an evolution of the cool folding paper concept we saw last year. Its sharp, stealth-inspired angular lines give it a slim profile that’s only complimented by a matte finish. Inside, it boasts a Core i7 or i5 processor, up to 8GB of DDR3, a 17.3″ screen, and a Radeon Mobility HD 5870 with 1GB DDR5. No word on the price, but figure it’ll be in the $1,600 range as a good ballpark figure.
The Bamboo Series laptops integrate plastic-impregnated bamboo and aluminum in a very MacBook Pro-goes-to-Asia way. Yeah, it looks cool and it should feel great, but you’re paying for the design, not the hardware. Shih went on to explain how integrating the two materials is a technological wonder. If you’re an engineer, it’s cool to think about but the references seemed lost on most of the room. Thermal expansion discussion doesn’t make you many friends, we suppose. Nor does telling people you’ve got recyclable materials in the laptop but when asked how you recycle them–deer in the headlights. Oops. Plastic impregnated bamboo can’t be thrown in the bin with your pop bottles.
The Bang + Olufsen designed system is like a large screen desktop replacement with two high-end speakers slapped on the side of the screen. It’s big, bold and beautiful with all the bells and whistles but with the flagship model starting at $2,499, I can’t see it showing up at EXPO Icrontic any time soon. I’d take the ROG G73Jh and add in a pair of Sennheiser headphones and still have money left over.
ASUS ended the show by showing off future concepts. WaveFace is what they’re calling concept interactive devices that use touch screens, folding displays, cloud computing and web applications to improve lifestyle. Think of a well-styled watch that runs programs in a manner similar to Google Chrome OS, that’ll talk to a netbook and TV/Media computer. It’s all very nebulous in the execution, but the concepts they illustrated look sweet. Shih said it’ll be at least five years before anything comes from it because the technology isn’t there yet. So we’ve got a ray of hope that at some future press event we’ll see a bombshell dropped. This year wasn’t that event.