As part of the company’s environmental initiatives, ASUS has been driving a campaign in China for the last four years where volunteers are sent to clean up regions at the base camp of Mount Everest. To give you a scope of the problem Everest faces (although unrelated to the campaign), I’ve dug out this link. Cheers, Google.
In doing their part to preserve the natural environment, these volunteers are accompanied by a wide range of ASUS notebooks – including the P31 and P41 series notebooks. Normally these are aimed at business and clearly Everest is not your usual office environment; but if a notebook can survive these extremes, it can definitely handle the pressures of intense Powerpoint presentations and epic spreadsheets.
Braving extreme temperatures ranging from 15 to 35 degrees Celsius below zero, and repeated jolts from trekking this harsh environment at altitudes around 5,200 metres of low pressures, the P-series notebooks were required and relied upon as the tech backbone of the trekkers.
ASUSPro P31 a little snowed in
The P-series continues to use the traits also offered by the higher spec’d B-series ASUSPro notebooks (as seen in this YouTube video – make sure your speakers are on). The tests both go through are extended beyond normal notebooks to guarantee they work longer and more reliably. The P series is twisted, vibrated, shocked, dropped from double the height and has 20% more pressure applied to it than a normal notebook. The hinge alone receives an extra 10,000 more test cycles than usual and the functional design also protects against spills, so should you get turbulence at 35,000 ft, your orange juice will only ruin your trousers and not your work.
P31S notebook tests
The P-series also gets a battery upgrade too: Boston-Power Sonata long life batteries with ASUS Xpress charge boast both three times the life-cycle of normal Lithium-Ion’s and charge to 90 per cent in 90 minutes. That should be enough to find a socket between flight transfers.
Tech specs on the latest P31S and P41S include an Intel second generation Core i7-2620M, Core i5-2410M/2520M or Core i3 2310M processor, with either 13.3″ or 14″ 1366 x 768 displays respectively. Both use Nvidia graphics hardware and include Nvidia Optimus graphics switching technology, and while the smaller P31S has a GTS520M with 1GB GDDR5, the 0.7″ larger P41S manages to cram in a GTS540M with 1GB GDDR5.
The P43S in silver
Both include the usual integrated 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth, Gigabit Ethernet and hard drive options up to 750GB, but only the P41S has the space for an optical drive so bear that in mind if you need one. Battery options include 6-cell 4400mAh 47Whrs or the larger 8-cell 5600mAh 83Whrs. With the 6-cell, the P31S is just 1.78Kg to the P41S’ marginally meatier 2.0Kg.
Security is as important as ever for businesses and included is BIOS and HDD level password protection with Intel Anti-theft technologies built right into the chipset, and to back this up is LoJack software that can help recover stolen notebooks with the help of local authorities.
It seems wherever your meetings take place; from Mount Everest to boardroom – you’re very well covered.
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http://www.facebook.com/FailuresFailz Tyler Zhao