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After months of curiosity, speculation and spec leaks, the first honest-to-goodness Windows 8 devices have finally been announced. At the Computex trade show in Taipei Monday, Acer and Asus introduced a large suite of Windows 8 tablets, all-in-one PCs, and hybrid ultrabooks.

The announcements follow last week’s Microsoft release of the final beta version of the Windows 8 operating system, aptly named Windows 8 Release Preview. The complete, shipping version of Windows 8 should be available around October.

As for the Windows 8 hardware announced at Computex, some pieces will launch this fall, others will arrive in 2013. Details are still scant, but we should learn more about specs and features closer to each device’s launch.

Asus Taichi

Apparently you need two displays on a single device to achieve tablet and notebook zen. The Taichi line of convertible notebooks, available in 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch models (one’s pictured above), remain as light as Asus Zenbooks, but sport a double display: One faces the QWERTY keyboard for notebook use, and one sits on the top of the lid for when you just want a tablet experience.

Each FHD/Super IPS+ display is 1920×1080 pixels in resolution, and there’s also a camera paired with each screen as well. Inside, you’ve got Intel Ivy Bridge Core i7 processors, 4GB of RAM, and SSD storage.

One of the benefits of merging a tablet and notebook is that you don’t lose out on peripheral connectivity. The Taichi has ports for mini VGA, micro DVI, and USB 3.0, as well as staples like a headphone jack and power port.

Asus Tablet 600 and 810

The Asus Tablet 600 is a 10.1-inch hybrid laptop-notebook running Windows RT (the Windows 8 version for devices running ARM processors). It’s got a 1366×768 resolution display, and inside you’ll find an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM. It also has a rear-facing 8-megapixel camera with an LED flash, 32GB of storage, and NFC support. The 600 should land in early 2013.

The 810 is the 11.6-inch version of the 600, but comes with an Intel Medfield processor for full-fledged Windows goodness (and likely reduced battery life). The 810 has an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and 2-megapixel front camera, and increases storage from 32GB to 64GB.

Asus Transformer Book

For those looking for a bit more power than what the Tablet 600 and 810 can provide, the Intel Ivy Bridge-powered Asus Transformer Book line could be the answer. The Transformer Books are Windows 8 tablets in 11.6-, 13-, and 14-inch flavors with 1080p displays. They’ve got 4GB of RAM and are available with either an SSD and HDD. There’s an HD webcam on the front for video chatting, and 5-megapixel shooter on back.

Asus Transformer AiO

The Asus Transformer AiO is a curious beast. First of all, the monitor of this all-in-one PC comprises an 18.4-inch detachable tablet, making it the largest Windows 8 slate around. But that’s not all — it also dual-boots Android 4.0. Other details are pretty scant. The display supports 10-point multitouch, but resolution and innards are still under wraps.

Acer Aspire S7 Series

The S7 Series of touchscreen ultrabooks will be available in 13.3- inch and 11.6-inch models. Both include an aluminum unibody design familiar to MacBook Air users, and a light-sensing keyboard whose backlighting adjusts depending on ambient light levels. The 13-inch model offers 12 hours of battery life, while the 11-incher offers up to 9 hours.

Acer Aspire AiO U Series

The Aspire 7600U is a 27-inch all-in-one PC, and the 5600U is its smaller 23-inch counterpart. The 7600U allows for up to 64-point multitouch and 0 to 90 degree viewing. It’s a scant 35 mm thick. The 5600U has a smaller range of tilt, from 30 to 85 degrees. Both all-in-ones feature a full HD display and Dolby Home Theater surround sound.

Acer Iconia W700 and W510

For a Windows 8 tablet with a pop-out keyboard, you’ll want to turn to members of Acer’s Iconia tablet line. The W700 is a full Windows 8 tablet that features an 11.6-inch, 1080p HD touchscreen display that can be tilted up to 70 degrees. It packs three USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI port and a Thunderbolt jack. Camera-wise, it’s got a a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera and a front-facing camera for video chats, and Dolby Home Theater audio.

