ASUS Zenbook Primes with 1080p IPS panels and (probably) Ivy Bridge are real, coming to Taiwan in June

We've already seen spec sheets suggesting that ASUS's 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch Zenbooks are being fattened up for a major update, but now Engadget Chinese has glimpsed the new devices in their cold aluminum flesh. Tentatively called Zenbook Primes, or the UX21A and UX31A respectively, they both have 1920 x 1080 IPS panels with a matte finish and excellent viewing angles (please, ignore the dumb 1024 x 768 screen-saver in the pic, it doesn't do it justice). Judging from the fact that ASUS refused to let us go hands-on in case we identify the internals, we can be pretty confident that these beauties are running on next-gen ULV Ivy Bridge processors, which -- unlike their more powerful brethren -- have yet to be formally announced. We asked if there'd be room for discrete graphics, such as one of NVIDIA's new Kepler mobile GPUs for Ultrabooks, and were told that "anything is possible." Responses were equally vague when it came to global availability, because apparently the devices are awaitng clearance from Intel. All we know is that they should be out in Taiwan in June, likely with similar price tags to their predecessors.

ASUS Zenbook Primes with 1080p IPS panels and (probably) Ivy Bridge are real, coming to Taiwan in June originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Apr 2012 05:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.