02 November. Correction. We’ve had confirmation that the ASUS Taichi only has in touchscreen, onto the ‘tablet’ side.
It might seem a little over the top but you can’t deny the ASUS TaiChi 21 is one incredible design. A UX21A-style Ultrabook with not one but two 10-point touch FullHD screens!
02 November. Correction. We’ve had confirmation that the ASUS Taichi only has in touchscreen, onto the ‘tablet’ side.
This is the one to open up in the boardroom, press room or coffee shops – especially when the MBA’s are around !
Just in at Amazon.com is the 11.6” ASUS Tachi 21. It’s jumped right in at number 3 in the laptop best sellers list. There’s a Core i5/4GB/128GB and Core i7/4GB/128GB version. Both include 2 USB 3.0 ports, a micro HDMI and mini VGA port. Gig-E is mentioned in the sales literature but we suspect that’s the USB adaptor.
At 1.2KG it’s one of the (if not the) lightest single-unit convertible touch Ultrabook on the market.
The 35Wh battery isn’t the biggest though and that’s going to suffer at the hands of two screens although we suspect that there’s only one set of backlights and of course, you’ll only be using one screen at a time, unless you’re showing off!
[embedsite height=”500″ src=http://ultrabooknews.com/pullin/productdetails-pullin-generic.php?id=965]
The Ivy Bridge platform can support 3 screens so there’s still the possibility to add an external screen, if you’ve got the right cable and/or adaptor!
At $1299 for the Core i5 version it’s not cheap at all – some basic Ultrabooks are coming in at $700 cheaper with the same CPU platform. A Core i7 with 256GB will take the price up to $1599, at least until Amazon are sure the early pre-orders are out of the way!
Track the ASUS Taichi 21 in our product database where we’ll be adding important videos and links as we find them.
Source:ASUS Taichi 21-DH71 11.6-Inch Convertible Touch Ultrabook
“The 35Wh battery isn’t the biggest though and that’s going to suffer at the hands of two screens although we suspect that there’s only one set of backlights and of course, you’ll only be using one screen at a time, unless you’re showing off!”
It may not be that bad.
According to info I have here, a Full HD screen’s power use consists of ~2W for the panel electronics and 1W for the backlight. It probably needs seperate backlight for the two discrete panels, but the electronics may be shared.
Also specs for the Taichi indicates 280 nit brightness panel(compared to UX21A’s 350 nits), and 35WHr battery with claimed 5 hours battery. If the extra LCD uses THAT much power, it shouldn’t be able to claim such specs.
David
Do you really think they would use two sets of backlights? Surely it would make the screen design too thick with such a setup?
My tests indicate that the backlight would take more than 1W. I’d say 1W for the electronics and 2W for the backlight.
Chippy.
You are right on the backlight power. The data I’m seeing here is with low brightness levels.
As for the panel power, 768p displays use close to 1W but Full HD panels reach 2W.
There must be some sharing going on in either the backlight or the electronics if they are claiming 5 hours on a 35WHr battery. It also helps the Taichi’s display has lower maximum brightness.
Again, the main disadvantage may be not power use, but cost.
Chippy, I failed to find evidence that BOTH screens are touch-enabled… I think the inside screen is not. If true, that is a major User Experience consistency problem when Windows 8 presents you with the metro UI.
Chippy:
Actually the better use for the 3rd monitor IMO is WiDi.
Clio:
You are right there. I believe only the outer screen is touch enabled. But I guess it makes sense, as when the Taichi is closed, and you’ll have touch screen on the outer display. And when you log in and click Desktop, you can use mouse/keyboard.
That does make the Taichi more 2-in-1 device than a truly converged convertible like most as the inner display without touch wouldn’t be ideal for Windows 8 in Metro mode.
Nevermind, forget what I said about the one screen not being touchscreen.
BOTH SCREENS ARE TOUCHSCREENS.
DavidC1,
Do you have link about both screens being touch-enabled?
Yes, go to Asus website and look for Taichi’s distributors. All of the specs in the link show it.
I still cannot find those pages you mentioned, and I found an Amazon Q&A, claiming the early info wrongly stated both side touchscreens.
Looking at Netbooknew’s “ASUS TAICHI Dual Display Ultrabook Hands on” Video, The Asus demo person keep using the trackpad when it could be easier to use the touchscreen. If the inside were really touch-enabled, the demo person would have instinctively reached to the screen already.
Careful everyone, I really don’t think the inside is a touchscreen!
That’s not Q&A, but random poster. Another poster that responded to the first one says it is enabled.
As for the links: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=ASUS+taichi&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma&Top+Nav-Search=
Look at these two links by Asus marketing:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/sectors/campaigns/asus/asus_win8/asuswin8.asp?srkey=asus%20taichi
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Brand/asus/TaichiX202.Offer.aspx
“The ASUS TAICHI 21 convertible Notebook sports two multi-touch displays…”
Thanks for the links. I surely hope I am wrong.
With both sides touchscreens, it is a mind-blowing product.
If it has only one touchscreen, it’d just be the stupidest mistake they can ever make.
It looks like it was a mistake. There’s a new Asus material on Amazon Q&A that only mentions it for the external display. It doesn’t support touch on the inside. It may turn out to be a mistake by Asus, but maybe it’ll be fine this generation considering how many people say clamshell mode doesn’t require touch.
For you it may not of course.
No touchscreen on the inside according to this hands on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZac3GrJJ-Q
hey steve,
are you going to test it? I´m very interessted in serious information. Have not found that there is internal 3g/lte. both screens atm would be great.
I hope you´ll test it.
Peter
For me the most disappointing thing is that does not support WiDi.
I was interesting for that hybrid pc and send an email to Asus and asking if support WiDi and told me NO.
Think that other hybrid pc like Vaio Duo 11/Dell XPS Duo 12/Samsung Smart PC Pro/Toshiba Satellite u920t support WiDi.
To bad for me.
Where does it say it doesn’t support WiDi? If its an Intel Centrino card that’s not value line, then it should support it.
Asus documentation says Widi is part of taichi
This was the answer from Asus to my question if Taichi support WiDi and told me No.
”
As i can see from the Asus website it will support WiDi
http://www.asus.com/vivo/en/taichi.htm