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Computex 2017: Asus releases ZenBook trio and VivoBook pair

Asus claims to the world's thinnest convertible in the form of its ZenBook Flip S device.
Written by Chris Duckett, Contributor

Asus has completed its ritual Monday afternoon Computex event by taking the wraps of three new ZenBooks, and a pair of VivoBook devices.

Opening proceedings was the ZenBook Flip S, which a typically superlative-laden speech by chairman Jonney Shih claimed as the world's thinnest convertible. The Flip S comes in at 11 millimetres thick and packs a seventh-generation Intel i5 or i7 processor, with 1TB of SSD storage, 16GB of LPDDR3 memory, and a starting recommended price of $1,100. The device also has stylus support on its 3840 by 2160 pixel panel.

On the laptop front, Shih announced the ZenBook 3 Deluxe and the beefier ZenBook Pro.

The Deluxe is a 14-inch device available in Core i5 or i7 configurations that tops out with 16GB 2133MHz LPDDR3 memory and 1TB of storage, and also has a pair of Thunderbolt 3 ports and display covered in Corning Gorilla Glass 5.

The ZenBook Pro has a 15.6-inch UHD panel and drives with an Nvidia 1050ti GPU and Core i5 or i7 H-series CPU. The Pro is claimed to have 14 hours of battery life, and arrives with 1TB of SSD storage, 15GB of DDR4 2400Mhz memory, and a pair of Thunderbolt 3 ports.

Asus unveils new devices at Computex 2017

Pricing for the pair of laptops begins at $1,200 for the Deluxe, and $1,300 for the Pro. Availability for any device launched on Monday was not released.

On the lower end of the laptop equation, Asus launched a pair of VivoBooks that traded the terrabyte of SSD storage for a 2TB spinning rust hard drive coupled with 512GB SSD drive.

The $500 VivoBook S offers Nvidia 940MX graphics, a choice of Intel i3, i5, or i7 chips and up to 16GB DDR4 memory. A backlit keyboard and Windows Hello support are offered as optional extras.

For the VivoBook Pro, Asus has packaged a Core i5 or i7 H-series chip with an Nvidia 1050 GPU. The 15-inch device also supports the Asus Pen and makes use of Intel Optane for its SSD caching drive. The VivoBook Pro will start from $800.

Intel has previously touted its 3D XPoint Optane storage as bring fast enough to replace RAM in certain workloads. The company has said in the second half of 2017 it will offer 750GB, 1.5TB sized add-in cards, and as U.2 drives using Optane to consumers.

Although unseen during the presentation, Asus also launched a Tango-enabled 5.7-inch smartphone dubbed the ZenFone AR ZS571 that uses a Snapdragon 821 processor and 8GB of memory.

Announced in February 2014 by Google's Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group, Project Tango was designed to track the 3D motion of the device, while at the same time creating a map of the surrounding environment.

Lenovo launched the first Tango device in June last year as the $499 Phab 2 Pro.

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