Asus has formally announced the anticipated successor to its Lamborghini laptop line, the compact, 12.1in VX3 - intended to bring a little... luxury to the sub-notebook arena. And integrated HSDPA 3G connectivity.

Asus' VX3: vroom, vroom

The VX3's basic spec includes a 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo T9300 processor - one of Intel's 45nm boys - 4GB of 667MHz DDR 2 memory, a 5400rpm 320GB hard drive and 1GB of Flash operating as a cache between the HDD and rest of the system.

Said cache - aka Intel Turbo Memory - requires Windows Vista, so the VX3 ships with Ultimate.

HSDPA 3G and 802.11n networking on board

It also comes with 802.11n Wi-Fi, an on-board HSDPA modem, Bluetooth 2.0, a fingerprint reader, a 1.3-megapixel camera and a three-cell battery. Asus is also bundling a second battery too, either a six-cell or a nine-cell unit, depending on whether you want to pay £2079 for the machine or £2099 - or how much extra plastic you don't mind poking out at the back.

As is stands, the VX3 weighs 1.7kg with the three-cell battery in place. Unsurprisingly, Asus didn't say what adding either of the extra batteries does to the machine's weight.

Try before you buy, we suggest - you can find a list of stockists here.

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Click for the VX3 Picture Gallery