Obviously, nobody was going to let Apple be the king of skinnybook mountain. ASUS is talking up its new UX21: roughly as thin as an Air, but filled with fiery guts. A Core i7 processor and USB 3.0, made dainty.
Now it’s only fair to note that the UX21 will be available in September, by which point the new (and more powerful!) Air should be out, making ASUS’ fast slice less impressive. But it’ll still stand on its own: metal construction, glass touchpad and a claimed two-second wake-up time. Now, given that Core i7 processor in there, it’ll probably only get about two seconds of battery life too, but less juice-munching processors will be available if you want to take the thing off your desk. [ASUS via Engadget]