Asus has (re)introduced the Transformer Book Trio, an 11.6″ tablet/laptop hybrid that can also be used as a PC when connected to a monitor and comes with extra versatility as it runs two operating systems, Windows 8 and Android.
First seen at Computex the Transformer Trio comes with an 11.6″ 1920×1080 Full HD screen and companion keyboard which runs Windows 8 when both are connected but switches to Android when the tablet section is detached.
The Trio, however has an extra trick up its sleeve as with the keyboard section housing the components for the Windows OS, which can be configured with up to a Core i7 Haswell CPU, 4GB RAM and a 1TB HDD, it can be used with a separate monitor as a desktop PC. There are also the standard PC ports like USB 3.0, mini DisplayPort, and micro HDMI port. The tablet part which doubles as a display houses the components for the Android OS and has a Clover Trail Atom chip with 2GB of RAM and up to 64GB of storage with its own set of ports including micro HDMI and micro SD.
Both the keyboard (33Whr) and the tablet (19Whr) pack separate batteries which are estimated to provide 13 hours of use while the whole device measures around .9 inches thick and weights 3.7 pounds.
Pricing and availability have not yet been announced.
This would be more compelling if it uses the same Windows 8 installation when switching between the Core i and Atom chip (it doesn’t seem to be the smartphone variant either). Otherwise, Android on such a large device isn’t very useful.
I’m not really looking for some sort of Intel version big.LITTLE. The switching can be done like how it is in this tablet except get rid of Android and/or through a software/hardware user switch.