Asus has just released in Japan a new ultra-portable notebook with a 11.6-inch diagonal, the U24E, that brings the Ultrabook style and size for a bargain price since it retails for just a bit lower than ¥60,000, the equivalent of $770 US or 558 EUR. Asus' new notebook is housed inside a case just a bit more than an inch thick and is designed to feature an ultra-slim bezel that reduces the overall dimensions of the device. Under the hood, users will be greeted by a standard voltage Intel Core i5-2430M processor with two computing cores and a 2.4Ghz base clock speed which can be paired with as much as 8GB of system memory (4GB in its standard configuration). Storage is provided by an 750GB hard drive, while for graphics duties the U24E relies on the Intel HD 3000 GPU integrated inside Intel's Sandy Bridge processor. The rest of the specifications list provided by Notebook Review is pretty much standard for this type of notebook design, with features ranging from a built-in 0.3MP webcam and HDMI output to optional Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity. A rather interesting addition is the support for USB 3.0 (Asus offers two such ports in the U24E), which has now finally begun to make its appearance in mainstream notebook. Users interested in purchasing Asus' newly introduced ultra-portable laptop will also be glad to know that the 6-cells battery which is fitted on the U24E can provide up to 6.8 hours of use thanks to Asus' ASUS Power4 Gear Hybrid. All of these components are housed inside an elegant chassis which appears to use aluminum covers, and the 11.6-inch notebook also gets Altec Lansing speakers. The 11.6-inch screen has a native resolution of 1366x768 pixels. The Asus U24E will go on sale in Japan on November 5, but no information regarding the release of the notebook in other parts of the world is available now.