Asus today announced its new slim and ultra-light 13.3" U3, which is based on Intel's Santa Rosa platform, featuring a sleek design with exterior piano painted LCD cover, stainless contour and magnesium aluminum alloy housing.

The new laptop sports a Core 2 Duo processor (in T7500, T7300, T7100, T5450, T5250, and CM540), an Nvidia GeForce G8400M G GPU with 128MB of dedicated memory, up to 2.5GB of RAM, and up to 160GB SATA hard drive space, but lacks an integrated optical drive. On the connectivity front, the U3 packs Intel's 4965AGN wireless network adapter, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and optional GPS support along with 3G connectivity.

The system also includes quite a few ports, including eSATA, HDMI, USB, Firewire, VGA/D-Sub, and TV out, plus a built-in 1.3 megapixel webcam and fingerprint reader. The extra bonus Asus throws in is that you can turn the dedicated graphics on and off with the press of a button, allowing you to switch to the onboard GMA X3100 for conserving power.

Asus has not officially released any pricing information for the U3 yet, but the new laptop is rumored to be available in September for around $2000.