The folks at Asus are describing their new Transformer Book Duet (TD 300) as the “world’s first quad-mode, dual-OS laptop and tablet convertible,” and it certainly looks to be a very interesting offering indeed.
Able to switch between Windows and Android with a swift push of an OS Switch button or a virtual key on the tablet, the TD300 hopes to offer the best of both worlds, giving users the option of using an Android tablet or laptop, or a Windows tablet or laptop.
Starting at $599, the device follows the design cues seen in Asus’s successful Android Transformer range, with the screen unclipping from the keyboard to provide a tablet device.
The TD300 can boot into both Windows 8.1 Standard and Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, and packs a a 13.3-inch 1366 x 768 display running an Intel Core i3 processor ($100 more gets you a version with an 1080p display and a beefy Intel Core i7 processor).
The machine comes with 4GB DDR3L 1600 RAM, with storage configurable up to 128 GB SSD in the tablet and up to 1 TB HDD in t’dock., with a MicroSD card slot offering more expansion.
A 38WHr battery serves up a modest battery life around 5 hours in Windows 8.1 and 6 hours in Android 4.2.2 (hopefully Asus will pull their fingers out and update the Android OS to something more modern fairly sharpish).
Other specs include 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 + EDR, headphone jack and a DC jack, while nestling within the keyboard dock can be found a USB 3.0 port, two USB 2.0 ports, 10/100Mbit/s LAN, HDMI 1.4, audio combo jack and DC jack.
This latest jack of all trades machine should be hitting Europe and Asia this quarter, with the U.S. following in Q2.
