Features seem the same, style seems nearly identical just Asus branded...
I'm honestly not trolling, believe me I'm far from an Apple fanboi. I just don't see where the innovation is here, apart from an "us too" from Intel & ASUS.
All the differences so far seem to be minor:
- The 13" Asus has a wider screen than the 13" MBA
- The MBA supports 802.11a and 5Ghz for 802.11n
- The Asus has USB3.0, the MBA has Thunderbolt
- at 13", the Asus is a bit lighter, but at 11" the MBA is a bit lighter
- The MBA claims much higher standby times (30 vs 10 days)
- At certain price points, the Asus offers more RAM or SSD space, and the option of a slightly faster processor.
- The trackpads might have significant differences
- The Asus screens are specced to be brighter (450 nits) than the MBA screens have been measured at (350-380 nits), but specified brightness can't be directly compared against real-world measurements, and viewing angles are more important for small portable devices.
I guess that's why I'm wondering why this laptop is HN front page news. Which is not to say that I think it shouldn't be, it's just that I'm not sure why its generating upvotey excitement.
I use a 2006-era ThinkPad X60 laptop every day. It's five years old, 76mm (25%) thicker but 90g (10%) lighter than the X1 you mention.
Although I admit the X1 has a significantly cheaper RRP, so there's one noteworthy difference - these things are moving from expensive niche objects to the mainstream. Apple arguably spearheaded the move there.