Asus apologises to the INQ

OUR STORY ON the way we were treated in the stand here last week caused a bit of a kerfuffle by all accounts.

When the firm wrote offering its "sincere apologies" for the way INQ hacks were treated at CeBit, we decided to go back and give the Asus booth and its hundreds of products another look.

After a personal apology from the now infamous Asus PR ass, and an assurance the firm was "working extremely hard to develop our relationship with the press and there is simply no excuse for what happened," we shook hands and asked whether we might be allowed to play with some shiny new toys to help us overcome our bitterness. And how could the firm refuse?

The massive booth certainly had plenty to keep us busy for a while, with highlights including the new Eeeee keyboard PC, Eee Stick, new U and UX series notebooks, the Asus Lamborghini VX5, Eee station PC-NAS, Eeeee Top all-in-one, Eee box and a couple of cool prototypes like the origami style foldable PC and the WePC dual touchscreen.

First up, the Asus team removed the Lamborghini VX5 laptop from behind its seven sheets of bullet proof glass and gave it to us to cradle in our arms for a few short minutes. Lamborghinis are sleek, powerful cars and the laptop to which it lends its name is no exception.

Purportedly equipped with the largest density SSD in the world (1TB), the 16 inch, leather trimmed interior notebook also sports an Intel Core 2 Quad processor, 4GB memory, a dedicated Nvidia GeForce GT 130M graphics card with GDDR3 1GB VRAM, a twin turbo mode for accelerating both CPU and GPU manually and an illuminated 'chiclet' keyboard. We asked if Asus might be inclined to let us keep it as compensation for their previous rudeness. After a nervous chuckle and some awkward hand wringing, head PR shook his head and the notebook was taken back to its glass cage.

Next we took a look at Asus' PC in a keyboard, whose name leaves little to the imagination. It is, indeed, a keyboard, equipped with a five inch touch panel, ultra wide band wireless connectivity allowing users to 'beam' the PC's functionality to any big screen TV or LCD in their close surroundings, and weighing in at under a kilo.

We managed to get a 10 second demo before the battery packed up and died. "Sheesh, how long does the battery last on these things?" ventured Sylvie only to be told that Asus wouldn't tell, except to say it might be somewhere in the region of three hours. We raised a quizzical eyebrow as Asus looked around for something shiny to distract us with.

"Oh, look, our Eee stick!" pretty much did the trick, except, on closer inspection, it wasn't really any different to the Wii, in fact, Asus may as well have called it the Weee. It would have been a more honest rip off, for a start. The INQ asked whether the firm was in the process of negotiating with Nvidia to use the Ion platform in the Weeeee, and were told we might find out the answer within the next few months. So, that sounds rather like a "yes" to us then.

Moving on, we were shown the Eeeee box PC B206, which Asus claims is the world's smallest HD capable desktop, allowing users to watch hardware accelerated High Def content via HDMI output. At just 15 watts of power and with wifi 802.11 bunged in to boot, we had to admit it was a fairly nifty little device.

From nifty little devices to monstrous goliaths, the Eee station PC NAS was our next stop, a veritable giant which Asus is plugging as the must have for those keen on storing, backing up and sharing their multimedia. The 3.5 inch touchscreen control panel joins a front slot loading DVD writer on what the Taiwanese computer maker is calling a machine with "multi server capabilities".

That out of the way, we took a peak at the Eeee Videophone, which, yes, you guessed right, is a phone with a seven inch display, built in webcam, speaker and microphone. All the essentials one would expect in a "videophone", so we didn't really understand the fuss.

We glossed over the Eeeeeeee T91 tablet 8.9-inch touchscreen with 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth, 3G plus connectivity, GPS and TV tuner which Asus swears can live for up to five hours on a fully charged battery.

We had to stifle a snort as we were told the new Asus U and UX series were "reminiscient of the streets of Paris with the evening fast approaching". "Howzat then?" we asked. Only to be told it was all down to a chiclet backlit keyboard. It all makes sense now.

Paris night or not, however, the U series does boast an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a hard disk drive of 500GB, discrete Nvidia GeForce G105M graphics with 512MB memory and a 15.6-inch backlit display.

Last but not least, we took a proper look at the two concepts Asus hopes to make a sellable reality in the very near future; the foldable Origami PC and the dual touch screen WePC.

On paper, at least, the idea of a super thin, flexi, foldy, Origami inspired notebook looks cool, but whether Asus will be able to find the right kind of material to make it happen will make all the difference between a revolutionary new machine and a blueprint crumpled and chucked in the nearest bin.

And as for the dual touchscreen notebook concept, the offering which got Asus' spinners in trouble with the INQ in the first place, well, frankly, it looked a bit boring after all the fuss. µ