Asus demos Thunderbolt display, PadFone docking monitor at Computex

Squirreled away in a corner of Asus’ booth at Computex Taipei was the company’s first Thunderbolt-equipped display. Details are limited: the 27-inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution monitor was mounted to a wall so we couldn’t really take a look at the ports for ourselves, but we were told that it also packs DisplayPort, HDMI and DVI inputs, and will be headed to the US at an unspecified time, for an unspecified price. That isn’t very much to go on, but if you’re looking to hop onto the Thunderbolt-bandwagon and can’t quite afford to drop $1,000 into Apple’s coffers, this may be one to watch.

Here’s something a bit more concrete for all of the PadFone fans out there: Asus also showed off a 24-inch monitor that doubles as station display for the category-defying mobile phone. The 1920 x 1200 display makes a decent host for Android Ice Cream Sandwich, though using a mouse and keyboard to get around isn’t quite as intuitive as tapping on a touchscreen. That said, the display looked fairly attractive, offering relatively wide viewing angles. Also of note was the matte display: we could see Android in its full glory despite the bright glaring lights in the Asus booth, which was promising. The monitor offers four USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, VGA, and DVI ports, and (once again )there’s no word on price, but we were told that it would be making it’s way to the US eventually.