6 ms·

Asus announces x86 Ivy Bridge Windows 8 tablet/laptop hybrid

31 points by ukdm 14y ago

polshaw 14y ago
Very impressive hardware design from Asus: full-HD display and dockable GPU too, remaining impressively thin and all from 11". Although I can see it seriously struggling with heat (noise?), battery life and price. Will be very interesting to see if they have been able to manage these issues to make it a useable option in tablet-mode. It's pretty much what I would design as the perfect device-- in theory.
- tseabrooks 14y ago
  This is exactly it. "In theory". Prior to iPad, then before MacBook air... This is exactly the device I wanted apple to make (And in many ways I still do). Sadly, when you wrap your head around things like battery, heat, and the like. You realize it might not be the dream machine you're looking for. For Asus' and MS (and my) sake I'm hoping this thing kicks ass. If it does I know I'll be considering it.
- hollerith 14y ago
  The number one requirement for my tablet computer is that it does not get warm. It is often in my lap, sometimes touching the part of my body that produces testosterone and that seemed maybe not to, uh, work as reliably back when I used to rest a full-powered notebook computer against it for protracted lengths of time. (I have never noticed any part of my iPad 2 to be warmer than body temperature. According to at least one blogger, iPad 3 is definitely a different story.)
programminggeek 14y ago
Battery life on this is going to be terrible and so is price. The article was probably right that it will land in the 2-4 hour range. For ultrabook type specs you'll be paying ultrabook prices. This won't likely be a $500 machine, more like $800-1000. So, $500 iPad3 or $800 for Windows transformer tablet? Sure it will sell, but not in any kind of volume like the iPad. I'm sure Apple could have build this, or still could, but they likely didn't because they coudln't hit mainstream pricing. Nobody has the volume or the operational excellence to compete with Apple on price, quality, or volume without sacrificing profit margins.
- dagw 14y ago
  So, $500 iPad3 or $800 for Windows transformer tablet? Full keyboard, proper general purpose OS, running a fairly powerful CPU and GPU and offering all your standard set of I/O ports. This is not an iPad competitor, but a Macbook Air competitor, that can also be used as a tablet in a pinch.
  - rbanffy 14y ago
    > proper general purpose OS That's debatable ;-) but I concede your point that Windows is more "general purpose" than iOS. > Macbook Air competitor Won't run OSX. It's not a competitor unless you plan running Windows 8 on your Macbook which is not very smart. And iPads can use Apple's wireless keyboards, so, for US$ 50 more you get a really good keyboard you can use with your desktop computer too.
    - ot 14y ago
      How debatable? On Intel you get the desktop and backward-compatibility with old windows applications. What is your definition of general-purpose?
      - rbanffy 14y ago
        I adopt the "works for me" definition which, in the end, is the one I should use to select hardware for my use. Of course, you should probably not use the "works for rbanffy" definition for your own hardware acquisitions. Most of my apps are designed to run on Linux. My IDE is Emacs and my system management tool is a shell. With that in mind, anything that's not Unix-like negatively impacts productivity. I have used Cygwin on Windows but, while it goes great lengths to make Windows a comfortable environment, in the end it's just not worth the effort if you can just run the real thing on your machine. Windows also takes ages to set up with software downloaded from just about everywhere. With Linux, I issue an "apt-get install" and sit back while the environment gets assembled. On a Mac, I have to install the xcode command-line tooling, ports and everything from that point on is completely automated. On Windows I don't even want to think the steps I'd need to take and the buttons I'd need to click before being able to just work.
morsch 14y ago
Acer also announced 11.6 and 13.3in Aspire S7 Ultrabooks with 1920x1080 displays. Full HD at 11.6in -- 190 dpi -- seems almost excessive, but I'm not complaining. Other stats (11.6/13.3): 9h/12h battery life, about 1kg/1.3kg, and "800-1800 USD" (yeah I know). Now please start selling regular sized displays with those kinds of dpi!
- nodata 14y ago
  Acer or Asus?
  - morsch 14y ago
    Acer: http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/03/acer-aspire-s7-ultrabook/ http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/03/acer-aspire-s7-ultrabook/
johnchristopher 14y ago
I wish there were more 13" screens with a 1600x1200 or 1440x900 resolution. Whether it's too much density (1920x1080 11-13") or not enough (1366x768 13-16").
- rbanffy 14y ago
  You can always use more pixels to show the same amount of information. I don't think many people will ever run xterm with the default font on a 1080 13" screen.
  - johnchristopher 14y ago
    It's indeed easier to downgrade from high-res to low-res. Although non-native resolutions tend to have a blurry render.
dagw 14y ago
Personally I'm far more intrigued by this: http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/04/asus-taichi-notebook-tablet/ http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/04/asus-taichi-notebook-tabl...
moron 14y ago
Hopefully it is better than the dreadful tablet/laptop hybrids MS hawked a few years back. That standard is painfully low, though. They were awful.
rbanffy 14y ago
I really don't get the "wimpy Atom" thing. I run Ubuntu 12.04 with Unity (with visual effects) on a first-gen Acer Aspire One with a first-gen Atom processor and, while I won't be playing games on it anytime soon, it runs very well. So well, in fact, it is taking me months to effectively move my main computing to my newer i3-based laptop. It still starts Emacs in under 5 seconds (and, considering my init.el, that's quite an accomplishment). I'm not sure I'd be that much more productive if I could start Emacs in under a second.
- s8qnze982y 14y ago
  For me it's been a disaster instead, having an N550 (if memory serves me well). Ubuntu used to take a very long time to boot (minutes); I couldn't even reliably watch videos. I was very surprised (and disappointed) though, to see than in Windows everything was perfectly usable.
  - rbanffy 14y ago
    That's really weird. AFAIK, hardware support for Linux is excellent on Atom chipsets. What brand was it? Mine uses the N270 and tops at 1.5 GB of RAM and won't deal with dual screens side by side (two of the reasons to switch to the i3)
- ajross 14y ago
  Relative to Ivy Bridge, the Atom core is dog slow. On L1 cache bound benchmarks, it's routinely about 2x slower per clock (it runs about the same per clock as an ARM A9, FWIW). And the size of the L3 cache on SNB/IVB means that many tasks actually get much faster, relatively, as they start to spill out of L1/L2. If all you do is editing, you really aren't likely to care. But things that tax the CPU, like big web apps, tend not to work well on Atom boxes. Atom looks closer to an iPad or a smartphone in that regime than it does to a desktop CPU.
  - rbanffy 14y ago
    It plays video well enough. I never hooked it to the big tv to check whether it does 1080p at 60fps, but, apart from that, it works well enough. In any case, the Atom should not be the processor doing the video decoding and rescaling - that's what GPUs are for. Flash is very slow and Gmail is not very snappy, but that's the extent of my problems with it. I'll probably replace its battery, give it a small SSD and use it when I really need something small.
jcurbo 14y ago
Gotta get this news out before any Apple Ivy Bridge-related announcements next week, I suppose.
- CurtHagenlocher 14y ago
  Or maybe there's some kind of annual conference for hardware manufacturers in Taiwan where it would be natural to announce new products. Such a conference might even have existed for, oh, thirty years or so. The world does not revolve around Apple.
  - jcurbo 14y ago
    You have a point, but this product is a direct competitor to both the iPad and Macbook Air, both tough nuts that other companies have been trying to crack. Given expectations that major Macbook Air upgrades are coming as early as next week, based on Ivy Bridge, getting a word out before the Apple hype starts seems like it could do nothing but help competitors.

