The Asus N61JV-X2 and N71JV-X1 are now available for purchase in the US. The notebooks are powered by Intel Core i5 and i3 processors. Incidentally the N61JV and N71JV are the first laptops to ship with NVIDIA’s Optimus technology.

The Asus N61JV-X2 has a 16 inch display. It runs on a 2.53GHz Core i5 430M processor. The larger model, the N71JV-X1 has a 17.3 inch display. It is powered by a 2.2GHz Intel Core i3 350M processor. Both notebooks ship with up to 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive. For graphics there is the NVIDIA GeForce GT 325M 1GB discrete GPU which will automatically switch to the integrated GMA when you are performing tasks that don’t require the added power of a GPU. Other features include Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n and Gigabit Ethernet. There are 4 USB ports, an HDMI port, an eSATA port and a DVD burner.

Both N61JV-X1 and N71JV-X2 run Windows 7 Home Premium. The laptops are now available for purchase. Prices start at $899.