Asustek Computer today showed its latest collection of laptops made using bamboo material as well as a family of laptops with Bang & Olufsen sound systems.

The laptops made with bamboo casing material are not the company's first. Asustek debuted bamboo laptops a few years ago. They emphasized Asustek's commitment to the environment, said the company's chairman, Jonney Shih, at a press conference in Taipei. The use of renewable materials and attention to power-saving designs have been good for Asustek's brand, he said.

The material has been lauded as a good alternative to the plastics normally used in laptops because bamboo is tough, easy to find, and grows fast. But polymers added to the material to make it more heat resistant in laptops also mean it's harder for it to break down or be recycled.

The current family of U Bamboo laptops all feature the latest USB 3.0, use Microsoft Windows 7 software, Intel Core i5-450M microprocessors, Nvidia graphics cards, 500GB hard disk drives (HDDs) and 2GB of DDR3 (double data rate, third generation) memory chips. They differ mainly in screen size.

Computerworld