Asus announces a dual-boot Windows and Android tablet that can transform into a desktop PC

Asus chairman Jonney Shih has announced a new tablet computer that can boot up into either Windows or Android and be docked as either a desktop PC or a laptop during a keynote speech at the Computex 2013 tech conference in Taiwan.

The Transformer Book trio is a large tablet, featuring a detachable 11.6-inch display that can be booted up into either Android or Windows.

The device can also be ‘transformed’ into a laptop, or with the display removed, be used as a desktop PC by being plugged into an external monitor through a PC Station dock.

The PC Station dock, in turn, features its own Intel Core i& processor, keyboard and 750GB hard drive, while also charging the docked tablet.

The tablet itself features a 2 GHz Intel Atom processor and full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution, along with up to 64GB of storage.

As expected, the company also announced a new low-end 7-inch Android tablet with a recommended retail price of just US$129 for 8GB and US$149 for 16 GB, available in a range of colours including dark blue, white, pink and green.

Asus also announced its Transformer Pad Infinity series of tablets will receive an upgrade in horsepower, with the devices being upgraded to a NVidia Tegra 4 mobile processor featuring a quad-core ARM Cortex A15 CPU with 72 graphics processing cores.

Finally, the company introduced a 6-inch 3G phablet called the FonePad Note, designed to compete against Samsung’s Galaxy Note series of phablets.

“We seek to perfect the balance between engineering and humanity, where every intricate detail echoes our needs for both emotion and function,” ASUS chairman Jonney Shih said.

“This is the ASUS way of Design Thinking, where every idea starts with people and we turn our imagination into myriad revolutionary innovations.”