In an era where vendors battle each other on either features or price, Asus is taking another direction and releasing its latest notebook with a heavy focus on colour.
Asus has made available to the channel and retailers the ZenBook NX500 that features 3M’s Quantum Dot Enhancement Film. 3M is the company that brought the marketplace the sticky note, but in its history, 3M (Minnesota, Mining and Manufacturing) has produced more than 55,000 products such as adhesives, medical products, car-care products, dental and orthodontic products as well as electronic circuits and optical films.
The ZenBook is being positioned by Asus as the first commercialized Notebook PC to leverage new colour enhancing technology from 3M, which reporting revenues last year of more than $30 billion.
Steve Chang, Asus Computer International president, said the ZenBook NX500 is the world’s first notebook using 3M Quantum-Dot Enhancement Film technology to deliver “richer and stunning colours.”
IHS Technology forecasts unit demand for quantum dots in notebook PC LCDs to increase by a whopping 3,600 per cent year-to-year from 171 thousand units in 2014 to 6.328 million units in 2020.
The ZenBook NX500 with 3M colour technology will have a price tag of $2,699 and will be initially released as a limited-edition ultrabook.
According to Asus, the ZenBook creates a superior viewing experience with 3M’s colour enhancement film in a 15.6-inch, 4K resolution display that will be targeted at creative professionals and computer enthusiasts in the graphic arts space.
3M’s colour enhancement film enables colour-on-the-go as a way to achieve high color gamut in a display.
Erik Jostes, 3M LCD business director, said the 3M Quantum Dot Enhancement Film enabling superior colour quality in the NX500 display in conjunction with Asus. The enhanced colour capabilities will enable a new era in creative content as artists and designers discover the full potential of sophisticated design and editing programs on-the-go.
In addition 3M colour technology, the Asus ZenBook NX500 features Bang & Olufsen speakers, a sleek and stylish all-aluminum unibody design and is touchscreen enabled.
On the inside, the NX500 carries an Intel Core i7-4712HQ CPU, NVidia’s GeForce GTX 850M graphics processor, 802.11ac, and USB 3.0 ports.
