ASUS at CES 2014: ROG 27” 1440p 120Hz G-Sync Monitor, Tablets, Smartphones, and a new Transformer Book
by Ian Cutress on January 6, 2014 3:30 PM ESTNew at CES: Transformer Book Duet TD300
The TD300 is being advertised as the world’s first quad-mode, dual-OS laptop that combines an Android tablet and Windows 8.1 laptop into the transformer form factor with up to a Core i7 processor under the hood. The quad-mode implies two ways to use Android (tablet or notebook) and two ways to use Windows (tablet or notebook) – switching between them is designed to be as simple as pressing the Instant Switch button.
The tablet/screen of the device will be a 13.3” 1080p IPS touchscreen with multi-touch display features and responsiveness, with audio supplied by ASUS SonicMaster technology. The front-facing HD camera is paired with a microphone, along with 128GB of storage that can be boosted with a microSD card while the keyboard dock can house a 1TB hard disk drive (unsure whether this is 2.5”, mSATA, PCIe or proprietary yet). The dock also has increased functionality (USB 2.0, USB 3.0, gigabit Ethernet, HDMI 1.4) and the tablet segment comes fitted with 802.11ac dual band WiFi and 4GB of DDR3L-1600 RAM.
In terms of dimensions, the tablet measures 342.7 x 216.3 x 12.9mm and the dock is 340.9 x 217.6 x 16mm, suggesting a potential overall of 342.7 x 217.6 x 28.9mm (over an inch thick at the widest point) with a total weight of 1.9 kg.
The TD300 will be available in the EU/APAC in late Q1, with North America in Late Q2. Pricing will start at $599 for the i3/HD Display combination, whereas the i3/1080p will start at $699. No word on the i7 editions as of yet.
New at CES: VivoTab Note 8
As the name suggests, the VivoTab Note 8 is an 8” tablet running Windows 8.1 with a professional Wacom digitizer stylus in tow, with the aim of making this device suitable for productivity or creativity. The VivoTab Note 8 will come bundled with Microsoft Office Home and Student for this purpose, and ASUS like to point out the thin bezels and high definition display, to go along with the ability to use it one handed, as serious plus points.
Specification wise we are looking at an Intel Atom Z3740 (quad core 1.33 GHz, turbo up to 1.86 GHz) with 2GB LPDDR3 and up to 64GB of internal storage, with space for a microSD card and 1 year of unlimited ASUS WebStorage. The screen puts the VivoTab Note 8 in the mid-range specification pile, being only 1280x800 on an eight inch device, along with only 802.11 a/b/g/n support (not 802.11ac). It will feature a 15.5 Whr battery however, and weigh in at 380g.
Prices will start at $299 for the 32GB model and $349 for the 64GB model (making 32GB of storage only $50 – other companies could learn from this). Projected release dates is late Q1, early Q2.
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chizow - Monday, January 6, 2014 - link
Damnit, I'm going to have to pay $800 to upgrade to this display, aren't I? Which means I will probably need to upgrade my GPUs too as 2GB VRAM won't be enough. Any word on 3D Vision support?Lolimaster - Monday, January 6, 2014 - link
So you want to pay $800 for a sh*tty tn panel? Freesync is free and supported in basically all monitors or with a minor firmware update.1440p, 120Hz, """"1ms"""", thats impossible for VA/IPS, fastest IPS is the eizo foris @3ms.
http://www.pcper.com/news/General-Tech/CES-2014-AS...
Stop being ripped with g-sync fantasy, now you pay near pro lvl monitor prices for horrible picture quality. LOL
afa7336 - Tuesday, January 7, 2014 - link
First off, can you show me your data where this specific panel is "sh*tty"? I don't mean in general, I want hard data on this monitor since thats what we are talking about.Freesync is in its infancy and we have NO way of knowing when or if it will come out. You want to know how young Freesync is, take a look at how they did the testing. They used those tablet things to demonstrate it. If it was near prime time, they'd have monitors running it. Second, there is NO list out for what monitors will and won't support it, claiming its just a "minor firmware update" is false. First the monitor would have to support it. Then the manufactor would have to update the firmware, then push it out. Again, we aren't even close to that stage as there is no demos on actual monitors yet. Laptops/Tablets and the like normally have this tech built in because it saves battery life. The other thing to keep in mind is we know G-Sync is on the market right now, AMD is in a race so to speak, now that they unveiled this. If they wait even 6 months, its too late, they've kinda shot themselves in the foot.
