Asus releases two notebooks with Nvidia Optimus

The first round of laptops armed with Nvidia's automated graphics switching technology, Optimus, have reached the US. The Asus N61JV-X2 and N72JV-X1 are the first two of five laptops the company plans to launch. The two units bear many similarities, and are even priced equally at $900.

The Asus N61JV-X2 weighs 6.5lbs and features a 16-inch LED display, a 2.53GHz Intel Core i5-430M processor and H55M chipset, 4GB of DDR3 1066MHz RAM (max 8GB), Nvidia GeForce GT325M graphics with 1GB DDR3 VRAM, a 500GB 7200RPM HDD, a DVD drive, 802.11b/g/n, a 2-megapixel camera, and Windows 7 Home Premium x64.


Meanwhile, the N72JV-X1 has a larger 17.3-inch display, a 2.26GHz Core i3-350M, weighs about 9.30lbs, and most of the remaining hardware is identical to the N61JV-X2. Additional specs include an Express Card 34 slot, gigabit Ethernet, a few USB 2.0 ports alongside one USB 3.0, an eSATA port, an eight-in-one card reader, VGA and HDMI-out, and a six-cell battery.