“In search of incredible”. That’s the line Asus is pushing for all of its press conference events in 2014. We saw a pretty incredible showing of gear at Computex this year, but did the Taiwanese company pull another rabbit out of the hat at this year’s IFA tech fair in Berlin? We live blogged its press event tonight, so get in here and find out!
2pm
We’re live from IFA! Get ready to see new mobile computing gear, as well as a wearable from Asus if the leaks around this year’s event are to be believed…
2:30pm
What do you want to see from Asus at this year’s IFA press conference? Tell us in the comments!
6pm
Update! We’ve just double checked our time conversions and found that the Asus event won’t kick off until 8:30pm AEST. Sorry about the mix up!
We’ll be live blogging all the same.
8:30PM:
Guten tag aus Berlin! We’re here, live, at Asus’ IFA 2014 presentation, one of the first of the world’s biggest gadget show. Tune in for a live blog of what Asus is going to unveil, whether it’s a new smartwatch, some new Padfones, or something else entirely. We’ll update this post regularly, so make sure to refresh every few minutes to get the latest.
The presentation should kick off in just a few minutes.
8:35PM:
“In search of incredible” is Asus’ tagline, as we mentioned before, and at least the venue is keeping to the theme. The show is being held at Classic Remise, a converted tram depot full of beautiful classic cars. After the press conference is over, purely out of my own selfish interest, I’m going to snap a few pics of some of the cars and share them below.
Two minutes until kick-off.
8:40PM:
We’re underway! Music is down, and Asus’ press conference kicks off with a video on-screen. “We are always in search of incredible ideas and experiences.” Asus corporate VP Eric Chen is up on stage now.
8:43PM:
Chen is talking about Asus’ history as a “leading IT company” for the last 25 years. “We started off a small motherboard maker, and 25 years later we [changed] into a mobile electronics company.
8:45PM:
We’re getting an update on ZenFone — 30,000 preorders in Taiwan, sold out in China within two minutes of availability. 45,000 sales in India in four days. Chen is talking about why people love the ZenFone. Apparently it’s great! (Who would have guessed.)
Just a reminder, you can watch along here!
8:47PM:
New guy on stage — Derek Yu, the senior product director at Asus. He’s going to tell us about “some of the amazing product” that Asus has to show off at IFA 2014, but first he’s talking about some product history including the EeePC, one of the first netbooks and one of the pioneering tabletesque devices.
• More: Asus Is Resurrecting The Netbook With The EeeBook X205
8:50PM:
There’s a new EeeBook, an 11.6-inch ultraportable notebook. At 980 grams, it’s even lighter than air. Really? 12 hour battery life, a full size keyboard and large trackpad for productivity. It runs Windows 8.1, and is “premium luxury designed for everyone.”
That new EeeBook should be pretty cheap in Australia, too — it’s priced from only 199 Euros over here in Berlin.
8:53PM:
There’s a new ZenBook as well, “speaking of stylish notebooks.” I wonder how different it will be from every previous iteration of Asus’ top spec laptop? “Modern, stylish, and so powerful” — that’s the new ZenBook UX305.
The new ZenBook is thinner than air, apparently. Really? It has a 3200x1800px display, and runs Intel’s literally brand new Core M processor. 128GB / 256GB SSDs, two colours, 1.2kg, 12.3mm thin.
8:55PM:
Right now, we’re moving on to tablets. MEMO Pad is Asus’ mainstream tablet line. There’s a new “high fashion, high definition” MEMO Pad 7. It uses Duralumin, 50 per cent stronger than regular aluminium, and has a 7-inch 1920x1080px IPS display. There’s an Intel 64-bit CPU inside, interestingly enough. Asus’ ZenUI is used for this Android tab.
199 Euro for the new MEMO Pad. There’s also a 149 Euro “Entertainment Pad” just for Germany.
8:59PM:
There’s a very deep German voice saying things in a video for the Entertainment Pad. I heard “entertainment services”, “streaming”, and “empire.” Was ist das?
9:01PM:
Asus’ design mastermind, Mitch Yang, is on stage now. He’s introducing Asus’ first wearable, the ZenWatch. It’s an Android Wear wearable, too, which is nice for cross-device compatibility.
9:05PM:
Yang just totally dissed Asus boss Jonney Shih by muting his call on the ZenWatch. Now we’re watching a video where it’s used in everyday life.
The ZenWatch will cost 199 Euros.
• More: Asus ZenWatch… Home-Grown Functionality With A Big Price Tag
9:11PM:
Alright guys, that’s it! Phew, that was a bunch of products to digest all at once. Asus is showing off all its tech in a bunch of live demos — I’m keen to have a look at the new EeeBook and the ZenWatch. Thank you for watching with us! Auf wiedersehn, et cetera.
Classic Remise:
My god, some of these cars are beautiful. I’m coming back on my day off. Feast your eyes:
Thanks for tuning in!