Yes, its a TN Panel. If you tune a TN panel like I have, you can get it darn close to an IPS panel. Is it the same, no. IPS is better, but this is a compromise until the manufactures can come up with a 120hz IPS panel. To date there is no true 120hz IPS panel. And $800 is about right actually when you think about what you are getting all told. You nor I may think it is steep or not, but it is about right for the marketplace.
chizow - Tuesday, January 7, 2014 - link
What's funny is you refer to G-Sync in fantasy in a news bit about....a monitor launching soon with G-Sync.And in exchange, you offer a free solution that has no backing from any actual panel makers, isn't in every panel contrary to what you have claimed, and is just now being pushed by an IHV (AMD) that has a long history of overpromising and underdelivering.
Sorry, but if you haven't figured it out by now, some people are willing to pay more for ACTUAL products and features available and usable TODAY. Not for some words, promises and slidedecks for sometime in the distant future. What were you saying about fantasy again?
perpetualdark - Monday, January 13, 2014 - link
First off, Free-Sync is ONLY possible with laptops right now, and even then only certain models that have the ability to adjust monitor frequency on the fly. It is a laptop technology that is designed to reduce power consumption when nothing is changing on the screen. It also comes with increased lag.Second, the only technology that can produce 1ms total latency AND 120hz AND zero screen tearing AND be within the budget of even an enthusiast gamer is TN, so you are stuck with either a fantasy idea that won't come to light for several years, or to get the best possible "GAMING" monitor available in a few months.
Third, you even stated yourself that 1440p, 120hz, and 1ms are impossible with IPS.. so why are you complaining? If you really don't want TN, even a very high quality one, then don't buy it, but don't expect to find anything even remotely close to a better GAMING monitor than this.
Fourth, even if you could reduce lag to 2 or 3 ms on an IPS, and still use frequency synching, you would be limited to 60hz, which means 60fps.. What kind of enthusiast gamer wants to limit their games to 60 fps?
The bottom line is, if you are OK with 60hz and don't have a problem paying a monster premium for an eizo screen that has 3ms latency, then this is NOT the monitor for you.
One more thing, if you read up on G-sync, you will see that on top of G-sync, all the monitors with G-sync will have the new version of LightBoost as an option. Unfortunately it won't work WITH G-Sync, but if you run into a game that G-sync doesn't work on, you could enable LightBoost and reduce motion blur to the point where your game is enhanced tremendously already. You run the risk of screen tearing again, but it is a pretty good tradeoff when you don't have another option.
I for one would buy this today if it were out, and I might very well buy it in a few months when it releases. I am still using my first gen 24" dell ultrasharp from about 10 years ago, and it suits me very well for gaming. Sure, the color isn't anything like my IPS's at work, but then I am not doing photo editing at home, I game. If I want better color and more of an experience at the cost of response time and blurriness, I will game on the 100" in my theater..
chizow - Monday, January 6, 2014 - link
TD300 looks awesome too, wish they had some cheaper offerings with Bay-Trail, but it looks like it will be a fine Surface Pro alternative.mobutu - Tuesday, January 7, 2014 - link
You can very easily tell this monitor has a TN panel because of the 1ms response time, no ips/pls can do that atm.So yeah, TN is a shitty panel no matter how you look at it, and the bigger the TN screen is the lower the quality of panel is.
800$ for TN? rip-off
Kronvict - Tuesday, January 7, 2014 - link
Not all TN’s are made the same: the premium panel used in the PG278Q is of very high quality. IPS panels (and their derivatives like PVA/MVA etc) are not suitable for a multitude of reasons: 1) the response rate is simply not fast enough to react to the active change in refresh rate and 2) They cannot reliably achieve >60Hz without significantly affecting the quality of the image. IGZO technology (and LTPS – low temperature polysilicon – likewise) – yields 100′s of times faster electron mobility versus standard amorphous silicon panels – and thus can provide a response rate comparable to TN (up to 60Hz currently), but, however desirable this technology is, it is still currently cost prohibitively for many PC gaming enthusiasts in 2014, which is why ROG has used a better price:performance, high quality TN panel.mobutu - Tuesday, January 7, 2014 - link
high quality and TN cannot take part in the same sentence. Because inherently TN tech is bad so no matter how much "high quality" you make it it'll still be bad.TN will ALWAYS have that horrendous shift when you're off-center. And guess what, the larger the TN screen is the more off-center the user will be.
So that's ultra bad.
Asking 800$ for that is plain rude. But probably there'll be enough fools to take the bad pill.
Kronvict - Tuesday, January 7, 2014 - link
IPS is a lot better than TN in pretty much every aspect. IPS has much better color accuracy and color depth, and much better viewing angles. Most 1440p monitors employ the use of IPS technology.TN panels have a faster response time-which allows them to refresh faster and react to your input faster. That being said, the quality of TN panels does vary and a select few are actually not bad. We will have to see what reviewers think. I currenly own a Dell 1440p IPS but this monitor is something that i have been waiting for so i will definitely be taking the "bad" pill as you call it regardless if its a TN panel or not.