In early June, ASUS showed us its upcoming S46 and S56 Ultrabooks during Computex. The notebooks, which should combine a large screen with an appealing pricetag, have now been officially launched.
The S46 has a 14" screen and weighs 2 kg, while the S56 has slightly larger dimensions of 15.6" and weighs in at 2.3 kilograms. Both models have a 1366 x 768 HD Ready resolution. Their 21 mm thickness means they barely qualify for Intel's Ultrabook requirements. The remarkable thing about these models though is that they feature an optical drive, something we hardly ever see with this type of laptop. The S-series can be fitted with an Ivy Bridge Core i5 or i7 ULV-processor, combined with up to 8 GB of memory. Graphics are provided by Nvidia's GT 635M GPU.
ASUS has opted for a 24 GB boot SSD which is combined with a hard disk of up to 1 TB. ASUS claims that its own Super Hybrid Engine II software allows the notebook to boot from hibernation in just 2 seconds. Also uncommon for laptops this size is the presence of a full-fledged Ethernet connector. The S-series ultrabooks feature a SonicMaster Lite sound system, USB 2.0, USB 3.0, 802.11n WiFi and a Bluetooth module.
Although ASUS claims that its S46 and S56 ultrabooks have appealing pricetags, the manufacturer has yet to reveal the exact price, as well as the release date. A Hungarian website claims that the S56 will cost around £710 and will be available late October.
