Asus Shows ‘World’s Biggest Tablet’

At the Computex trade show in Taipei, Taiwan, Asus has previewed a Windows 8-powered laptop/tablet hybrid called the Transformer Book, as well as a desktop called the Transformer All-in-One (AiO) that turns into “the world’s biggest tablet” when the screen is detached.

Asus also showed several other devices, including the dual-screen Taichi laptop; the Asus Tablet 810, which has an 11.6-inch screen and runs on Windows 8; and the Asus Tablet 600 tablet, which has a 10.1-inch screen and is powered by Windows RT.

Transformer Book

Asus already offers hybrid devices such as the Eee Pad Transformer, which arrived in the UK in May, but those use Google’s mobile-oriented Android operating system, which is designed for mobile devices.

The Transformer Book (pictured), by contrast, uses Windows 8, the update to Microsoft’s flagship operating system scheduled to ship this autumn.

The Transformer Book will come with 11.6-inch, 13-inch and 14-inch screen options and will be available with Intel’s latest “Ivy Bridge” Core processors and discrete Nvidia graphics, according to Asus chairman Jonney Shih, who demonstrated the device at a press conference ahead of the trade show.

Competitors such as Samsung also offer laptops with detachable touchscreens.

Desktop hybrid

The AiO takes the Transformer model to a larger scale, functioning as a Windows 8 desktop that turns into a tablet with an 18.4-inch screen when the display is lifted off the base station.

In tablet mode the device can continue to function as a thin client with a wireless link to the Windows 8 hardware in the base station, or it switch to Android 4.0 ICS for fully independent operation, Asus said.

Dual-screen laptop

The Taichi (pictured) is another laptop device, which Asus said is intended to fall into the same lightweight category as the existing Zenbook.

It functions as a tablet when closed, and when the lid is opened it reveals a second, independent screen, allowing two people sitting across from one another to view the display at the same time.

“Not that there’s anything wrong sitting next to each other, but this looks much better,” Shih told a press conference.

The Taichi will be offered with screen sizes of 11.6 inches or 13.3 inches and will use an Intel Core i7 processor and includes 4GB of RAM, SSD storage, dual-band Wireless-N Wi-Fi and USB 3.0, according to Asus.

Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets

Asus’ Tablet 810 has an 11.6-inch screen and will run Windows 8 with an Intel Atom processor, the company said. It can be placed in an optional dock which connects it to a full QWERTY keyboard and an additional battery for additional running time.

Finally, the company showed the Tablet 600, which will use a four-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor and Windows RT Tablet. It weighs 1.15 pounds and has a thickness of .32 inches, featuring Wi-Fi, an 8-megapixel rear camera, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.

Windows RT is a version of the operating system designed for ARM-based mobile processors from manufacturers including Nvidia, Texas Instruments and Qualcomm. The operating system will run software available through the Windows Store and designed for the Windows Runtime programming model.

Windows Runtime applications use Microsoft’s ‘Metro’ design language and can be run on either Intel or ARM chips without modification. Windows RT will ship with certain core applications, including Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.

Other manufacturers expected to produce Windows RT include Acer, Dell, Huawei, Lenovo, LG, Samsung and Sharp.

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