It's not just specs that remind me of the MacBook Pro, though. This, too, is made of unibody aluminum, similar in color and texture to the ol' MBP. That said, you'd never, ever mistake the two: The NX500 has the Bang & Olufsen speakers built into the keyboard deck, with the fine grille flowing out from underneath the keys in an circular pattern. I think it's tasteful and quite lovely, personally, but to each his own; if you prefer more discreet speakers, I totally get that. Speaking of the keyboard, the 15.6-inch form factor allows for a spacious layout, though the buttons are on the shallow side, as is often the case with Ultrabooks (keep in mind that ASUS just barely got the machine down to the Ultrabook spec of 19mm, so I'm not sure it could have afforded to go with thicker keys).

As for the display -- the star of the show, really -- it covers 100 percent of the NTSC spectrum, along with 108 percent of Adobe RGB. Between the rich colors, sharp resolution and wide viewing angles, ASUS has cooked up one hell of a display. I'll reserve judgment for a full review, of course, but let's be real: It's pretty obviously a nice screen. I don't expect my opinion to change much, not even after more careful examination.

Mat Smith contributed to this report.