Industry observers have been quick to point out that such products will almost certainly be developed as a demonstration of a company's innovative design capabilities, and are not likely to become mainstream devices because of the additional cost of the second display.

Nevertheless the Asus Taichi stands out in a very small group, by featuring two full HD, IPS (In-Plane Switching) displays, with one of those displays on the opposite side of the primary display. That makes the outside display available as a tablet when the laptop is closed.

Offered in both 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch form-factors, the resolution will be 1,920 x 1,080. Stylus support will be available for the outside capacitive touchscreen display, which will support multi-touch gestures and 256 pressure levels, when used in tablet-mode.

Asus says both screens can be used concurrently. The outside secondary display can mirror the main screen, or function separately while displaying completely different content from another software application. The idea in the mirror mode seems to be to make an ideal product for business presentations, or for showing photos or videos without having everyone gathered around a single screen.

The Asus Taichi will be a thin-and-light ultrabook with a target weight of about 2.5 pounds.

Asustek Taichi Laptop Specifications

• Two Full HD, 1,920 x 1,080, IPS (In-Plane Switching) Displays


• Outside Display is Capacitive Touchscreen Supporting Stylus & Multi-Touch Gestures


• Intel Core i7 CPU


• Solid-State Drive


• 8GB of RAM


• Two USB 3.0 Ports


• DisplayPort for Additional External Monitors


• Micro HDMI Port


• Micro DVI


• Mini VGA


• Dual-band 802.11n WiFi


• Front & Rear Cameras


• Gyroscopic Sensors


• E-Compass


• NFC (Near-Field Communications)


• Headphones Jack


• Backlit Island-Style QWERTY Keyboard with Trackpad


• Hardware Volume Keys


• Rotation-Lock Toggle

Assessment

Innovative? Yes, but there are very few practical reasons for having two displays that can not be simultaneously viewed by a single user. Expect very low sales volume if the Asustek Taichi comes to market, with a tentative release date in October of 2012.