Asus Bamboo laptops come to the UK

Asus has brought its Bamboo laptops to UK shores. The 13.3in U33 and 15.6in U53 will retail for £849 and £899 respectively.

We previously looked at these '100 per cent recyclable' laptops when Asus launched them here in Taiwan - and we they're great looking bits of kit.

Unlike Asus' first models using bamboo, the new models make far better use of the bamboo and combined with the aluminium bits it works extremely well. That said, we do wish Asus continued the bamboo around the frame of the display too, instead of using shiny black plastic. Asus claims that Bamboo is better than wood as a sustainable resource because it grows faster and uses more Carbon Dioxide.

The specs for the U33Jc are as follows:

• Intel® Core™ i5-430M processor (3MB cache, 2.26GHz)
  
• 13.3” HD Color-Shine LED backlit LCD monitor (1366 x 768)
  
• NVIDIA Optimus technology with NVIDIA GeForce 310M DDR3 1GB & Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics
  
• 4GB DDR3 1066 MHz
  
• 500GB SATA hard drive (5400 rpm)
  
• 2.0M Webcam
  
• 1 x USB 3.0 + 2 x USB 2.0
  
• 1 x VGA port/1 x RJ45/2 x audio jacks/HDMI port
  
• 6-cell 2.2Ah/ 8-cell 2.2Ah/8-cell 2.8Ah
  
• Dimensions: 328 x 232 x 14-32 mm/1.7kg with 6-cell battery
  
• Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

The U53Jc is pretty much the same except for a bigger 15.6” HD Color-Shine LED backlit LCD and 640GB hard drive. Unfortunately, the deal-breaker is the shameful 1366 x 768 resolution and it's a whole 1KG heavier.

Seeing a full 4GB of memory (previously it was listed as just 2GB) and Nvidia Optimus technology, along with a decent Core i5 CPU - 2.26GHz that Turbos to 2.53GHz - is at least an upgrade we could want, although it is also a hefty 35W part.

Combined with Asus' 'Super Hybrid Engine' the company claims both long battery life (10 hours) and in previous Powerpoint slideshows the ability to create an 'i5-540M' from its i5-450M via dynamic overclocking.

Do you fancy a flash new alternative styled laptop or is bamboo just too fancy for you? Let us know your thoughts, in the forums.