31 points by ukdm 14y ago

Very impressive hardware design from Asus: full-HD display and dockable GPU too, remaining impressively thin and all from 11". Although I can see it seriously struggling with heat (noise?), battery life and price. Will be very interesting to see if they have been able to manage these issues to make it a useable option in tablet-mode. It's pretty much what I would design as the perfect device-- in theory.

tseabrooks 14y ago
This is exactly it. "In theory". Prior to iPad, then before MacBook air... This is exactly the device I wanted apple to make (And in many ways I still do). Sadly, when you wrap your head around things like battery, heat, and the like. You realize it might not be the dream machine you're looking for. For Asus' and MS (and my) sake I'm hoping this thing kicks ass. If it does I know I'll be considering it.
hollerith 14y ago
The number one requirement for my tablet computer is that it does not get warm. It is often in my lap, sometimes touching the part of my body that produces testosterone and that seemed maybe not to, uh, work as reliably back when I used to rest a full-powered notebook computer against it for protracted lengths of time. (I have never noticed any part of my iPad 2 to be warmer than body temperature. According to at least one blogger, iPad 3 is definitely a different story.)

programminggeek 14y ago

Battery life on this is going to be terrible and so is price. The article was probably right that it will land in the 2-4 hour range. For ultrabook type specs you'll be paying ultrabook prices. This won't likely be a $500 machine, more like $800-1000. So, $500 iPad3 or $800 for Windows transformer tablet? Sure it will sell, but not in any kind of volume like the iPad. I'm sure Apple could have build this, or still could, but they likely didn't because they coudln't hit mainstream pricing. Nobody has the volume or the operational excellence to compete with Apple on price, quality, or volume without sacrificing profit margins.

