Asus Introduces the Transformer Book Chi Trio - New Line of Laptop/Tablet Hybrids

Asus has released Zenfone 2, the first smartphone ever to run on 4 GB RAM. The developers of the device have stated its family to be Transformer Book Chi line.

This smartphone is a hybrid between a tablet and a Windows powered laptop. The device consists of a magnetic keyboard which could be attached and detached to make it a laptop or a slate. The new device of Asus is a competition to the Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3. Transformer Book Chi line has three gadgets made up of aluminum and their sizes are 12.5″, 10.1” and 8.9”.

Asus Transformer Book Chi T300 is the biggest among its family with size of 12.5 inches; however, its two variations will be available for purchase. One would have an IPS display of 1080p with an Intel Core M 5Y70 CPU which would be humming at 0.8 GHz and would have a RAM of 4GB, the cost of this set would be $699.

The other set would possess a pixel-rich IPS Quad HD screen, and would have an Intel Core M 5Y71 processor clocked at 1.2 GHz, with a RAM of 8GB, the price of this set will be $799. Asus showed off that T300 is even slimmer than new MacBook Air of Apple. The 1,445 gram weight of the T300 with keyboard makes it a heavy device.

The price of the mid size 10.1 inch T100 with a 1900×1200 pixels resolution would have a price of $399 while the small 8.9-inch T90 with a display of 1280×800 pixels would have a price tag of $299.

Asus Introduces the Transformer Book Chi Trio - New Line of Laptop/Tablet Hybrids

Four New Laptops Launched by Asus: Zenbook NX500, Book V, Book T300 Chi and Book Flip

At Computex 2014 Asus announced the launch of many products including four laptops namely Zenbook NX500, Book V, Book T300 Chi and Book Flip. Out of them Transformer Book V is not entirely only a laptop  . As it is “the world’s first five-mode, three-in-one converged laptop” according to Asus.

 Asus Transformer Book V:-

Asus lifted the expectations from Book V when it launched its “Blender Teaser” trailer some days ago. The trailer showed Transformer Book V to be a blend of a tablet, smartphone and laptop.  This blended device is similar to a padfone in which a 5 inch smartphone fits in a 12 inch tablet. Tablet has a dock in which the smartphone goes in as you can see from the image below. The tablet runs on Windows 8.1 powered by Intel Core Processors.

The tablet has 128GB storage which you can increase by attaching the keyboard dock having additional 1TB hard-disk. The phone part is equipped with quad-core Intel Atom chipset running the latest Android 4.4 Kitkat and comes with LTE connectivity. So the users can switch between both the OS easily.

Asus Transformer Book Flip:-

The screen of this laptop can be rotated full 360 degree justifying the name “Flip”. The laptop is available in three sizes i.e. 13.3”, 14”, 15.6” and runs Windows 8.1 on Intel Core i7 processor with a graphic card Nvidia GeForce GT480M.

The device will be available for sale worldwide in June.

Asus ZenBook NX500:-

The ZenBook NX500 is the best of the 15.6” lot of Asus laptops. The laptop is equipped with a an IPS screen with UltraHD resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 px and a superb color rendering. It packs the powerful Intel Core i7 quad core processor and Nvidia GeForce 850M graphic card. There are two options for storage- PCIe x4 and RAID0 SATA3 both are based on SSD.

Zenbook NX500 also comes in aluminium body and SonicMaster speaker like the Book Flip. The other variant has titanium flim speakers with Bang & Olufsen ICEpower.

Transformer Book T300 Chi:-

Finally, Asus Transformer Book T300 Chi is also a detachable tablet of 12.5” laptop. But unlike Transformer Book V this has only one OS i.e. Windows 8.1 and runs on Intel Core processor. It has a QHD resolution screen instead of Book V’s HD.

T300 Chi’s thickness is only 7.3mm and has LTE connectivity.

Other than Transformer Book V there is no news of market release of other announced laptops.

Four New Laptops Launched by Asus: Zenbook NX500, Book V, Book T300 Chi and Book Flip

Google patents laptop and smartphone assembly unit

Google seems to be keen in bringing out a laptop and smartphone assembly unit where the smartphone is detachable. Google had filed for US patent 8,649,821 in September 2012 for a ‘Notebook computer and cell phone assembly’. The said patent has been approved in February2014.

Description given by the company in the patent application says, “Aspects of the present invention relate to a notebook computer and cell phone assembly. The cell phone is used in conjunction with the computer for telecommunication applications, including inter alia Skype, Instant Messenger and video conferencing. In addition the cell phone detaches from the computer for use as a standalone handset in private quiet conversation.”

Patent Drawing Figure 1 (Page 2):

The invention basically consists of a laptop and a cell phone that is attached to the laptop but it can ‘pop out’ of it and can be used as a separate mobile. The transition during the attachment and detachment process is seamless so that there is no break in the cellular service. When the mobile is attached to the laptop, the amplifier in it will indicate call status such as an incoming call and also provide speaker output while making a phone call, irrespective of the fact whether the laptop is in normal, power saving, stand-by or hibernating mode or even switched off.

When the mobile is attached to the laptop on normal power mode, the amplifier will be powered through the laptop battery and in other cases through the mobile battery. Similar is the case with the LED indicator. LED will indicate the status, for instance it will light up to show an incoming call or a call in progress. There may also be an audio indicator that will ring for an incoming call.

Drawings included in the patent application show a laptop and smartphone assembly unit with a special slot for the smartphone. Both devices when together, work in tandem and when detached, can work independently. This might as well be an integration of the Android platform of mobile and Chrome platform of the laptop. Of course, this is just a patent and the actual devices may be modified somewhat.

Patent Drawing Figure 2 (Page 3):

Patent Drawing Figure 3 (Page 4):

A few other companies have tried to integrate laptop/tablet and mobile before such as the Transformer and Padfone series of Asus or the Atrix 4G Lapdock of Motorola. As for Google, this is just a patent. Let us see when Google comes out with the actual product.

Google patents laptop and smartphone assembly unit