ASUS announces Transformer Book Duet - detachable combo with Windows 8.1 and Android

ASUS just blew the serious computing doors open at CES with the announcement of the Transformer Book Duet TD300.

Dubbed as the 'world’s first quad-mode, dual-OS laptop and tablet convertible,' it lets you alternate between Windows 8.1 and Android 4.2 with a push of the dedicated Instant Switch button.

The detachable tablet part sports a 13.3-inch Full HD display, and up to an Intel Core i7 processor, as well as 4GB DDR3L 1600 RAM, and up to 128 GB SSD. The dock can add up to 1TB of storage more via a HDD, and it features most of the ports - 1 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0, 10/100Mbit/s LAN, HDMI 1.4, audio combo jack, and a DC jack, while the tablet part sports a Micro SD card, headphone jack and a DC jack only.

The 38WHr battery, estimated battery life around 5 hours in Windows 8.1 and 6 hours in Android 4.2.2. In addition, we get 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 + EDR connectivity

The Transformer Book Duet is a pretty cool concept, which, however, comes a tad thick and heavy, with the tablet half measuring 342.7 x 216.3 x 12.9 mm, while the dock adds 340.9 x 217.6 x 16 mm, and the whole contraption together weighs around 1.9 kg, which is not the best achievement out there. Availability for the intriguing dual-OS convertible of ASUS will be announced at a later date, but the price is known, and it starts off at the very reasonable $599 level.

SOURCE: PhoneArena

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