ASUS Transformer Book T100 Review: Redefining the Entry-Level Windows Notebook
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 18, 2013 12:00 AM ESTBattery Life
The Transformer Book T100 features an integrated 31Wh battery. As the keyboard dock doesn’t include an extra battery, that’s all you get. The good news is that Intel’s Atom Z3740 is built on the company’s first 22nm SoC process and it’s paired with LPDDR3. At least on the silicon front, the T100 should be fairly power efficient. Granted there are still the PMIC, display, WiFi and other components to worry about, but here’s to hoping ASUS did a reasonable job there as well.
Unfortunately ASUS delivered our T100 review sample less than 48 hours ago and I’ve been using it non-stop since then. I think I technically broke embargo by using it at a press event but it’s the only way I’d get enough time with the thing under my belt to feel comfortable writing about it. The bad news is that I only had enough time to provide a battery life teaser. I’m still running more data but for now all I’ve got is our WiFi web browsing test.
The T100’s results are presented with the keyboard dock attached and with the display calibrated to 200 nits:
Battery life looks decent at just over 8.5 hours on a single charge. In practice I had no complaints about battery life while using the device. It feels more like a tablet in that regard and less like a notebook, which is a good thing. Once again we’re seeing ASUS redefining what we’ve come to expect from an entry level notebook PC here. Even compared to Chromebooks we see the T100 do extremely well. I’m curious to get a better feel for how Bay Trail performs in the battery life department, which I’ll be doing over the coming days. So far the results look good but not quite stellar if you compare it to traditional Android/iOS tablets. I am curious to see how BT running Android would turn out.
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andrejg - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link
After readin this review and getting an offer from our local distributor, I purchased 64Gb version. I must say, Transformer is exactly what I was looking for. I used Dell lattitude XT2 for a two years now and since I travel a lot and need a lot of data at hand and also spreadsheets and documents, my phone was not enough due to my ageing eyesight and lattitude, albeit 12" and light was too much to carry around all the time. Speed of the unit is non issue for me. it is fast enough, it is a tablet and netbook, it runs smooth and display is very nice, I was expecting less at this price point.Sinca all my computers and phone are from the same OS generation - Windows 8, I find it very simple to have all the data at hand and all desktops almost the same, no matter which device I use. it saves me A LOT of time I used to spend to transfer, save, carry and also lose those USB keys...
So, if one uses it like this and also like entertainment tablet at home, it is all OK. Some heavy duty stuff can take you back to 2005 speed. And battery - I have it with me all the time the whole day and I have never really needed to charge it during the day. With lighter use it gets two days of use easily. It just isn't gamers device or workstation. But there are choices for those too, just they cost almost 5 times more.
zodiacfml - Monday, December 2, 2013 - link
I'm back from the first day this review is published and there's nothing out there to compete with this. I just wished it had 4GB ram.vmr - Tuesday, December 3, 2013 - link
The T100 supports the new Win 8.1 Miracast/WiDi feature. I tried it with a ActionTec ScreenBeam WiDi adapter and it worked great when I tried it with Youtube, PBS videos and Netfilx.zodiacfml - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
I reckon there would be an T110, with an 11inch screen and hopefully 4 GB of RAM.Jettilton - Thursday, January 16, 2014 - link
Was in the market for one of these until I went into Best Buy and the only one they had had a keyboard that was coming apart around one of the USB ports....looks like the keyboard is really flimsy, but the tablet itself looked more solid...now Im going to get a real laptop, not a hybridmalkovich - Tuesday, May 13, 2014 - link
I better choose this <a href="http://www.buzred.com/dp/B00H7PWRU2/toshiba-satell... windows notebook</a>. As my first notebook.crlamke - Thursday, May 29, 2014 - link
Great review, Anand! I'm consistently impressed by the quality of your work. Thank you.SllimA - Thursday, September 11, 2014 - link
T100TA is a interesting unit. The issue here is the docking method. It sketches the screen borders. I am more concern about the quality. I bought 3 units last week and sent 2 back for touch pad alignment. On receiving, the unit cannot be started and had to stick my charger in at the service counter. One could be restarted and we can see that the battery charge status at 70%. The 2nd unit can restart. They advice me to resubmit for repair. All these happened within 5 days of buying. Today the 11 days of buying the 2 units they are still under repair. I just called the service center and they told me that one is ready but the other had to wait for a few weeks for spare parts. This is unacceptable. of the 11 days, two units are repair status for 6 days. Asus Singapore Service Center referance are 130201, 130202, 130449 and 130450. I wonder what is happening to Asus quality.