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[JimH]

There are some interesting new forms of PC's coming out at the Computex Show in Taiwan.  Asus, one of the leaders, has introduced a tablet that morphs into a light weight notebook (aka ultrabook).

At Anandtech

[Scolex]

An i7 tablet with discrete graphics, I am heading out to get in line now see ya'll in a few months.

[glynor]

Some of the new Windows 8 Intel-based "transformer" tablets Asus showed certainly do look interesting... From blog posts.

However, there are a LOT of unknowns about them right now.  From ExtremeTech's writeup at the show:

But then the reality sadly, slowly, grudgingly sinks back in. The tablet is positively riddled with air vents. If we assume that the Transformer Book uses the lowest-power Core i7 CPU, the 3667U (17-watt TDP), we’re still talking about a chip that uses at least 4 or 5 times the power of the A5X ARM SoC in the iPad 3. The Nvidia GTX 640M is impressive as far as mobile discrete graphics goes, but it still has a 30-watt TDP. Backlighting those big, bright, high-res screens is another 10 watts at least, too.

With all that hardware packed into that svelte chassis, how much space is left for the battery? Considering battery life was omitted from Asus’s presentation, I would guess “not a lot.” Even if Asus managed to squeeze in a battery that’s larger than the iPad 3, which has a massive laptop-like 42.5 watt-hours battery, the Transformer Book would last less than an hour — versus the iPad’s 9. With discrete graphics turned off (running on Ivy Bridge’s integrated GPU), we’re still only talking about 2 hours

[InflatableMouse]

...the Transformer Book would last less than an hour — versus the iPad’s 9. With discrete graphics turned off (running on Ivy Bridge’s integrated GPU), we’re still only talking about 2 hours.

That would be sad. Very sad.

I did hear about Windows 8 running on ARM tablets. They were stuffed behind glass windows and could not be demonstrated hands on.

[MrHaugen]

I just love the Transformer series. I'll probably get one of the Infinity series later this month when the 700 version release. I'm just not 100% sure if I should go for the Android version or wait for a x86 model instead, so I could run Theater View Tremote on it

[glynor]

I did hear about Windows 8 running on ARM tablets.

Yeah, but Windows on Arm can't run desktop software.  They're Metro only, and...

There isn't much out there compelling for Metro (perhaps "yet", we will see, but that's what they said over a year ago about WP7, and I'd still argue they're nowhere near where they need to be).

I'm afraid that if Metro turns out to be another Vista sidebar gadget thing: with a bunch of shiny, but ultimately useless "featurette" apps, that eventually fizzle.  And it could.  They're making everyone re-write from the ground up.  If they're going to bother to do that, why not re-write for the platform that is already selling millions and millions of devices per quarter, and where people are spending money on software, rather than an unproven, untested platform?  Then what do you have?  You can't run things like MC and Photoshop on Windows ARM devices (even if JRiver was willing to recompile for ARM, Microsoft won't let them), so now you have... What exactly?  A tablet that has some wizzy menus and widgets, but no real software other than Office, and... Less battery life to boot.

We'll see, but... Success is far from assured.

[glynor]

I should add... I say this as someone who owns two older-generation Windows XP "tablet PCs".  I want this stuff to work, and have wanted it to work for a long, long, long time.  They were NOT good.

I'm just worried.  Microsoft has been making promises like this for years and years.  The hour is getting very, very late.