dagw 14y ago
So, $500 iPad3 or $800 for Windows transformer tablet? Full keyboard, proper general purpose OS, running a fairly powerful CPU and GPU and offering all your standard set of I/O ports. This is not an iPad competitor, but a Macbook Air competitor, that can also be used as a tablet in a pinch.
- rbanffy 14y ago
  > proper general purpose OS That's debatable ;-) but I concede your point that Windows is more "general purpose" than iOS. > Macbook Air competitor Won't run OSX. It's not a competitor unless you plan running Windows 8 on your Macbook which is not very smart. And iPads can use Apple's wireless keyboards, so, for US$ 50 more you get a really good keyboard you can use with your desktop computer too.
  - ot 14y ago
    How debatable? On Intel you get the desktop and backward-compatibility with old windows applications. What is your definition of general-purpose?
    - rbanffy 14y ago
      I adopt the "works for me" definition which, in the end, is the one I should use to select hardware for my use. Of course, you should probably not use the "works for rbanffy" definition for your own hardware acquisitions. Most of my apps are designed to run on Linux. My IDE is Emacs and my system management tool is a shell. With that in mind, anything that's not Unix-like negatively impacts productivity. I have used Cygwin on Windows but, while it goes great lengths to make Windows a comfortable environment, in the end it's just not worth the effort if you can just run the real thing on your machine. Windows also takes ages to set up with software downloaded from just about everywhere. With Linux, I issue an "apt-get install" and sit back while the environment gets assembled. On a Mac, I have to install the xcode command-line tooling, ports and everything from that point on is completely automated. On Windows I don't even want to think the steps I'd need to take and the buttons I'd need to click before being able to just work.

morsch 14y ago

Acer also announced 11.6 and 13.3in Aspire S7 Ultrabooks with 1920x1080 displays. Full HD at 11.6in -- 190 dpi -- seems almost excessive, but I'm not complaining. Other stats (11.6/13.3): 9h/12h battery life, about 1kg/1.3kg, and "800-1800 USD" (yeah I know). Now please start selling regular sized displays with those kinds of dpi!

nodata 14y ago
Acer or Asus?
- morsch 14y ago
  Acer: http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/03/acer-aspire-s7-ultrabook/ http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/03/acer-aspire-s7-ultrabook/

johnchristopher 14y ago

I wish there were more 13" screens with a 1600x1200 or 1440x900 resolution. Whether it's too much density (1920x1080 11-13") or not enough (1366x768 13-16").

rbanffy 14y ago
You can always use more pixels to show the same amount of information. I don't think many people will ever run xterm with the default font on a 1080 13" screen.
- johnchristopher 14y ago
  It's indeed easier to downgrade from high-res to low-res. Although non-native resolutions tend to have a blurry render.

dagw 14y ago

Personally I'm far more intrigued by this: http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/04/asus-taichi-notebook-tablet/ http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/04/asus-taichi-notebook-tabl...

moron 14y ago

Hopefully it is better than the dreadful tablet/laptop hybrids MS hawked a few years back. That standard is painfully low, though. They were awful.

rbanffy 14y ago

I really don't get the "wimpy Atom" thing. I run Ubuntu 12.04 with Unity (with visual effects) on a first-gen Acer Aspire One with a first-gen Atom processor and, while I won't be playing games on it anytime soon, it runs very well. So well, in fact, it is taking me months to effectively move my main computing to my newer i3-based laptop. It still starts Emacs in under 5 seconds (and, considering my init.el, that's quite an accomplishment). I'm not sure I'd be that much more productive if I could start Emacs in under a second.

s8qnze982y 14y ago
For me it's been a disaster instead, having an N550 (if memory serves me well). Ubuntu used to take a very long time to boot (minutes); I couldn't even reliably watch videos. I was very surprised (and disappointed) though, to see than in Windows everything was perfectly usable.
- rbanffy 14y ago
  That's really weird. AFAIK, hardware support for Linux is excellent on Atom chipsets. What brand was it? Mine uses the N270 and tops at 1.5 GB of RAM and won't deal with dual screens side by side (two of the reasons to switch to the i3)
ajross 14y ago
Relative to Ivy Bridge, the Atom core is dog slow. On L1 cache bound benchmarks, it's routinely about 2x slower per clock (it runs about the same per clock as an ARM A9, FWIW). And the size of the L3 cache on SNB/IVB means that many tasks actually get much faster, relatively, as they start to spill out of L1/L2. If all you do is editing, you really aren't likely to care. But things that tax the CPU, like big web apps, tend not to work well on Atom boxes. Atom looks closer to an iPad or a smartphone in that regime than it does to a desktop CPU.
- rbanffy 14y ago
  It plays video well enough. I never hooked it to the big tv to check whether it does 1080p at 60fps, but, apart from that, it works well enough. In any case, the Atom should not be the processor doing the video decoding and rescaling - that's what GPUs are for. Flash is very slow and Gmail is not very snappy, but that's the extent of my problems with it. I'll probably replace its battery, give it a small SSD and use it when I really need something small.

jcurbo 14y ago

Gotta get this news out before any Apple Ivy Bridge-related announcements next week, I suppose.

CurtHagenlocher 14y ago
Or maybe there's some kind of annual conference for hardware manufacturers in Taiwan where it would be natural to announce new products. Such a conference might even have existed for, oh, thirty years or so. The world does not revolve around Apple.
- jcurbo 14y ago
  You have a point, but this product is a direct competitor to both the iPad and Macbook Air, both tough nuts that other companies have been trying to crack. Given expectations that major Macbook Air upgrades are coming as early as next week, based on Ivy Bridge, getting a word out before the Apple hype starts seems like it could do nothing but help competitors.