The first notebook that ASUS launched today during its press conference in Taipei was the monster-sized NX90JQ 18.4-inch desktop replacement notebook.

The thing is really a monster. Besides the massive 18.4-inch screen, it has two large speakers on each side of the screen that are designed and created by Bang & Olufsen and work alongside ASUS' Sonic Master audio technology. The whole focus on this notebook during the conference was its audio and multimedia quality and it seems pretty good. Watch our hands-on video just above and then read on.

They had it hooked up at the front of the stage and everyone in the large room filled with about 200 people were able to hear it clearly enough. Interestingly enough though and during our hands-on, we tried some basic sample audio and it sounds a little tinny. There is no extra speaker on the bottom of the unit to create LFE (bass), but having said that, it did sound pretty good for a notebook, but at the price it should.

It should go on sale in the middle of July and it has a street price of just a tad under 2,700 USD after converting from Taiwan dollars. It may end up cheaper in the US and we did hear talk of it costing 2,500 USD in the US during the event today. Rounding out the specifications is a powerful and new Intel Core i7-720QM processor, USB 3.0, NVIDIA GeForce 334M 1GB graphics, 8GB of DDR3 RAM and a 1TB hard disk drive.

This big, heavy and expensive beast isn't for me, but for those looking for a solid large desktop replacement with great performance and good audio quality, this could be the one for you if you have the bucks.