ASUS debuted its beautiful Bamboo-clad notebooks at CeBIT 2007 in Han(g)over, Germany. Roughly 21 months later, these notebooks are finally starting to ship worldwide, starting in Taiwan.
Bambook in all of its beauty
Bamboo is probably the most ecological piece of material to create IT products from, followed by carbon fiber and aluminum (due to recycling capabilities, with carbon fiber being almost the definite answer, with infinite amount of cycles), and the bamboo tree is the fastest growing grass/tree on planet Earth (roughly 1.2m per 24 hours or 5cm/h or 8mm/min).
Bambook is known as ASUS U6V features Core 2 Duo processor, Centrino “1 “(actually, v4.5 but who counts since Intel branded 5th gen Centrino as Centrino 2) platform combined with 12.1” LCD screen, encased in bamboo. Bamboo is the predominate material all across the notebook, with even touchpad being made out of ultra-thin bamboo slice. Truth to be told, I am worried a bit about precision, but for that, a bamboo-clad mice would do just nice.
Wooden touchpad... no, this is not colored plastic, this is real wood.
With this move, ASUS is moving to a position of environmental leader, which is something that most people didn’t expect from an OEM/ODM manufacturer in Taiwan. However, ASUS turned green faster than the likes of Dell, HP, IBM, Sony or other well-known brands, and the brand value of the company is tremendously expanding.
The price of this notebook is 1800 USD in Taiwan, with prices yet unspecified for North America / EMEA region. You can expect these notebooks hitting the shelves of western world during this month.
In fact, just as a mental note, I think the term for this notebook should be ecobook, or a new generation of mobile devices that will come from all leading manufacturers, and will feature recyclabe materials. For starters, I would put ASUS Bamboo U6V and HP’s Voodoo Envy 133 at the top of the list as the most eco-friendly notebooks on planet Earth.
