BenQ S35 Joybook & S43 Joybook CULV Notebooks [New BenQ Ultra Endurance Ultra Portables]

BenQ have officially confirmed that they are entering the increasingly trendy CULV (Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage) market with the unveiling of two new notebooks in its Joybook series in the form of the 13.3″ Joybook S35 and the 14″ Joybook S43 which, thanks to embracing ULV technology, offer supreme endurance of up to an impressive 11 hours (S35) thanks to reduced power consumption and an optional battery pack.

Billed as being ‘designed to the everyday-use standards of businessmen and serious Internet surfers’ BenQ’s two new Joybook netbooks gain their ULV credentials in no small part thanks to utilising Intel’s ULV CPUs – namely Intel’s Core2 Duo SU7300, Core2 Solo SU3500 and Celeron 723/743 – which, along with an optional 8-cell battery pack will see the S35 manage 11 hours on a single charge whilst, if using the standard 4-cell battery it’ll to good for up to 5.5 hours. The S43, on the other hand – the more powerful of the two, boasts 5 hours usage during charges using the standard 6-cell pack which, whilst not quite as impressive, is still hardly to be sniffed at.

In terms of additional components both of BenQ’s new ULV Joybooks sport 1366 x 768 resolution UltraVivid displays powered by Intel GMA4500M iGPU and ATI Mobility Radeon HD4330 graphics solutions (S34 and S43 respectively) whilst also packing integrated webcam and microphones, stereo speakers featuring TruSurround HD technology and HDD capacities topping off at 500GB. Additionally you can also factor in eSATA, wireless connectivity (802.11b/g/n WLAN) as well as an 8X DVD Super-Multi optical disc drive – though the latter is reserved for inclusion in the S43 only.

“Our new Joybooks employing ULV components are tailored to enhance the digital lifestyle enjoyment of a very specific consumer: one that desires the portability and affordability of a netbook, but requires the higher functionality of a notebook. The S35/S43 is the clear, distinct solution between these two categories of laptops.” Said Peter Chen, General Manager of BenQ Technology Product Center who introduced BenQ’s latest Joybooks which, for the time being at least, seem destined for the Chinese, Taiwanese, and the Asian Pacific markets only.