The Computex show, an annual event, has begun in Taipei with Asus stealing the limelight, as usual. This is where the Taiwanese company typically showcases its notebooks and phones.
Super Thin LaptopThis year, Asus has an Ultrabook, the Zenbook 3, which seems to have been designed with Apple in mind. It is apparently thinner than the MacBook Air and faster than the MacBook. And for good measure, one of the colour options offered will be rose gold, Apple's favourite gadget shade.
Asus calls the ZenBook 3 "The World's Most Prestigious Laptop," which of course will only have be known once enough consumers have it to give it that prestige.
The Ultrabook has a 11.9mm chassis that weighs 910g. Asus says it used aerospace-grade aluminum alloy, a premium material that is 50% stronger than the standard alloy used in laptops, to make it that thin.
The ZenBook 3 runs on an Intel® Core™ i7 processor, 16GB of 2133MHz RAM, up to a 1TB PCIe® Gen 3 x4 SSD, a USB Type-C port, and quad-speaker audio by Harman Kardon.
The high-resolution 12.5-inch display is edge-to-edge protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 4 and has a slim bezel design provides an 82% screen-to-body ratio for maximum viewing in its size.
Asus also says that the notebook has a
cooling system that features the world's thinnest fan design at just 3mm.
Also notable is a glass-covered touchpad with palm-rejection technology and a built-in fingerprint reader with Windows Hello support. The ZenBook 3 has a claimed life of up to 9 hours with fast charging.
The ZenBook wasn't the only computer unveiled by Asus. There was also the Transformer 3 and the Transformer 3 Pro, a convertible.
Look Ma, No AntennaAsus launched a set of three phones at Computex as well.
The ZenFone 3 Deluxe is Asus' flagship model of the ZenFone 3 family and is constructed with a light aluminum alloy unibody. Its rear surface is free of antenna lines.
Winner of a Computex 2016 d&i Award, the ZenFone 3 5.5-inch Full HD (1920 by 1080) Super IPS+ display with up to 500cd/m2 brightness and very narrow bezels. It's the first smartphone worldwide to be powered by the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 octa?core processor.
The ZenFone 3 Ultra is a smartphone designed for multimedia lovers -- it's almost a tablet with its 6.8-inch Full HD (1920 by 1080) display with a 95% NTSC colour gamut for viewing even outdoors in harsh lighting. According to Asus, it features A 'Tru2Life+ Video technology', which harnesses a high-end 4K UHD TV-grade image processor to optimise pixels in each frame before it is displayed, resulting in superior contrast and clarity. The ZenFone 3 Ultra also has two new powerful five-magnet stereo speakers and a NXP smart amplifier.
Robot at HomeAsus also showed off a household robot at Computex, the Zenbo. Asus Chairman Shih said, "For decades, humans have dreamed of owning such a companion: one that is smart, dear to our hearts, and always at our disposal. Our ambition is to enable robotic computing for every household." And an ambitious project it is.
Zenbo is supposed to be a friendly and home robot designed to give assistance, entertainment, and companionship to families and meant to address the needs of each family member. Its talents include the ability to move independently and understand spoken commands, Specific functionality helps senior family members safeguard their health and well-being as well as stay connected digitally. As a home care assistant, Zenbo proactively provides convenient, spoken reminders of important information, such as doctor's appointments, medication and exercise schedules, and anything else that needs to be remembered. Zenbo also monitors the home for emergency situations - such as falls - and immediately responds to them by notifying specified family members on their smartphones, no matter where they are. When they receive an emergency notification, family members can remotely control Zenbo to move nearby and use built-in camera to visually check on means it can make video calls, use social media, help with shopping, and streaming movies and TV shows - using voice commands and guided help.
BW Reporters
Mala Bhargava has been writing on technology well before the advent of internet in Indians and before CDs made their way into computers. Mala writes on technology, social media, startups and fitness. A trained psychologist, she claims that her understanding of psychology helps her understand the human side of technology.
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