14 DAY TRIAL // Even if has barely been announced, the ASUS Transformer Book Duet seems to be an elusive device considering all its online traces have been erased.
Back in Las Vegas at CES 2014, ASUS pulled the veil off what it called the world’s 4-in-1 dual-OS tablet/laptop hybrid, a device was said to be capable to switch between Android and Windows in mere seconds.
And just a week later the device appeared in Europe as available for pre-order. But since then, something strange has happened. As TabTech reports the device has disappeared everywhere online, making us speculate whether or not we’re actually going to see the device arrive on the market.
ASUS announced that the Transformer Duet would be powered by Intel Core i3/i5/i7 processors, combined with 4GB of RAM and Intel HD graphics. The hybrid should boast a beatiful13.3-inch HD IPS screen with HD resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels) and bundle a front-facing HD camera, 128GB of SSD storage and a micro SD card slot.
A wide array of extras is also available with the model, 802.11ac, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0+EDR, a headphone jack, 1 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0, 10/100Mbit/s LAN, and an HDMI 1.4 output.
A potential downside of the product might be its flimsy battery life, which should last up 5 hours in Windows 8.1 mode and 6 hours in Android.
Anyway, the model that showed up in Europe, bundled an Intel Core i5 processor and popped up with a €799 / $1,092 price-tag. When it was launched, ASUS boasted the much cheaper price tag of $599 / €435, but a difference in pricing between markets should not surprise us.
As we have mentioned, the ASUS Transformer Book Duet is nowhere to be found now and we can’t help but wonder whether this is a coincidence or not. After all, for some bizarre reason, most dual-OS devices from major manufacturers do not make it on market, like the Samsung ATIV Q.
Not to mention ASUS had a VivoTab 8 tablet variant in the works, which was capable of going between Android and Windows 8, but the product’s trace disappeared into the night and was never heard of again.
On the plus side, the official video ad for the Duet is still up-online, so hopefully ASUS has not discontinued the device.