ASUS U30jc Arrives With Optimus, Core i3 And $900 Tag

The ASUS U30jc was one of the more interesting models from ASUS' notebook portfolio, and the company have now taken the wraps off the 13.3-inch machine officially.  Packing an Intel Core i3 350M processor, paired with NVIDIA Optimus graphics – automatically switching between the integrated Intel GPU and the discrete GeForce GT 310M – and a battery apparently good for up to 9.5hrs of runtime, the U30jc comes in at a smudge under $900.

That seems pretty reasonable, given the spec sheet as a whole.  The U30jc gets 4GB of memory, WiFi b/g/n and gigabit ethernet, together with a 320GB 5,400rpm hard-drive and Altec Lansing speaker system.  Connectivity includes VGA and HDMI, and there's a fashionable chiclet keyboard too.

While 9.5hrs of runtime sounds pretty ambitious, if the U30jc has enough juice to get through an average workday then we can see this becoming a popular machine with road warriors, even if the Core i3 CPU offers only Hyper Threading rather than Turbo Boost too.  It's on sale now, priced at $899.99.