ASUS kicks off 30th anniversary with new launch

 From left: ASUS Co-CEO S.Y. Hsu, Intel Client Computing Vice President Chris Walker, ASUS Chairman Jonney Shih and ASUS Co-CEO Samson Hu

• Commemorates with many new products

Shevanka Kurumbalapitiya reporting from Taiwan

ASUS, one of the leading computer and phone hardware and electronics companies in the world, celebrated its 30-year anniversary with a special line-up of products launched at Computex 2019. 

The world witnessed the launch of the ZenBook Pro Duo and ZenBook Duo, the ZenBook 13/14/15 series, VivoBook S14/S15 series, ZenScreen Touch and the AMD X570 series motherboards.

ASUS Chairman Jonney Shih presenting the Edition 30  special line-up

In addition to this, in celebration of its 30 years in the industry, ASUS presented the special edition line-up of the ZenFone 6 Edition 30 smartphone, ZenBook Edition 30 laptop and Prime X299 Edition 30 motherboard, each bearing the special stylised ‘A’ monogram as the Edition 30 logo. 

The ASUS ZenBook Edition 30 features a design with a genuine leather lid cover and an 18-karat rose gold-plated logo and equipped with a complete set of premium accessories. It is also the world’s smallest 13-inch laptop featuring a 95% screen-to-body ratio, 8th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and NVIDIA GeForce MX250 graphics. 

The ZenFone 6 Edition 30 features the iconic Zen-inspired concentric-circle patterning in understated Matte Black with the embossed Edition 30 logo. ZenFone 6 is the first notch-less ZenFone with the innovative Flip Camera. ZenFone 6 Edition 30 comes with 12GB RAM and 512GB of internal storage, offering owners a vast amount of storage and speed for efficient use. 

The Prime X299 Edition 30 motherboard features support for the latest high-core-count processors with an enhanced power solution and premium VRM heatsink design. 

Speaking at the press event held in commemoration of the 30th anniversary, ASUS Chairman Jonney Shih said: “ASUS is honoured to have been serving the hardcore tech community, enthusiast, gamers, creators, and tasteful consumers for the last 30 years. I am tremendously excited and proud that we have stayed true to our relentless engineering origin on this incredible journey – one that has made us wiser and stronger together. We aspire to continue to create the most ubiquitous, intelligent, heartfelt, and joyful smart life for everyone for decades to come.”

The ZenBook Pro Duo (UX581) comes with the world’s first ScreenPad Plus, a 14-inch full-width 4K touchscreen which interacts seamlessly with the main display for enhanced creativity, powered by a eight core 9th Gen Intel Core i9 processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GPU and Wi-Fi 6, and a Frameless four-sided 4K OLED HDR NanoEdge main display with 100,000:1 contrast ratio and DCI-P3 100%, fitted with an ErgoLift Hinge design, NumberPad dual-function touchpad and a palm-rest accessory.

The ZenBook Duo (UX481), a 14-inch ultraportable variant, features a frameless four-sided NanoEdge FHD display and an FHD ScreenPad Plus. It’s powered by up to an Intel Core i7 processor and a GeForce MX250 GPU.

The ZenBook 13 (UX334), ZenBook 14 (UX434) and ZenBook 15 (UX534), all come with a four-sided frameless NanoEdge display with ultraslim bezels, built up to 95% screen-to-body ratio for ultracompact footprint, with up to 8th Gen Intel Core i7 CPUs, GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q graphics, 16 GB RAM, ultrafast PCIe SSDs and gigabit-class Wi-Fi 5.

The VivoBook S14 (S431/S432) and VivoBook S15 (S531/S532) are built for the youth market, featuring the ErgoLift hinge design which improves the typing experience, sleek metallic chassis with unique colourblocking finishes, immersive visuals provided by the foursided NanoEdge display, the first VivoBook models to feature infrared cameras and WiFi 6, powered by up to Intel Core i7 processors and NVIDIA GeForce MX250 graphic, with up to a 1 TB PCIe SSD.

Both of the new ZenBook and VivoBook series come with the brand new ScreenPad 2.0, an intelligent touchscreen mousepad that assists in multitasking and for efficient use, which is a step up from the ScreenPad that was released to the market at Computex 2018. It upgrades the traditional laptop experience, adding an interactive secondary screen that enhances productivity and its intuitive new smartphone-like interface enables easy task management. The world also witnessed the launch of the ZenScreen Touch, a slim and light portable monitor designed for mobile productivity, creativity and entertainment. It weighs 0.9 kg and is 9 mm slim and features a 10point touchscreen that supports swipe, scroll, drag and pinch gestures, a built-in 7800 mAh battery and rich connectivity with hybrid-signal USB-C and micro-HDMI ports, which is compatible with most Android mobiles and enables a vast array of uses for professionals. 

Along with these products, ASUS also launched the AMD X570 series motherboards, headlined by Republic of Gamers (ROG). ROG Crosshair VIII series includes the Crosshair VIII Formula, Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi) and Crosshair VIII Impact. ROG Strix Gaming series includes the Strix X570-E, Strix X570-F and Strix X570-I motherboards. The ASUS X570 series includes the Pro WS X570-ACE, Prime X570-PRO and Prime X570-P. 

The TUF Gaming X570 series features the TUF Gaming X570-PLUS and TUF Gaming X570-PLUS with Wi-Fi. ROG X570 boards feature upgraded power circuitry with more power stages, efficient active cooling, exclusive OptiMem technology with an extra boost for ROG boards this generation, and Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax).

ASUS also introduced the Prime Utopia which is an early prototype of the ASUS vision and aspirations for future high-end desktop motherboards. It features the placement of PCIe slots at the back of the board for improved thermal management which frees up space on the front for more expansion cards and M.2 drives, and enables heat from next-gen CPU, graphics cards, and M.2 drives. It also comes with an integrated water-cooling system when fuelling high core count processors. All of this is customisable with the use of a seven-inch full-colour OLED panel with touch-control. 

All of these products and more will be on display at the ASUS booth at Computex 2019 at the Nangang Exhibition Centre, Taipei, Taiwan from 28 May to 1 June and will be available in the international market on 3 June.