Asus U46 laptop aims to undercut Apple MacBook Air and Samsung Series 7 Chronos

Asus is the latest manufacturer to launch a laptop computer aimed at the travelling business user.

The U46 comes with a 14in HD display with a resolution of 1,366x768, making it similar in size and quality to the Apple MacBook Air and Samsung Series 7 Chronos.

The U46 has a starting weight of 2.08kg, which is heavier than the 13in MacBook (1.35kg) but lighter than the equivalent 14in Chronos (2.17kg).

Asus ships the laptop with a second-generation Intel Core i5 Core processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 500GB of storage and Windows 7 Professional 64-bit to cater to the needs of business users.

Those who regularly use multimedia content will be attracted by the Nvidia GeForce GT540M graphics card and 1GB of GDDR3 video memory, which allows the U46 to handle multi-tasking and high-scale visuals with ease.

Connectivity comes in the form of one Ethernet jack, a four-in-one card reader, VGA and HDMI ports as well as two standard USB 2.0 and a USB 3.0 connections. 

Asus has included hard drive and Bios booting password protection, plus a LoJack GPS tracking system and a Kensington lock.

The vendor claims up to 10 hours of battery life, an hour more than Samsung touts for the Chronos and three hours more than the 13in MacBook Air.

The Asus U46 is available from Comet priced at £699, which also makes it cheaper than the Apple (£850) and Samsung ($999) laptops.