ASUS B43 and B53 laptops with Boston-Power’s Sonata batteries

Well, it looks like HP is no longer your only option to get Boston-Power’s “game-changing” Sonata batteries — ASUS has just announced that it will be offering the long-life lithium-ion batteries as standard equipment on its new B series laptops. Those come in both 14.1-inch and 15.6-inch versions — the B43 and B53, respectively — and are available with your choice of Core i5 or Core i7 processors, ATI Mobility Radeon 5470 or integrated Intel graphics, 2GB or 4GB of RAM, a standard 320GB hard drive, and ATI Eyefinity support to accommodate two additional displays. As for those Sonata batteries, while they won’t last much longer in day-to-day use, they do promises to work at 80% of their capacity for three years, which is backed up by a three-year warranty. Look for the B53 to hit retailers immediately starting at $1,099, while the B43 is said to be coming “in the near future” for an unspecified price.