Asus has reportedly delayed the launch of its upcoming dual-screen Taichi ultrabooks. Unveiled at Computex in June, the hybrid systems were originally due to ship in November, soon after last month's release of Windows 8, but an Asus representative has told PCWorld that units aren't likely to hit US shelves until December or later, though no additional details were provided. Given that news, retailers including Amazon, Newegg and TigerDirect have halted preorders, which have been ongoing since early October.

Unlike the rotating hinge or similar contraption employed by most hybrid notebook-tablet devices, Asus' Taichi simply packs a display for each mode: one inside the clamshell and one outside. The system's dual 11.6-inch displays have a resolution of 1920x1080 and the exterior panel supports 10-finger multitouch. There are currently two SKUs listed, with the Tachi 21-DH51 having slightly more modest specs than the DH71.

The former is outfitted with a dual-core (quad-thread) 1.7-2.6GHz Intel Core i5-3317U processor with 3MB of cache and a 128GB SATA III SSD, while the latter bumps that to a dual-core (quad-thread) 1.9-3GHz i7-3517U with 4MB of cache and a 256GB SSD. Both also have 4GB of DDR3 1600MHz RAM, HD Graphics 4000, a 1080p tablet camera and a 720p notebook camera, and a 35Whr battery with up to five hours of life.

Connectivity includes 802.11 Wi-Fi with Intel WiDi support, Bluetooth 4.0, 10/100Mb/s Ethernet, Mini VGA and Micro HDMI 1.4 outputs, two USB 3.0 ports and a combo audio jack. There's also a hardware screen switch button, an array mic and a backlit keyboard. Despite hauling two screens, the system only weighs 2.75lbs (battery included) and measures 12.05 x 7.83 x 0.19-0.69 inches. Pricing is (was?) set at $1,300 and $1,600.