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ASUS has lifted the lid on a plethora of products at CES 2014, including the PadFone mini (pictured) which transforms from smartphone to tablet.
The 4-inch 800×480 pixel smartphone slots into a 7-inch 1280×800 pixel "better than HD" tablet. It’s powered by an Intel Atom Z2560 processor, has 8GB of internal storage and a micro SD card slot that enables storage to be upgraded by up to 64GB.
It also has an 8MP main camera and 2MP front-facing camera, and can record in HD 1080p video, plus it has ZenUI, a new user interface exclusive to ASUS smart devices.
PadFone mini’s design tapers to 6.3mm at its thinnest edge and the smartphone itself weighs 116g.
UK pricing and availability has not yet been confirmed.
ASUS also announced the VivoTab Note 8 (right), a Windows 8.1 tablet featuring a professional Wacom digitizer stylus. Designed for professionals and students alike and bundled with Microsoft Office Home and Student, it weighs just 380g.
The Note 8 has an Intel Atom Z3740 processor, up to eight hours battery life, 2GB of memory, 32GB of solid-state storage plus the ability to use up to 64GB microSD cards.
The VivoTab Note 8 will be on shelves in February with an MSRP of £299.99.
Thirdly, ASUS unveiled the Transformer Book Duet (TD300) (pictured left), which it says is the world’s first quad-mode, dual-OS laptop and tablet convertible. It allows users to switch between Windows and Android in either laptop or tablet modes in four seconds.
With a powerful Intel Core i7 processor at its heart, Transformer Book Duet runs up to twice as fast as existing tablets based on ARM processors. It has Intel HD graphics and 4G DDR3L 1600 RAM, a 13.3-inch 1920 x 1080 Full HD IPS touchscreen display and Windows 8.1.
In addition, Transformer Book Duet has a front-facing HD camera with a built-in digital mic for video chats. The tablet display has 128GB of SSD storage which can be supplemented by a 64GB Micro SD card, while the keyboard dock houses a 1TB hard disk drive.
The dock is also home to USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports, a LAN port, and HDMI 1.4 output with 1080p support. In terms of connectivity, ASUS Transformer Book T300 has 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 with EDR.
The Transformer Book Duet’s tablet measures 342.7 x 216.3 x 12.9mm and the dock is 340.9 x 217.6 x 16mm.It weighs around 1.9kg. UK pricing and release details will be announced in due course.
The ZenFone high-value smartphone series was also revealed at CES 2014. It also uses the new ZenUI user interface which includes free open messaging, powered by Omlet Chat on the Omlet Open Messaging Platform.
ASUS has also added enhanced Android apps to every ZenFone device. The ASUS-enhanced email app, for example, allows messages to be read by thread, the Smart Reader Mode automatically adjusts the background tone to reduce eye-strain, and the Gallery app has an enhanced online synchronisation.
The ZenFone 4 has a 4-inch display and a 1.2GHz Intel Atom Z2520 processor with Quad-Thread Hyper-Threading Technology. It has two built-in cameras – including a 5-megapixel main camera. It weighs 115g and is available in five colours: Charcoal Black, Pearl White, Cherry Red, Sky Blue and Solar Yellow.
The ZenFone 5 has a spacious 5-inch IPS panel that delivers a HD 1280 x 720-pixel resolution – and has a design that tapers to 5.5mm at its thinnest edge.
It has an energy-efficient Intel Atom Z2580 processor running at 2GHz and also benefits from an 8-megapixel PixelMaster main camera with image stabilisation. This couples a backside-illumination (BSI) sensor and wide-aperture f/2.0 lens with exclusive ASUS PixelMaster technology.
PixelMaster’s Low-Light Mode measures the available light and intelligently adjusts the pixel size to increase light sensitivity by up to 400 per cent. ZenFone 5 is available in four colours: Charcoal Black, Pearl White, Cherry Red and Champagne Gold.
The ZenFone 6 boasts a 6-inch HD screen and an Intel Atom Z2580 processor running at 2GHz.
ZenFone 6 also includes a 13-megapixel main camera that similarly benefits from exclusive ASUS PixelMaster technology, and a 2-megapixel front camera. ZenFone 6 is also available in Charcoal Black, Pearl White, Cherry Red, and Champagne Gold.
