ASUS transformer Book T100 is a hybrid laptop that provides Windows 8.1 operating system and exceptional battery life. You can get more about the features of this device and to reach in a conclusion whether it is price worthy, if you are ready to read this review.
Style and design
ASUS Transformer Book T100 is a very low priced convertible laptop, even though the design and features are not so excellent. The laptop’s tablet and dock portions have weight of 1.2 lbs and dimensions of 10.4’’x 6.7’’x 0.41’’. The back of ASUS Transformer Book T100 is gray glossy plastic that may get dirty soon with fingerprints. It has a central dock connector and two locator pins that flank it. The tablet that connects to the dock can be freed with a release button. The matte gray finish of keyboard dock that mimics brushed metal results in a finish mismatch between two halves. The dock and tablet feel solid and the robustly designed keyboard dock hinge is stiff.
Like most Windows 8 tablets, the tablet section has a few ports such as 3.5 mm combo audio jack, a micro HDMI port, micro USB charging port and a micro SDXC card slot. The left side occupies volume controls, while the power button is positioned on top. The 1.2MP webcam is fitted above the display and the included keyboard dock has a full size USB 3.0 port.
Keyboard and trackpad
ASUS did a marvelous job with keyboard by arranging roomy keys for a generous key travel. But, it is not an ideal option for those who has big hands and who write long articles, emails or other purposes, as the keyboard is tiny with 10.1’’ It is good only for occasional typists. As the trackpad of ASUS Transformer T100 is really small, the users may lose the track of a finger when they are gliding along the trackpad. Even though a driver update can solve this up to a limit, the size issue and the clicker noise cannot be solved. Fortunately, you can turn on tap to avoid noise pollution while clicking.
Display
The display of ASUS Transformer T100 laptop with a resolution of 1366x 768 seems well matched to the relatively small 10.1’’ panel. An IPS display on a budget tablet is a matter of appreciation, even though brightness is low for a tablet at 210 nits. It is sharp enough with considerably good contrast, but glare will be an issue as it is a glossy panel with the top layer of glass visibly above the display. It provides average colours that are laudable when consider the price. The text is also not beautifully sharp. However, it provides sharper display with wider viewing angles than many other laptops in the same range do. Expecting high end amenities such as full HD display and backlit keyboards in a budget constrained laptop like ASUS Transformer Book T100 is foolishness.
Performance
Intel quad-core processor of ASUS Transformer Book T100 laptop lets you do more while on-the-go. This convertible laptop features the new Intel AtomTM Trail-T Z3740 quad-core processor that ensures smooth multi-tasking performance as well as incredible energy efficiency to last up to 11 hours on battery power. ASUS Transformer Book T100 comes with Windows 8.1 operating system with an x86 processor that gives full compatibility as well as new and legacy hardware and software.
This convertible laptop is preinstalled with Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013 that comes with full versions of Excel, Word, PowerPoint and OneNote. You can also install Adobe Photoshop, Civ V and Visual Studio. As it is full Windows PC, all your programs and peripherals will work here. You may feel lagging while running some applications, but the staples of computing such as MS Office, photo editing, social networking and email will run smoothly and fast. As it comes with 2 gigs of non-upgradable DDR3 RAM, multitasking will be somewhat limited. Even though heavy duty programs like Adobe premiere and Visual Studio are sluggish, you can experience vast improvement in this device compared to the last year’s dual core Atom tablets in which nearly everything was sluggish. 64 GB eMMC storage controller provided by ASUS Transformer Book T100 has higher bandwidth to enable faster data transfers, it is not a very fast flash storage technology. You may experience that software installs and program launches take longer.
ASUS transformer Book T100 makes the users able to access large presentation files or plenty of music and movies to enjoy from anywhere, as the device comes with free unlimited cloud storage space from ASUS Web Storage 2 for one year.
Battery life and heat
Intel Atom CPU of ASUS Transformer Book T100 is a passively cooled CPU without fans, but it does not burn your hand. It is a low power and low heat CPU. As a result, the back of the device never become hot, even though it gets warm. ASUS Transformer Book T100 comes with the 2 cell, 31 Wh Lithium Ion battery, which is sealed inside and provides an average of 8.5 hours actual use time. The device is able to sleep for days and to end with little power drain.
The manufacturers provide a compact 2 watt mobile OS tablet style charger that does not take up much space in your laptop bag. Just like iPad and Android tablets, it also has a separable USB charger of 3 feet long. It does not take a long time to charge your laptop so it is advised to charge the device overnight, when the battery is mostly depleted. It does not possess a secondary battery in the keyboard deck, which is a positive factor that you may not get at this price.
Warranty
Asus offers 1 year international warranty, 6 months battery warranty and 30 day zero bright dot display guarantee with 24/7 technical support.
Pricing
$599 is the local RRP for the transformer Book T100, however, the list prices were $US349 for a 32GB variant and $US399 for the 64GB version, when ASUS launched the product in the US.
Advantages
The first highlight of ASUS transformer Book T100 is that it is super-light and highly portable. It does not take up much space in your bag, even though it is not a pocketable windows 8.1 tablet like its competitors. Instead of goddamn Windows RT, transformer Book is running a full-version of Windows 8.1. This convertible laptop provides a long battery life with the help of the low-power nature of Intel’s new fancy “Bay Trail” Atom chips. Even though Asus claims 14 days of standby time on the machine, customers get only around a week.
Disadvantages
Even though ASUS transformer Book T100 is super-light, the users experience balance issues when used in laptop mode. This is because the dock weighs less than the tablet. Therefore, you have to secure it with your wrists on the palm rests that may hurt your hands after a while. The other disappointing factor is that it cannot give best gaming experience. So those, who want to get their games on, should depend on more powerful device. The feel of punching through the plasticky cheap sounding keyboard is another drawback of the device.
ASUS Transformer Book T100 is a convertible laptop that is not good enough for a full-time solution but is better for productivity.