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     This story was printed from CdrInfo.com,

     located at http://www.cdrinfo.com.

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ASUS today extended its thin and light notebook lineup with two new U Series.

The ASUS U35 and U45 notebooks are powered by standard voltage Intel Core i5 or i3 processors. The heat generated by standard voltage CPUs previously made their use unfeasible in super slim notebooks, but ASUS' engineers have found a way to incorporate them without any detrimental thermal effects.

At its default frequency, the Intel Core i5 CPU is already a very capable processor in its own right. The U35 and U45 feature ASUS' exclusive Super Hybrid Engine (SHE), however, which is capable of intelligently increasing the frequency in order to handle heavy processing loads. According to tests cinducted by Asus, the i5 450M processor of the U35 and U45 is capable of setting 10.3% higher CPU benchmarks with SHE activated.

The ASUS U35 and U45 also boast battery lives of over 10 hours. When performing less demanding tasks, SHE cuts back on the energy deployed, extending battery life to deliver a total battery running time of 11.5 hours. Further enhancing the energy efficiency of both notebooks is NVIDIA Optimus technology which auto-switches between the dedicated GeForce G310M and integrated GPUs to suit the intensity of the graphics being rendered?leading to additional power savings and longer battery life.

The ASUS U35 and U45 come in at under an inch thick, measuring just 14.8mm at their thinnest points. Their slender forms also make them lightweight, while brushed aluminum lids further contribute to keeping the notebooks' overall weights down. Despite their svelte profiles, the U35 and U45 are equipped with potent audio capabilities, delivering high fidelity sound through their Altec Lansing speakers, which are complemented by SRS Premium Sound technology.

Enhannced Audio with ASUS SonicMaster

In seperate news, Asus and and Bang&Olufsen are currently offering the "SonicMaster" audio technology, which has been first supported in Asus' N seriers of notebook PCs.

SonicMaster has gained from the expertise of both a dedicated group of audio professionals assembled by the ASUS Golden Ear Team and the experience garnered by Bang & Olufsen ICEpower. SonicMaster is not a one-off technological effort, nor a marketing ploy. It presents a new professional audio certification program, with notebooks that meet the standard marked as SonicMaster compliant. It consists of upgraded hardware in the form of larger speaker chambers and stronger amplifiers to render sound in high fidelity. In addition, SonicMaster incorporates extensive software equalization to ensure a wide range of sound reproduction and full-liveness vocals, where previous generations of notebooks settled for muddy human voices and tinny reproduction.

Engineers have worked hard to ensure SonicMaster?s frequency leaves nothing out. This stems from the overall power upgrade SonicMaster hardware represents. Not only are the speakers and resonance chambers bigger, the amplifier gets much higher voltage than the norm in notebooks, giving it the room to create impactful sound. This has proved critical in another aspect the Golden Ear continues to focus on?vocals. While historically listening to songs on a notebook PC meant barely intelligible voice, SonicMaster elevates this aspect to the level of a concert hall or live show, culminating in lifelike surround that?s amazing in music as it is in gaming, movies and even communications.

The N Series notebooks from ASUS are powered by 2010 Intel Core processors, offer USB 3.0 ports and the latest generation of ASUS Video Magic image enhancement for HD video. The multimedia notebooks with SonicMaster are available in several form factors?the 14.0" N43, 15.6" N53 and 17.3" N73, as well as the top of the line 18.4" NX90.