by: Patrick Villavicencio
MANILA, Philippines — Following stellar success of its initial Ultrabook offering, ASUS is upping the ante again with the local preview of the Zenbook prime ahead of its launch during Computex in Taiwan next week.
In a briefing with the local press, ASUS claimed that the new Zenbook Prime UX31A is the most beautiful notebook they have ever produced, top billed by the full high-definition 1080p IPS display that is said to be the first of its kind on notebooks.
“The new Zenbook Prime has a faster solid-state device (SSD) drive that gives the notebook more than twice the improvement in performance and speed,” said Eason de Guzman, technical PR of Asus Philippines.
Asus executives, however, were tight-lipped when asked if the new Ultrabook will already sport the newly released Ivy Bridge processors from Intel.
On the design front, Asus did little to veer away from the original design of its first Ultrabook, which sports a metallic-brush finish and a form factor that tapers in front.
The Taiwanese gadget maker, however, is bringing in a five-point design philosophy which, it said, will form the cornerstone of the design of all the notebooks it will release this year.
The philosophy, which it has tagged as the “Asus Sense Experience,” will revolve around delivering a user experience that draws from the beauty, sound, touch, instant-on and instant-connect, and cloud features of the notebooks.
This translates to a better sound and interaction experience with the notebook, Asus claims, as it adds a SonicMaster technology as well as a wider and more responsive touchpad with various gesture functions to the units.
Owing to the immense popularity of smartphones and tablet devices, Asus is also incorporating instant-on features to its notebooks including the Zenbook prime, which promises a 2-second resume from sleep and up to two weeks of standby time.
The company said it is also providing a cloud storage service to easily sync and upload files and other content to other devices.
“The market is changing,” said Asus Philippines Marketing Manager Jamie Zaldivar. “It’s not just about the digital specifications of gadgets anymore. Three product categories are merging into one market, so it’s all about the experience users get from their devices.”
Following its launch at Computex, Asus will reportedly bring the Zenbook Prime to the Philippines at a retail price of P74,990 for the 13-inch model, the only unit it will be distributing in the country.
Earlier, Asus said it did not expect the high demand for its Ultrabook line from Filipino consumers considering the steep price slapped on initial units.
