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Asus Ultrabook due Tuesday

Asus is expected to announce a range of Ultrabook models, replete with an aluminum chassis and USB 3.0 ports.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers

Asus is due to release its Ultrabook lineup on Tuesday, as vendor momentum in this new Windows laptop category gains steam.

Asus is expected to announce a raft of Ultrabook models Tuesday including the UX21.
Asus is expected to announce a raft of Ultrabook models Tuesday including the UX21. Asus

The Asus Zenbook line is expected to start at under $1,000 and be populated with 11- and 13-inch models ranging up to $1,499.

The UX21 model, for example, will come with an 11.6-inch display, a Core i5 Intel Sandy Bridge processor, and a 128GB solid-state drive. The high-end 13.3-inch UX31 will have a Core i7 chip and 256GB SSD.

Models are also slated to come with beefed-up sound and USB 3.0 ports. The latter feature is not on the $899 Ultrabook announced today by Acer. But don't expect to see USB 3.0 ports on many Ultrabook systems priced below $900 this year. It's too costly to implement in the cheaper models.

Other specs include a weight starting at 2.2 pounds (11.6-inch models), brushed metal surface, display resolutions up to 1,600x900 (13.3-inch models), a SandForce-based SSD, and a card reader.