Japan's newest super light, super tough notebook

New rule; No challenging the MacBook Air if you can’t beat it in the thickness department. It’s one of its main selling points, if not THE main selling point. According to Electronista, “Frontier today put out an aggressive challenge to Apple by claiming a system which is both lighter and tougher than the MacBook Air.”

That’s all well and good but it’s thicker than the Air and the screen’s only 12-inches. My cell phone is much lighter than the MacBook Air but it’s only got a 2.8-inch screen.

I’m no Apple evangelist (I use a Sony VAIO) but these companies that put out thicker-but-lighter notebooks and then slap Apple across the face with a dueling glove is getting a bit tired. Anyway, the FRLN by Frontier of Japan is impressive, yes, so let’s try take a look at it without comparing it to the Air.

The big news here is that the FRLN only weighs 2.5 pounds but can take a drop from 2.5 feet and withstand 265 pounds of pressure. It uses a wiener-ish 800MHz Intel processor that’s commonly found in UMPCs but the battery lasts about four hours and it uses a smaller power plug, not a conventional laptop brick.

The system’s preloaded with Windows XP and comes with 1GB of RAM, an 80GB hard drive, fingerprint reader, and a 12.1-inch widescreen LCD with a 1280×800 resolution. The complete specs list can be found here (it’s been translated from Japanese).

It’ll be available in Japan by the end of the month for about $1300. There are apparently no plans to release it in the US. Here are some more photos.

Frontier promises rugged MacBook Air rival [Electronista]

Product Page (translated)