NEW DELHI: Asus on Thursday launched its ultrabook, a slim and sleek laptop, in India. The laptop, which is just 0.67 inch at its thickest point and weighs less than 1.4kg, will go head-to-head against MacBook Air, said Alex Huang, Asus’s country head for India.
Called Zenbook UX31, the ultrabook from Asus is powered by a core i7 processor, has 4GB RAM, 256GB harddisk, a chiclet style keyboard and an aluminum unibody design. It has a screen size of 13.3 inches. It is priced at Rs 89,999. Huang said that lower priced variants with less space and core i5 processors will be launched in India in early 2012.
The concept of ultrabook was announced by Intel at Computex earlier this year. The company hoped that with thin and sleek laptops it will not only fend off challenge posed by Apple’s MacBook Air but will also be able to entice users away from tablets.
Intel, which has reportedly contributed $300 million towards the development of ultrabook, had announced that the devices would cost less than $1000. However, its hardware partners like Asus and Lenovo are struggling to meet the price point.
Huang said that the Zenbook’s price is higher than $1000 because Asus has tried to make the best ultrabook and not just any portable laptop. “This is the beginning. As we move forward I am sure the prices will come down,” he said.
Apart from a speedy processor, unibody design and SSD, Zenbook has a USB 3.0 port and speakers powered by Bang & Olufsen technology. The device runs on Windows 7.
A few months earlier Acer had launched its ultrabook – S3 – in India. It is priced at Rs 49,990. However, unlike Zenbook, it is powered by a Core i3 processor and lacks an SSD.