Asus Announces AMD-powered X102BA Ultraportable

Asus has a 2.4 lb AMD-powered ultraportable headed for market.

In case the new Transformer T300 and Zenbook UX301 weren't enough for you, Asus this week also announced the X102BA. Aside from having the least catchy name ever, the X102BA boasts a 10.1-inch touch display with a 1366 x 768 resolution and the latest AMD A Series APU. That's right, after all the Haswell machines we've seen this week, Asus is offering something powered by AMD.

The X102BA packs an AMD A4-1200 1 GHz dual-core APU with Radeon HD 8180 graphics, 2 GB of RAM, 320 GB of storage (HDD), USB 3.0, 802.11n Wi-Fi, a 720p webcam, and Bluetooth 4.0. Users will have the option of upping this to 4 GB of memory and a 500 GB drive, though that will, of course, drive up the cost. That touchscreen display features a multi-touch digitizer that recognizes a contact point of 5 mm in diameter (rather than the Microsoft recommendation of 9 mm).

Asus is also going to bundle Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013 so you can get yourself up and running right out of the box. Unfortunately, we have no idea of when that might be, because Asus is keeping details of pricing and availability under wraps. Given the specs (and the fact that SSD storage isn't even an option), we imagine Asus is hoping to keep pricing low with this one. We'll let you know ASAP.