Asus Transformer Book V: A 5-in-1, Android-Windows Phone, Tablet and PC

By Jamie Condliffe on at

ASUS has just announced one of its most unusual products yet: a 5-in-1 device that's a phone, tablet and PC, which runs both Windows and Android. No, really.

At its fullest, the Transformer Book V is a 12.5-inch Windows laptop. Detach the keyboard, and it turns into a Windows tablet. Tug on the odd bulge at the back of the screen, and you'll discover a 5-inch Android phone, which you can use to power the tablet, too. Then reattach the keyboard and you have an Android laptop.

Switching between operating systems is, apparently, as simple as tapping the screen. In terms of specs, there's a 12.5-inch HD IPS display, 64-bit Atom chip, 4GB of RAM, a 28Wh battery and 128GB SSD on the Windows side (plus up to to 1TB as an HDD in the keyboard). As for the phone, it's weighs 140 grammes, is 11mm-thick, packs a 2,500mAh battery plus 2GB of RAM, up to 64GB of storage and 8MP/2MP cameras. The Windows laptop can access the phone's storage just like any other Android phone plugged into a Windows device.

There's no word on pricing or availability. Nor, for that matter, on the kind of person that would actually find the device useful. We might find out about all three over time.

Elsewhere, Asus has also announced some other new hardware. There's a new Zenbook, called the NX500, which packs a Core i7 and 4K screen; the Transformer Book T300 Chi, which is an incredibly slim 12.5 inch 2-in-1 laptop that which claims to be the world's thinnest tablet; and a slew of new Padfones. [Asus]