If you're
looking for something a little bigger than 11- and 13-inch , but still light, ASUS may have something
for you. Weighing in at 2.31 pounds, the company's new 14-inch ASUSPro B9440
claims to be the lightest business notebook in its class. Despite its larger
screen, the machine itself is actually pretty small: At just 12.6 inches wide,
it's actually a little narrower than the 13-inch MacBook Air.
ASUS says a thin screen bezel and lightweight
magnesium alloy were the trick to making the ASUSPro so portable, which seems
to be how other laptop makers have been achieving smaller footprints as well.
Despite a more compact design here, however, the laptop still has some decent
internals.
The B9440 comes with a full HD display, up to 16GB of RAM, a
seventh-generation Intel Core i5 or i7 CPU and as much as 512GB of solid-state
storage. All pretty standard stuff but at least the machine's tilted
keyboard will make it stand out in the office. The ASUSPro is scheduled to ship
this May for US$ 999.
