14 DAY TRIAL // ASUS seems to have a passion for hybrids and some of its most popular products are actually 2-in-1 machines.
The company also had high hopes of producing something amazing, something other manufacturers haven't provided consumers with.
The Transformer Book Duet saw the light of day at CES 2014 and came in the form of a 4-in-1 device that could be used either as a tablet or a notebook, running either Android or Windows.
Sadly, the project died in its cradle after both Google and Microsoft put pressure on ASUS to bury the yet-unreleased-to-the-masses device.
But ASUS hasn’t abandoned its ambitions. As a matter of fact, the company has pushed things even further with the new Transformer Book V.
It’s like the PadFone and Transformer line got together and had a baby. The Transformer Book V is a 2-in-1 hybrid that comes with a smartphone dock. Assuming this device will make it into retail, users will be able to dock the smartphone into the keyboard or into the tablet part.
The smartphone runs Android 4.4 out of the box, but the tweak is you can port the OS to be used in tablet or notebook mode, making use of Windows 8.
So, you can basically use the Transformer Book V in five ways: as a standalone Windows tablet, standalone Windows notebook, solitary Android smartphone, Android tablet by virtue of docking the smartphone into the tablet, or Android laptop, by docking the smartphone into the keyboard.
The Transformer Book V aims to bring unimaginable versatility, but will it have the same fate as the Transformer Book Duet?
As for hardware, the Window tablet part runs on a next-gen Intel Core processor, but the exact model and speed is not known at the moment. The device is fitted with up to 4GB of RAM and internal storage can reach up to 1TB.
ASUS hasn’t said anything about availability or pricing, but we have to highlight again the device might not even arrive in retail.
The Transformer Book V3 might be ASUS’ way of showing us it hasn’t abandoned the dual-OS dream, but is this the right time for such a product? We’ll have to see what Microsoft and Google have to say about it.