Asus Flare Launch @ Bizu Greenbelt 2

Yesterday afternoon saw a host of fashion, lifestyle, and technology writers together as Asus launched their trendiest line to date. The event dubbed as Flare introduced these two new laptops and a few refreshes to favorites.

Hosts Jaime and Eason made sure everyone knew the products inside and out presenting all of the models that was laid out for the attendees technically and aesthetically.

I had a chance to chat with them early on and they were very insightful with the products and their features which we will get to in a little bit. Bizu provided a very generous entree for event participants which is very apparent with the cleared out spread.

There was also a photo booth where participants can have their photo taken and the most fashionable male and female will get to take home a prize, complete of course with plenty of pink accessories and wigs:

Bloggers were free to interact with the devices and got to know each of them at their own time.

And now on to the devices; The event name was taken from their newest 10 inch offering:

Named the 1025C, the Flare features a very sleek design finished with metallic paint and chrome sides looking suspiciously like a pen from the side with its tapering front. At the left side we see the power port, VGA port, USB 2 port, air vents, and the HDMI port. The Flare has the Intel Atom N2800 as its core and being part of their Cedar Trail series allows it to play Full HD (1080p/i) movies without problems as well as providing a very generous battery life of 12 hours which means the HDMI port will come in real handy.

On the right we find an SD card slot, a combination headphone jack, another USB 2 port and a USB 3 port, Kensington lock and a LAN port with a drop down gate. The USB 3 port can charge devices even when the netbook is off and with its battery, you can expect it to be there for a back up for when it is needed.

The finish extends even to the bottom of the device with the exception of the battery and the keys completing the accented design.

Emphasis was given to the instant-on feature which allows for a 2 second resume from sleep, one unique to ultrabooks with SSD drives before.

Among the units on display was the X101 refresh – the X101CH and shares some of the design details of the Flare but doesn’t carry its name.

Its main feature is the fanless design which makes it very cool and very quiet during operation. A 3-cell battery is used to maintain the slim form factor and that allows for 5 hours of untethered computing via the N2600 Cedar Trail.
There was also the 1225B which is a refresh of their 1215B featuring an updated AMD APU E-450 Brazos processor.

This is the only AMD unit on display and is sufficiently powered and geared towards users who want a higher resolution screen and a little bit more work capability.
The showstopper however was the Hot Pink Asus Zenbook:

Its the same UX31 with a color scheme so stylish that keeping it in the bag is injustice. The color is so vibrant that it literally moves your eyes towards it; The keys are also printed in the same hot pink hue while the body is a darker shade of gray compared to the silver Zenbook model.

Included accessories are the HDMI converter and LAN converter, and matching accessory and laptop sleeves in black leather and hot pink stitching.

Here is a snapshot and listing of the SRPs for all the models present during the launch:

X101CH – 13,995 Php (No OS) and 15,995 Php (Win7Starter)
1025C Flare – 16,995 Php
1225B – 22,995 Php
UX31 Hot Pink – 59,995 Php

Past the presentation, I got a chance to win an X101CH through a raffle with an enumeration elimination contest afterwards and was fortunate enough to emerge the victor. I don’t have the unit yet but I’m really looking forward to sharing it here as well.

Had a great time, met plenty of new personalities, and even learned a masterful camera trick from Sir Alex of  The Technoclast. Many thanks to Asus Philippines and congratulations for another successful product launch.