The W510 has a 10.1-inch display and a detachable keyboard dock that can extend the tablet’s battery life by 18 hours, and rotate up to 295 degrees. It’s got micro USB and HDMI ports, as well as slots for SIM and microSD.

MSI Slider S20

The Slider S20 is a hybrid tablet PC with a useful tilting and locking mechanism that holds the display at angle, transforming it from tablet to notebook in a snap. It will feature an Ivy Bridge chipset and 4GB of RAM, and HDMI and USBB 3.0 ports. It’s expected to land in Europe in September with pricing starting at around $1,000 US.

Asus probably wins the winner-wide-spread award at Computex for showing off the widest range of tablets and hybrids.

Yet another in a collection of Android and Window 8-based designs is the Tablet 810, which runs Windows 8 on top of Intel's yet-to-be-officially announced 32-nanometer dual-core "Clover Trail" Atom chip.

"The Netbook is back, this time in the guise of a tablet computer with a keyboard dock," wrote CNET Asia.

That's not exactly a compliment as Netbooks of yore (circa 2009) were invariably slow. In short, they attempted the impossible: running resource-intensive Windows 7 on top of underpowered Atom chips.

"Although the Metro interface on the Tablet 810 ran smoothly and there was no lag even with multiple apps open, it's hard to tell if the new Clover Trail Atom processor within the device can sustain this once you start using more intensive applications," wrote CNET's Vincent Chang.

That said, Windows 8 undoubtedly is snappier on an updated Atom processor than Windows 7 or Windows XP ever was.

The 810 also sports an "Super IPS+" display, which offers good viewing angles, dual cameras -- a 2MP front-facing camera and a 8MP version at the rear -- and 2MB of memory.

Asus has not announced pricing and availability.

And Lenovo was showing a prototype ThinkPad Windows 8 tablet that uses the same Intel Atom Clover Trail chip.

It has a 10.1-inch 1,366x768 display (whose "colors were bright and vibrant, the viewing angles excellent," said CNET Asia), a rear 8MP camera and a flash, a 9.7mm profile, a docking connector, and micro-HDMI port, among other features.

Microsoft learned through industry sources that Apple had bought large quantities of high-quality aluminum from a mine in Australia to create the distinctive cases for the iPad, according to a former Microsoft employee involved in the discussions, who did not wish to be named talking about internal matters.

The executives were stunned by how deeply Apple was willing to reach into the global supply chain to secure innovative materials for the iPad and, once it did, to corner the market on those supplies. Microsoft’s executives worried that Windows PC makers were not making the same kinds of bets, the former employee said.

The incident was one of many over the last several years that gradually pushed Microsoft to create its own tablet computer, unveiled last week. The move was the most striking evidence yet of the friction between Microsoft and its partners on the hardware side of the PC business. It is the first time in Microsoft’s almost four-decade history that the company will sell its own computer hardware, competing directly with the PC makers that are the biggest customers for the Windows operating system.

For hardware makers, the PC market has long been a struggle because Microsoft and Intel, maker of the microprocessors that power most computers, have long extracted most of the spoils from the industry, leaving slim profits for the companies that make them. Manufacturers pay hefty fees to license Windows from Microsoft, putting pressure on them to make computers as cheaply as possible using commodity parts.

That, in turn, has limited their ability to take the kinds of risks on hardware innovation that have helped define the iPad. Furthermore, with the iPad, Apple has proved that there are significant advantages to designing hardware and software together. When separate companies, each with its own priorities, handle those chores, integrating hardware and software can be more challenging.

“You’ve got this sclerotic partnership structure where the partners don’t have any oxygen to be innovative,” said Lou Mazzucchelli, an entrepreneur in residence for a venture capital fund backed by the state of Rhode Island and former technology analyst. “I believe Microsoft was painted into a corner. If they’ve didn’t move soon, Apple would have so much of a lead, it would be almost impossible to catch them.”

Mark Martin, a spokesman for Microsoft, declined to comment for this article.

One of the best illustrations of how Microsoft came to the decision to create its new tablet, the Surface, is the company’s sometimes rocky relationship with Hewlett-Packard, the world’s biggest maker of PCs. Even before the iPad was announced in early 2010, Microsoft executives understood that computers were on the verge of a transformation because of a shift to touch-based controls from keyboards and mice.

