Appleās MacBook Air may have represented the pinnacle of ultra-light computing for a while, but Asus plans to show that it knows a thing or two about the area, as the company unveils its Chi range of slim portables.
The new machines sport a name that is very similar to Appleās own āAirā ā because āchiā (or āqiā where it likely originates) translates roughly to āairā ā isnāt set to be a part of the Asus Zen series, which is generally the range Asus calls the high-end, sporting metal bodies and very thin sizes.
Rather, it will flesh out the companyās new Transformer Book range, with the Transformer Book Chi computers providing thin tablet hybrids that connect to keyboard docks, offering 12.5 inches of goodness in the T300, 10.1 inches in the T100, and 8.9 inches in the T90, making machines for all manner of users.
The Chi range is designed to be fast enough for most things, relying on Intelās Core M processors, also known as Broadwell, with Windows 8 running on the machines, and supporting bodies that from a tablet point of view deliver thicknesses (or thinnesses) that break Windows-based benchmarks, with a 10.1 inch T100 delivering a thickness of 7.2mm and an 8.9 inch model pushed down to 7.5mm.
Screen resolutions will support as high as 2560×1440 on the 12 inch T300, and we suspect weāre going to see HD and Full HD resolutions on the 8.9 inch T90 and 10.1 inch T100 respectively, though Asus hasnāt confirmed that for us yet.
Beyond the innards, though, thereās an aluminium body, magnetic hinges, Bluetooth used for the keyboard, and even USB 3.0 connectivity, as well as solid-state drives.
Pricing isnāt here, and neither is availability, but weāll let you know when Asus lets us know more.