Asustek today introduced the Asus W5Fe series laptops featuring SideShow, an external auxiliary display on the notebook’s LCD cover.
The SideShow, which runs as an independent operating system and complements with Windows Vista, can be switched on without booting up the whole system. With imbedded flash memory, users can save data to SideShow, in forms of text, image and audio, for later review, according to Asus.
“The external system is well synchronized with the main operating system that users can set for automatic outlook (emails, calendar and meeting appointments) refresh when the main system is powered on for swift refresh to ensure data consistency”, the company’s press release says.
Along with SideShow, the 12.1-inch widescreen Asus W5Fe features Intel Core 2 Duo processor, up to 1536MB of DDR2 533/667MHz memory, and up to 160 GB Serial-ATA hard drive. Based on Mobile Intel 945GM Express chipset, the W5Fe incorporates Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection and Intel’s Graphics Media Accelerator 950. This integrated graphics card is capable to run Aero feature in Windows Vista, but you must have enough of main system memory.
Asus W5Fe also has Bluetooth V2.0+EDR, an integrated 1.3M pixel web-camera, three USB ports, VGA and TV-Out, a Card-Reader, and an ExpressCard slot.
With 3-cell battery pack, the new laptop weights 3.75 lbs.
Asus W5Fe will be showcased at CES 2007 next week.