A decade earlier, Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman, had even introduced a forerunner to the iPad — called the Tablet PC — but the product, manufactured by other hardware companies, was clunky. It was a flop.

In 2007, the iPhone opened the eyes of the technology industry to the possibilities of touch-based mobile devices. Microsoft included some crude touch capabilities in its Windows 7 operating system, released in 2009, though few users had computers that could take advantage of the features.

With rumors swirling about Apple’s pending introduction of the iPad, H.P. and Microsoft scrambled to create a new tablet computer, a prototype of which Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, showed during a keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Jan. 6, 2010.

When it came to making a finished device though, the H.P. tablet — later named the H.P. Slate 500 — began to change for the worse, according to the former Microsoft executive and a former H.P. executive who worked on the project and requested anonymity in discussing internal matters. While its early visual designs impressed many people within the two companies, the product was “completely ruined” as H.P.’s manufacturing organization began to procure the parts they believed would be sufficient to power the device, the former Microsoft employee said.

In the end, the H.P. tablet was thick, the Intel processor it used made the device hot, and the software and screen hardware did not work well together, causing delays whenever a user tried to perform an action using finger gestures on its screen. “It would be like driving a car, and the car not turning when you turn the wheel,” the former H.P. executive said.

That kind of problem was unacceptable, especially after Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s late chief executive, unveiled the first iPad, to glowing reviews, just three weeks after the H.P. device was shown.

Microsoft worked with other hardware partners to cook up products that would be competitive with the iPad, but it ran into disagreements over designs and prices. “Faith had been lost” at Microsoft in its hardware partners, including by Steven Sinofsky, the powerful president of Microsoft’s Windows division, according to the former Microsoft executive.

Meanwhile, H.P. fumed at Microsoft for not doing more to create Windows software that was better suited to touch-screen devices. Executives complained that Windows 7’s keyboard software did not work well, and that on-screen icons were too small for fingers to tap.

Microsoft refused to commit significant resources to help H.P., partly because the company was devoting its energy to Windows 8, a new version of its operating system being tailor-made for touch-screen devices.

A second former H.P. employee said the company and other computer makers needed more innovation from Microsoft than it was delivering. He said computer makers viewed the licensing fee they paid for Windows as a subsidy for Microsoft’s research and development, an investment that would enable them to have competitive products.

Henry Gomez, a spokesman for H.P., declined to comment.

In April 2010, H.P. made a bold move to gain more control over the software powering its products by paying $1.2 billion to acquire Palm, maker of the WebOS operating system for mobile devices. An important factor in that decision was Microsoft’s repeated delays in releasing a new operating system for smartphones, which paralyzed partners like H.P., according to one of the former H.P. employees.

But poor sales of the WebOS tablet and smartphones doomed the effort. (It did not help that H.P. fired two chief executives during that period for unrelated reasons). The company has released WebOS as open source software but no longer makes devices based on it. Last year, H.P. briefly contemplated spinning off its PC business before reconsidering the move.

Against this backdrop, Microsoft began to invest more in developing its own tablet hardware, though the company still had not decided whether to sell such a device itself or license its design to other companies by the end of 2010, the former Microsoft executive said.

Some who study the technology industry still believe Microsoft will get out of the business of selling its own tablet computer as soon as it can persuade other hardware companies to build compelling devices of their own. “I think once they jump-start it, they plan to make money the way they always have — from licensing software,” said Michael A. Cusumano, a management professor at M.I.T.

In a nod to Apple’s work with aluminum, Microsoft began to closely study materials that could be used to create a distinctive case for a tablet. Members of the Windows team gravitated toward magnesium, a lightweight metal that felt good to testers when held in their hands, according to the former Microsoft executive. The company was also eager to develop a process for molding the metal into cases that it could patent so it could protect the design from copycats.

Last week, Microsoft executives spent a significant portion of their presentation describing the magnesium case of Surface, which they described as strong and scratch-resistant. “The case is one-of-a-kind,” Mr. Sinofsky said, holding the gray device in his hands.