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ASUS Transformer Book V is a Windows hybrid laptop with a detachable Android phone

Wow, just wow. ASUS has just announced the Transformer Book V (pronounced "five"), a Windows 2-in-1 laptop with a detachable Android phone. No, this isn't the Windows Phone-powered PadFone that we've been waiting for, but the package is still pretty mind-blowing. Let's break it down. First of all, the 12.5-inch tablet/laptop hybrid part has its own Windows 8.1 brain running on Intel Core architecture. Then you have the 5-inch, ZenFone 5-like Android 4.4 phone, which is the first to run on Intel's 64-bit quad-core Atom (Moorefield) chip with LTE radio. When docked, the phone's Android interface is displayed within Windows 8, and you can also switch to the full Android tablet interface. In other words, you get five modes in total (hence the name): a Windows tablet, a Windows laptop, an Android phone, an Android tablet and an Android laptop.

The 0.8kg tablet part comes with a 12.5-inch HD IPS display, 4GB of RAM and a 28Wh battery that claims to offer up to 10 hours of web browsing time. In terms of storage space, the Windows tablet packs flash storage of up to 128GB, which works alongside a 7mm-thick hard drive of up to 1TB in the battery-less keyboard. As for the phone itself, we're looking at a 140g, 11mm-thick package featuring a 2,500mAh battery plus 2GB of RAM, up to 64GB of storage and 8MP/2MP cameras. For those who are wondering, you can access the phone's storage within Windows the same way you normally plug an Android device into a Windows 8 device.

Judging by the fact that the product was kept underneath a glass case at Computex, it might be a while before we can actually buy it. We'll keep poking ASUS until we hear more, so stay tuned.

Update: We were finally able to touch the Transformer Book V at the show, so enjoy our hands-on.