Asus plans to launch a new line of Windows 8 notebooks later this year that take some design cues from the company’s popular Transformer line of Android tablets. Like the tablets, the new Asus Transformer Book notebooks will straddle the line between notebooks and tablets thanks to a detachable keyboard dock.

The company plans to offer Asus Transformer Book models with 11.6 inch, 13 inch, and 14 inch screens. All three will be available with 1920 x 1080 pixel displays.

Asus Transformer Book

The Transformer Book notebooks will be powered by Intel Ivy Bridge processors and NVIDIA graphics. They’ll come with up to 4GB of RAM and a choice of a hard drive or solid state drive.

With the keyboard attached, these computers look a lot like a traditional notebook. But since they all have touchscreen displays you’ll be able to interact with the Windows 8 Metro style user interface using your fingers, whether the keyboard dock is in use or not.

The notebooks will also feature front and rear cameras — something that’s common on tablets, but not so much on notebooks. The front-facing camera is described as an HD camera for video chat, while the rear camera has a higher resolution 5MP sensor.

Asus hasn’t released any information about the price or launch date yet. But I expect prices to vary quite a bit from model to model, since Asus is promising to deliver versions with Intel Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 processors.

The Verge has a video of the transforming laptop in action.

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4 replies on “Asus unveils Transformer Book notebooks with detachable keyboards”

  1. What the hell is everyone’s infatuation with 1080 screens? It’s almost impossible to get higher res without paying an arm for one.

    1. More 1080p displays will drive more production of 1080p displays – which is the only way costs come down.  That’s how it has always been.  The early units are more expensive but volume drives production up and costs down.

  2. I’m pretty excited about these Windows 8 tablet/notebooks.  I could see something like this completely replacing my Android tablet and Windows notebook.  I feel that this is what the Asus Transformer was made for.  The Android version was neat, but obviously was never meant to be a full laptop replacement.  Still, there are many questions about Windows 8 to be answered.  Hopefully the final product turns out well.  

    1.  Since Asus is also pushing Bluestack, many people will still be able to run most of their favorite Android apps as well on Windows 8.

      While right now it seems most of the concern over Windows 8 is its usefulness for desktop usage, but for tablets it seems to be all set.

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