Asus announced a new Tranformer laptop at Computex 2013 that can transform from laptop to tablet depending on your needs. This, in itself, is not such a departure from devices, like those from Asus, which are already on the market. But there's a twist. With a touch of a button, the new Transformer Book Trio will instantly switch between Windows 8 and Android Jelly Bean operating systems.
On top of that, as the name "trio" implies, it has another computing mode as a desktop PC. The Transformer Book Trio is a 11.6-inch Windows 8-powered "laptop" computer with a detachable display, which becomes an Android tablet without the keyboard dock. When you attach the dock to an external display, you've made it a desktop PC.
The Transformer Book Trio comes with two processors, two batteries, and two data drives built into the device, to go with the two operating systems. The keyboard dock is powered by one of Intel's fourth-generation Core i7 Haswell chips, and the tablet/display side is powered by a 2.0GHz Atom Z2580 chip. The PC dock will sport a 750GB hard drive, while the tablet has 64GB of flash memory. TheVerge got a hands-on look at the new laptop and says that the device is "a touch on the heavy side," but there's an additional advantage to having two of everything—especially batteries. Asus is claiming that the Transformer Book Trio will last up to 15 hours unplugged.
Switching between the two operating systems, according to the Verge, is fast, and Asus is saying that you'll be able to synchronize your data and pick up where you left off whenever you transform between desktop PC, laptop, or tablet. Currently, there are only a few other details known about the just-announced device. The display for the tablet and laptop modes of the device will be a 1920 x 1080 full HD resolution touchscreen, but no additional information is available yet. Pricing and release date has not been announced either.
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