The U24E is an 11.6 inch machine Asus intends to launch quite soon in Asia (and the world shortly after, if we’re anticipating correctly). While it’s not as slim as an ultrabook, it has some really interesting features- especially for an 11.6 inch machine- find out more in our product presentation below.
This type of machine usually packs Atom or Fusion hardware- more modest processors that have the advantage of needing less power to function. The U24E, however, comes with a second generation Sandy Bridge processor, namely the Core i5-2430M. The chip was introduced quite recently, and it has a native speed of 2.4 GHZ, but can be increased by Turbo Boost to 2.7 GHZ (2 cores) or 3 GHZ (1 core). It has support for DDR3 memory up to 8 GB and comes with Intel HD 3000 integrated graphics, which is probably the most decent on board video solution you’re able to get right now.
The display on the U24E is pretty standard, in the sense it’s an LCD with a 1366 x 768 resolution and from the looks of it, it seems to be quite glossy. The system comes with 4 GB of RAM, but the system can support up to 8, and Asus will probably offer maxed out versions along the way. One of the very interesting aspects of this mini laptop is the fact that it comes with a 750 GB HDD, a rarity on a machine this small. The exception is a premium version of Alienware laptops, but those are not aimed at the general public, like the U24E is.
Probably the prices for mechanical hard disk drives go down as we speak, considering the unstoppable emergence of SSD drives, and Asus was able to offer such a humongous HDD without skyrocketing the asking price. As for ports, you get USB ports (no word if a 3.0 port is offered or not) that also have a sleep and charge function, an HDMI port, with a card reader probably being in there somewhere as well.
Japanese launch poster of the U24E- let’s hope for a quick US/Europe release
A nice surprise is the fact that the battery on the U24E can go on a single charge for as long as 7 hours– considering the big HDD and fast processor, this is quite a deal. Apparently, Asus employed a new technology on the U24E, named Asus4 Gear Hybrid, that probably regulates the amount of power used by the components according to the task you’re running. Another interesting feature is Instant On, which promises to resume the computer from sleep in just a few seconds, ultrabook/tablet style.
As for software, the laptop runs on Windows 7 Home Premium and comes pre loaded with Kingsoft 2010 Office, which is apparently a free, Open Office like, office suite. As we said earlier, the computer will launch first next week in Asia, namely Japan, for a base price of around 60.000 yen- a little under 800 bucks, with the machine being probably cheaper in US.
To sum it up a little, while you don’t get the class of a Samsung 9 Series/MacBook Air or the sleekness/speed of an SSD packing ultrabook, the 3.3 pounds weighing U24E looks like a very solid non revolutionary laptop, so to say. It can handle most tasks you’ll throw at it and if it will hit US and Europe with a decent asking price, it might just be a stunner.
