14 DAY TRIAL // Taiwanese computing expert ASUS has just announced the expansion of the company’s Transformer branding towards the new AIO systems. AIO is short for All-In-One, but ASUS’ products belonging to the series are standing tall above all other competitors.
We almost got used to Acer as being the cheaper alternative when it comes to laptops, netbooks or tablets. The company’s branded systems were no different.
Acer always seemed to guess the perfect balance between a satisfactory quality and an irresistible price offer.
ASUS, on the other hand, always tried to offer the best quality on the market along with unique and very useful features.
ASUS also tried to distance themselves from anything that was associated with cheap or even mid-range. They’ve even founded AsRock just to have a different brand name taking care of the low to mid-end market and not let their own brand be associated with those kind of products.
Acer did a good job with their first Windows 8 AIO systems, but ASUS has raised the bar once again.
Sure Acer’s 7600U and 5600U can be laid flat on a table for tabletop use, but ASUS’ Transformer AIO can become a completely mobile TabletPC.
Yes, this is a TabletPC rather than a tablet, as this is a full-blown computer running a Windows operating system and being powered by a powerful x86 processor.
The dock is what practically makes it into a desktop system. That’s where most of the connectivity stands along with the, guess what, slot-in optical device drive.
It seems like ASUS is really reading our minds. It is less than a day since we were criticizing Acer for not using a slot-in ODD for their own AIO systems.
ASUS’ Transformer AIO will be powered by Intel Core i7 processors and will also come with a discrete graphics card.
All the main components will be fitted into the tablet section, (already sounds like Start Trek:TNG) and the user will be able to take the tablet out of the dock and walk around the office with it.
We don’t know what autonomy this solution will have, but considering that a 18.4” version would host quite a large battery, we wouldn’t be surprised to see 6 to 8 hours of battery life.
There is talk about 24” and 27” versions and frankly, we look forward seeing them on the shelf.
Pricing has not yet been announced.
