14 DAY TRIAL // Just a few months ago we were fretting about the arrival of the dual-boot machines, tablets/laptop hybrids capable of switching between Android and Windows by virtue of a single button/tap.
We’re in March and we are yet to see any of these machines arrive on the market. Back at CES 2014, ASUS took all the spotlight with its dual-boot Transformer Book Duet, but a recent report coming from Asian media claimed the device would be killed in its cradle.
Apparently, Google is responsible for slashing the dreams of dual OS lovers in half, but so far we don’t have the exact details behind the decision. Anyway, if you had your heart set on a dual-booting machine, you might have to look to Europe to get your hands on a replacement.
It won’t be manufactured by ASUS or other well-known brand vendors, but beggars can’t be choosers. An Austrian device-maker announced the AlpenTab Gipfelstürmer, a tablet which normally runs Windows 8.1 and headed for retail in July.
But here’s an extra bit to the story, customers will be allowed to install Android 4.2 Jelly Bean on the machine too, thus creating their own dual OS tablet.
So since the ASUS Transformer Book Duet or Samsung ATIV Q won’t be making it on the market and every dual-OS tablet/laptop introduced until now ends up being eaten up by a vortex, this might be the only choice for those who don’t want to make up their minds between Android and Windows 8.1.
The AlpenTab Gipfelstürmer is a 10.1-inch tablet with a bland resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels that draws power from an Intel Celeron N2910 quad-core processor clocked at 1.6GHz combined with a hefty of 4GB of RAM. This might not sound as good as the Haswell ASUS had in stored for us with the Duet, but it’s not horrible either.
Otherwise, there are 64GB of internal memory onboard (extendable via microSD), dual cameras (5MP on the back and 2MP in front), USB 3.0, HDMI, Bluetooth 4.0 and a big 8000 mAh battery that should last users a lot of hours of switching between Android and Windows.
Since this is virtually a Windows 8.1 machine, it will come pre-installed with Microsoft Office 2013 Home & Student version. Because users will be able to install Android on the device, they will probably be able to tap into Google apps and services and have access to the Play store.
So far information about the pricing hasn't been disclosed yet, but we will keep you updated once these details become available.