Asus has treated CES attendees to a first look at its new line of very thin, very light laptop/tablet hybrids. The versatile 2-in-1 devices have been labelled the Transformer Book Chi Series and are available in three sizes: 8.9-inches, 10.1-inches and 12.5-inches.
It's that biggest 12.5-inch model, the T300 Chi, that Asus is touting as the flagship of the range: it comes with a full HD (1920x1080) or WQHD (2560x1440) display and is fitted with an Intel Core M processor.
Below that is the 10.1-inch T100 Chi edition, rocking a WUXGA (1920x1200) display resolution and an Intel Atom processor. The 8.9-inch T90 Chi keeps the CPU but lowers the resolution to WXGA (1280x800).
Razor-sharp... almost
All of these new hybrids promise fanless, quiet operation and "razor-thin" profiles, according to Asus. The T90 Chi is 7.5mm thick and the T300 Chi 7.6mm thick when used as tablets, and the T100 Chi reduces that to 7.2mm - Asus says that makes them the thinnest Windows tablets on the market.
Not quite the 6.1mm thickness offered by the iPad Air 2, but then Apple's slab isn't running the full version of Windows 8.1, either. Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 tablet/laptop has a depth of 9.14mm by comparison.
Asus is also trumpeting the neodymium magnetic hinges, the IPS displays and the SonicMaster immersive sound capabilities of these new 2-in-1s. We don't have launch dates yet, but we do have US prices: $799 (£525/AUS$990) for the WQHD T300, $699 (£460/AUS$865) for the HD T300, $399 (£260/AUS$495) for the T100 and $299 (£195/AUS$370) for the T90.
