ASUS Transformer Book T100 Review: Redefining the Entry-Level Windows Notebook
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 18, 2013 12:00 AM ESTCPU Performance
The Atom Z3740 in the T100 features a 9% lower base clock and 22.5% lower max turbo frequency than the Z3770 we previewed back at IDF. Given how good of a job Bay Trail does turboing up to max frequencies under normal use, I’d expect proportionally lower scores in our tests.
I’ll start with our cross platform browser based benchmarks before moving on to a look at the Z3740 vs. Z3770.
Note for all of these benchmarks I’ve used Google’s Chrome browser. IE11 integrates well into the modern UI of Windows 8.1 but is otherwise a pretty terrible browser by comparison. I think the modern UI Chrome experience on 8.1 isn’t as good, but it’s a better/faster/less-finicky option. Out of all of our tests only SunSpider seems to run quicker under IE11, whereas Chrome wins everywhere else. I think it’s a bit insane to switch between browsers based on the benchmark being run, so we’re sticking with Chrome across the board.
Lightly threaded performance is actually quite comparable to the Chromebook 11, which was a bit surprising. Throw a multitasking workload at the two notebooks and you'll separate the boys from the men though:
Chrome under Chrome OS performs extremely well for obvious reasons. But here the T100's additional cores and solid memory interface really come in handy when multitasking, there's hardly any performance penalty for this sort of multitasking on Bay Trail while the dual-core Cortex A15 based Chromebook needs serious help.
The T100 remains extremely competitive compared to the Chromebook 11 and definitely compared to Android tablets.
Next up is putting the Atom Z3740's performance in perspective compared to our earlier FFRD data:
In all of these tests we see nearly perfect scaling compared to the Atom Z3770. Turbo frequencies are regularly hit when under load, and as a result see see proportionally lower performance from the T100. I would’ve liked to have seen the Z3770 used in the T100, but not if it meant a higher price, an optional dock or a worse display.
GPU Performance
I didn’t have a ton of time to go through gaming performance on the T100, but with a quarter of the EUs of Ivy Bridge it’s clear that you shouldn’t expect a GPU monster out of Bay Trail. In our cross platform graphics tests however the T100 is quite competitive, although not industry leading by any means.
I did see some choppy animations at times and indications that the GPU (or its drivers) weren’t up to snuff, but that’s exclusively in classic desktop mode. In the modern UI, the Atom Z3740 was very smooth.
Storage Performance
Our Android IO tests rely on Androbench with a relatively limited LBA span. I increased the difficulty of the test a bit under Windows 8.1 but still kept it reasonable since we are dealing with eMMC solutions. I’m testing across a 1GB LBA span and testing for a period of 1 minute, which is an ok balance between difficulty of workload and sensitivity to the fact that we’re evaluating low-class SSDs here.
Sequential read and write performance is competitive with the high-end examples we’ve seen in the Android space. Random read performance is similarly good, while random write performance is appreciably better than what we’re used to in Android tablets. It is good to see ASUS/Intel/Microsoft concerned about random write performance, but I’d still like to see a 5 - 10x increase in these numbers with a focus on sustained performance before I’m truly happy.
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ACA777 - Saturday, October 26, 2013 - link
Thanks for the fantastic review. I like this device and I'm considering buying one. It's reasonably high quality, addresses a need and is priced right. I won't solely rely on this (just bought a i7 4700HQ laptop), it'll be a good companion to take advantage of the touch screen and long battery life for basic games and videos.vinayshivakumar - Sunday, October 27, 2013 - link
The only shortcoming I see is 2GB of ram. Add 50$ more - throw in a Z3770 + 4GB of RAM + 64GB SSD. That will be awesome...aritai - Sunday, October 27, 2013 - link
Hmm. My Sony VIAO Pro has (Intel's) "Connected Standby" (64 bit Windows8, now 8.1). So I'm not sure there's a 32 bit constraint. Though for 2 and even 4 gbyte machines, 32-bit Windows will have a somewhat smaller memory and disk footprint.I've never been happy with Chrome and touch. Seems a mistake to not evaluate the default configuration "full up" before pointing readers towards alternate setups - esp. since their competitors tend not to have this flexibility. For those who must use Chrome it is good to see that it can be set as the default touch browser.
I also have seen a number of low priced laptops that are claimed to be ultrabooks (or qualify to use the Intel brand) that are pretty impressive even with spinning disks. With the default configurations "sleeping" in response to everything a non-technical user would do to quit using a machine (rather than hibernating or shutting down) - most users see what appears to be instant-on because even these cheap laptops have 4gb or more. And cheap no longer means poor keyboards or touchpads - just because it doesn't cost a lot to make doesn't mean they don't work well (says anyone looking at U.S. manufacturing quality compared to Asian.. where cheap no longer means junk).
azazel1024 - Monday, October 28, 2013 - link
Thanks for commenting on the microUSB functionality! That is awesome to know.rgdave - Monday, October 28, 2013 - link
This is exactly what I've been waiting for. I'm not looking for an 'alternative' to my workhorse laptop (Dell Latitude with all the docking bells and whistles), but an 'adjunct'. I want something really light I can take on short trips, and not haul a laptop, albeit a 5 pound one. I've had an Acer A500 tablet for 2 years, and it's functional for email and web browsing, and great for watching movies on a plane. With Touchdown, it even connects well to Exchange. But with my work, I occasionally need X86 Windows programs, like Dreamweaver, when I need to make an on the run change to a web page, for example. I really don't care if it's slow, as long as I can do it. I'm nervous when I don't have my laptop with me, just in case I need an old reliable Windows program.For me, this is a perfect adjunct. At $399, it's almost a throw away buy. I only plan to use it a few weeks a year, when I'm on the road. The fact that it can also be a 1.2 pound tablet for couch surfing is a bonus. 64G storage plus 64G microSD is fine, because most everything I work on is now stored in the cloud. The USB port offers plenty of extra storage for movies on a thumb drive.
I've been waiting for the new Nexus 10 tablet to come out, because I've been looking to upgrade to a faster and lighter Android tablet. But when I found out about this, my money is moving to the Asus T100. I think Asus has hit a home run with this.
mfm - Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - link
How will T100 stack-up against Acer TZ1810 in term of productivity?buzzerbeeser - Friday, November 1, 2013 - link
"I was sampled a 64GB model (using a SanDisk eMMC controller). Around 30GB of the device's storage was free at first boot (total partition size = 49GB, ~30GB free for additional apps/data)."So exactly how much space is left for my files when I get the 32GB model??
geekfoo - Friday, November 1, 2013 - link
well YOU might be asked to pay $350 dollars (including taxes ?) but in the UK we are asked to pay £349.99 for instance http://www.dabs.com/products/asus-transformer-book...with No Ethernet, No 11AC (or even 2x2 mimo N), and especially NO Intel AVX(2) SIMD not to mention 4th Generation Intel® Core™ Processor with Intel® Iris™ Pro Graphics 5200 for a mass produced 2014 retail produce is a no go , an 11.1" pad would be fine too OC for that price
Khuva - Sunday, November 10, 2013 - link
U didnt even say a single thing about the USB3.0 port, thats even one of its biggest advantage!!mythrocks - Monday, November 11, 2013 - link
Anand, thanks for this review (and for that of the reference Bay Trail tablet). I'd be very keen on reading your review of the Dell Venue Pro 11 (Bay Trail and i3/5). Is such a review on the cards?