ASUSTek Introduces 'Mid-size' Mobile PC in Bid to Create New Market

ASUSTeK Computer Inc of Taiwan announced the "N10J" compact notebook PC Sept 19, 2008. Its 10.2-inch display is larger than 7- to 8-inch displays on "mini PCs," for which the company cultivated the market with its "Eee PC," and smaller than 12-inch displays on general mobile notebook PCs.

"The Eee PC is targeted at Internet users," said Kevin Du, general manager of ASUS Japan. "But we are targeting the N10J not only at Internet users but also at business users. We feel that the product will open another market, which is different from the one for notebook PCs."

The PC features Intel Corp's low power 1.6GHz "Atom" microprocessor along with NVIDIA Corp's "GeForce 9300M GS" graphics processing LSI (GPU). These processors allow for greater performance when playing video or running a game, for example, ASUS said.

It is also possible to turn off the GeForce 9300M GS to reduce power consumption. The battery pack can run the PC for about seven hours when the GPU is off and about four hours when it is on.

The N10J uses Microsoft Corp's "Windows Vista Home Premium" OS when operating as a standard PC, but it can start up in about eight seconds if the "Express Gate" function is used for limited operations such as the Web browser and "Skype."

The 10.2-inch display's resolution is 1024 x 600 dots. Its main memory is 2 Gbytes, while the built-in HDD is 160 Gbytes. The dimensions are 267 (w) x 195 (d) x 29mm (h). Given that the N10J is wider than a mini PC, it features a key pitch of about 18.5mm, which is close to that of a full-size keyboard. The weight is roughly 1.5kg including a battery pack.

There is no suggested retail price, but street pricing is expected to be ¥99,800 (approx US$938).

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