ASUS' Transformer Book T100: Atom Z3740 Inside, Available October 18th at $349
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 11, 2013 8:16 PM EST
Earlier today, ASUS CEO Jerry Shen teased their first Bay Trail tablet: the T100. Today at ASUS' IDF press conference we got some more details on the tablet. The official name is the Transformer Book T100 and it's a 10.1-inch Windows 8.1 tablet. The IPS display features a 1366x768 resolution. Normally I'd complain about that, but the T100 starts at $349 for a 32GB model.
Internally, ASUS settled on the Atom Z3740, a quad-core Bay Trail SKU clocked lower than the one we previewed earlier today. The max non-turbo frequency on the Z3740 is 1.33GHz, with a max turbo of 1.86GHz. Since this isn't a D-SKU, ASUS settled on a dual-channel (2x64-bit) LPDDR3 memory interface.
Much like the Bay Trail FFRD we tested, the T100 is equipped with 2GB of LPDDR3. NAND storage options include 32GB or 64GB eMMC. There's also a single microSD card reader.
Other IO includes a micro USB port for charging (and/or external USB devices), a micro HDMI output and a headphone/mic jack. There's keyboard dock included (!!) that adds a USB 3.0 port. ASUS claims they used the Thinkpad and MacBook keyboards as the benchmarks to evaluate the T100 against.
The T100 ships with an integrated 31Wh battery. ASUS promises up to 11 hours of battery life thanks to the Bay Trail silicon inside. The tablet measures 10.4" x 6.7" x 0.41" (0.93" thick with the dock) and weighs 550g/1.2 lbs (2.4 lbs with the dock).
On the software side, in addition to Windows 8.1 you get a pre-installed copy of Office 2013.
The T100 is extremely interesting as it's truly a reimagining of the netbooks of 5 years ago. It's thinner, lighter and much faster.
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boskone - Wednesday, September 11, 2013 - link
My only hangup about this is that I would actually like it to be 12 or 13 inches.I have the TF101, and have been very pleased with it, but I don't really need another 10" tablet.
euskalzabe - Wednesday, September 11, 2013 - link
Agreed, I would love it at 11.6", but keep in mind that anything larger than 10.6" will NOT come with Office 2013, so we're probably looking at a future filled with 10" devices. I've been using my VivoTab RT for months now and it's quite usable, but they 10" keyboard is certainly not my favorite as it's less than 100% size. I hope Surface 2 comes with Baytrail, in which case it'll replace my VivoTab RT, otherwise, T100 for me it is!rahuldesai1987 - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
Yeah me too. Give me an 11.6 inch screen/same res (happy with the same res on my 15.6 inch laptop now - lol ), 128gb Samsung 840 ssd and charge me $500.euskalzabe - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
My VivoTab RT is 10". I've played with the HP Split 13 and can tell you that 13" is way too much when used as tablet (crazy heavy & unwieldy). I'd say 11.6" would be the perfect middle point.bleh0 - Wednesday, September 11, 2013 - link
At this price point I could see myself picking up the $399 model. While higher resolution, more ram, and more storage would be preferred I just don't see how they could keep it within such an attractive price range if they had added such features.Linux would be nice as well if I could have 100% confidence in the driver support.
Qwertilot - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
Suspect the Chromebooks are going to be better targets for subverting into cheap linux notebooks?marc1000 - Wednesday, September 11, 2013 - link
was my comment about "T100" name deleted??? how is that, you guys now delete individual comments but let spammers sell stuff here in comments at the same time?Ryan Smith - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
We don't delete anything but spam. Look hard for it, and I'm sure your comment is still here.marc1000 - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
just realized that and came here to apologize, Ryan. I made the comment using my cell-phone and only today I saw that there are TWO articles on Asus T100. my mistake.Assimilator87 - Wednesday, September 11, 2013 - link
ASUS, please make a Kabini version of this!