Asus Intros Portable 18.4" AIO Android PC

By Kevin Parrish
published

After making a few appearances over the last twelve months, Asus has officially introduced its Android-based AIO PC.

Is it a big tablet or a small, portable all-in-one PC? Asus is calling its new 18.4 inch P1801-T the latter, indicating that it fuses together the power of an entry-level AIO desktop with the flexibility of a multi-touch tablet (opens in new tab). What's more, it uses Android 4.2 "Jelly Bean" as the operating system, thus blurring the line between mainstream desktop and tablet even further.

The company was heavy on the bloat and light on the actual details in its announcement. The device will sport an 18.4 inch IPS screen with a Full HD resolution, 10-point multi-touch capability, and 178 degree viewing angles. This screen will be powered by Nvidia's Tegra 3 SoC which is likely to keep the overall cost down given the more-powerful Tegra 4 chip has a higher pricetag.

As for other hardware features, the device will pack a battery offering up to five hours of Full HD video playback. It will weigh just over five pounds and support USB OTG on its microUSB port, allowing users to connect an external hard drive, a mouse or keyboard with a USB OTG adapter. A built-in kickstand positions the screen at a comfortable angle for tabletop use, and there's supposedly a handle mounted on the back for easy portability.

"The large screen size also gives a much clearer view for productivity apps and web content, and makes it much easier to take advantage of 10-point multi-touch control with games and virtual keyboards of all kinds," the company said. "Powerful stereo speakers with sound quality enhanced by Asus SonicMaster audio technology also mean everyone can enjoy music and immersive movie soundtracks."

This Android AIO was first spotted back in December at the FCC, then made an appearance at CES 2013 a month later packing 2 GB of DDR3 RAM at 1600 MHz and 32 GB of internal storage. On one side was a microSD card slot, a microUSB port, a headphone jack and a Kensington lock in addition to power and volume buttons. It was slated to run both Android and Windows RT, but it looks as though Asus canned the latter OS.

So far there's no indication of when and where this Android AIO will be sold, or for how much, so stay tuned.

Kevin Parrish
6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Mike Friesen
    A $150 touchscreen, and Asus can't spend $10 or $15 more on the soc? This doesn't make much sense...
    Reply
  • somebodyspecial
    Let me know when you put a T4 in it. Socs from NV have cost $20-25. What is this a $5 upgrade to T4? Even at $10 this is stupid. T3 can't put the coming games at this res. T4 would have been great. Companies doing crap like this should take a poll BEFORE finalizing hardware and ask something like "would you pay an extra $10 for 6x the gpu power or not?"

    I'm guessing the responders would say YES 99.5%. This is dead out of the gate power wise. At least they are putting out screens larger than 7/10in now those are too small for me to enjoy. How about a 13in with T4 asus? Or a 20in T4. I'm an completely unintersted in an underpowered T3 even at 1.7ghz for the T3+ version. No reason to buy something that future games (meaning just this year and next) will make useless even before I buy it. Hawken coming soon. Does it run on this? NOPE.
    Reply
  • halcyon
    This is neat and would have been much neater with a contemporary SoC and not the now antiquated Tegra 3. However, depending on the cost it could still make for a nice media consumption center or low cost MS Office clone device. Before we give this new device too much hate we need to see the cost. There may have been some other reason Tegra 4 was not included?????
    Reply
  • joe nate
    Asus P1801-B037K

    This has been around for a few months already. Looks like it's the same thing, without the i5 computer dock.
    Reply
  • math1337
    10.1'' too small. 18'' too big.... Also, 18'' on 1080p is garbage ppi.
    Reply
  • somebodyspecial
    11229936 said:
    10.1'' too small. 18'' too big.... Also, 18'' on 1080p is garbage ppi.

    I love my Dell 24 that is 1920x1200. Not quite sure how you can say 1080p is crap on an 18in. Maybe compared to a 1080p phone or something, but it's not ugly. Movies etc will look great. This won't be much closer to my face than a monitor. Some may use it as a desktop which should make it just like a 19in 1080p monitor etc.
    Reply