IFA 2014: Asus announces Zenbook UX305 ultrabook and the EeeBook X205 laptop

Asus has already started off with its IFA 2014 proceedings. Along with announcing the Asus ZenWatch , it has also taken off the wraps of what it claims as the world’s slimmest ultrabook - the Zenbook UX305. Along with the Zenbook, Asus has also launched the EeeBook X205 laptop and MeMOPad 7 Android tablet. [caption id=“attachment_232157” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Asus Zenbook UX305 houses an Intel Core M processor and measures just 12.3mm thick[/caption] Asus Zenbook UX305 is one of the first Intel Core M platform based ultrabook, which is a 14nm Broadwell part, about to be announced at the Intel IFA keynote soon. It measures just 12.3mm on its thickest side and it has a tapered edge profile when seen from the sides. It sports a 13.3-inch touch-sensitive QHD+ display. That means the resolution is a whopping 3200x1800 pixels. The display has a matte finish.   Built within an all aluminum frame, the Asus Zenbook UX305 supports 256GB SSD and claims to give a 10 hour plus battery life. It houses 8GB of RAM and runs Windows 8.1 out of the box. It features 802.11ac Wifi, three USB 3.0 ports, a headset jack, an HDMI out and an SD card reader. It weighs only 1.2kg and has a chiclet keyboard. [caption id=“attachment_232156” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  With the EeeBook X205, Asus is trying to woo the student community[/caption] The other laptop announced at IFA was the EeeBook X205 which is an 11.6-inch laptop (1366x768 pixel resolution) coming bundled with Windows 8.1 with Bing search engine. You may be aware that Asus EeeBook was a popular netbook line back in the day, and with the X205 Asus is once again looking at capturing this market. The pricing is expected to be around $265 or approx Rs 17,000.   The Asus X205 is powered by an Intel Atom Z3735 processor and comes with 2GB of RAM with either 32Gb or 64GB solid state storage. It measures just 17.5mm thick and weighs less than 1kg. It comes with a microHDMI port, a microSD card slot and two USB 2.0 ports. The X205 is targetted at on-the-go students and young professionals. It comes with the Connected Standby technology, which basically enables almost-instant resume from sleep mode and gives users an enhanced internet experience, as they are always connected to all their social apps and email — even when X205 is in standby mode.   Along with the notebooks, Asus also launched the MeMO Pad 7 (ME572C) which is a 7-inch Android tablet powered by a 64- bit Intel Atom processor. It measures just 8.3mm thin and weights 269gm. ME572C features the ZenUI interface which is the same as the one on the Zenfones. As well as a Wi-Fi-only version, the ME572 Series is also available in a 4G LTE version (ME572CL), powered by an Intel XMM 7160 LTE modem that provides fast connectivity for high-speed web browsing, streaming video and music.