Asus' Windows 8 Transformer Book now available for pre-order

Asus’ Transformer Book is now available for pre-order through MacMall nearly nine months after it was first shown to consumers at Computex 2012. The Windows 8 hybrid will set you back $1,479.99 and should be available by mid-March, according to one German retailer.

If you recall, the Asus Transformer Book TX300CA is similar to the company’s other Transformer tablets except that it packs some serious hardware under the hood. For starters, it’s available in 11.6-inch, 13.3-inch and 14-inch screen sizes with an IPS display and a native 1,920 x 1,080 resolution.

We heard early on that the system would be available with your choice of Intel Core i3, i5 or i7 processors but as of writing, all we are seeing is the i7-3517U option (clocked at 1.9GHz) with Intel HD Graphics 4000. The 13.3-inch system available for pre-order also includes 4GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD and a 500GB hard drive.

It’s worth pointing out, however, that the hard drive resides in the keyboard dock so you’ll only have access to this extra storage space when using the system as a notebook. If you require extra storage space when in tablet mode, the microSD card slot should go a long way. There’s also a microHDMI port directly on the slate as well as Ethernet and USB ports on the keyboard.

It’s still probable that Asus will launch cheaper variants using the aforementioned Intel i3 and i5 processors to hit different price points.