ASUS Transformer Book T100 Review: Redefining the Entry-Level Windows Notebook
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 18, 2013 12:00 AM ESTDisplay
The T100 features a 10.1-inch 1366 x 768 IPS display, which makes for awesome viewing angles and an experience that will put most entry level notebooks to shame. Compared to what we’re used to seeing from Windows notebooks, ASUS did a tremendous job with the panel selection given the price of the T100.
Brightness, black levels and contrast are all reasonable but nothing extraordinary. Max brightness in particular is limited to only 228 nits. That’s more than bright enough for indoor use, but outdoors or in direct sunlight you may wish for a brighter panel. Black levels are quite good, which helps deliver great contrast ratio. As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, the gap between display panel and cover glass is large enough that reflections can be an issue - a problem that is worsened by the fact that the panel can’t get super bright.
Whether or not any of this is a problem to you really depends on perspective. If we’re limiting our comparison to traditional entry level PC notebooks then ASUS has really redefined what it means to be a $349 PC. If you broaden the comparison to Android tablets and even Chromebooks, the comparison grows more difficult.
Color accuracy isn’t great on the T100. Once again, compared to what you’d traditionally get from a Wintel PC at this price point it’s amazing. Compared to the Chromebook 11 we recently reviewed at $279 however, the T100 needs some work.
It’s definitely not a bad display, it just doesn’t live up to the expectations of some other low cost devices we’ve seen lately (e.g. 2013 Nexus 7, Chromebook 11). The charts below show you the stark difference between what we're expecting to display and what the T100 actually displays:
There's a green hue to all of the white/grays, and the other colors are just off. Users definitely benefit from the viewing angles of IPS but the T100 needs calibration.
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USGroup1 - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
"...you can obviously run nearly all old x86/Windows applications. This is a huge deal as it means you can replace IE11 with Chrome...the tablet experience alone isn't as good as what you'd get on Android or iOS."I stopped reading at the end of that paragraph. Your anti Microsoft bias is showing again.
Drunktroop - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
IE 10/11 make way more sense in touch input than Firefox/Chrome.The touch and gesture support is good and sensible, and it is way smoother than them in low end Clover Trails.
Firefox is still my choice for Desktop and Laptops, but for Windows Tablet in Touch mode, IE10/11 is the better pick.
ricardodawkins - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
The man keep on harping about Chromebooks like some Google PR parrot.Breaking News to the editor: Chrome can be installed on Windows 8/8.1
if he was besides me I would ask him: why should I waste my money in a Chromebook when I can get this x86 full windows OS PC that provides the samething as the Chromebook (Chrome browser), x86 compatiblity and the new Metro UI?
Braumin - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
Yes and I also disagree with Anand when he claims the multitasking win is due to Clovertrail and not Windows 8.1.My Surface RT can multitask very easily and it has far less performance than the Chromebook's A15s.
ChromeOS is just junk. It's always been junk and it's still a glorified web browser OS.
Asus has a decent machine here, and for a great price.
Really the only thing Windows 8.1 needs at this point is more quality apps. There's lots of apps but many of them suck. That can be said of other app ecosystems as well but overall the number of quality apps are higher due to sheer volume.
althaz - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
I see that in the article there seems to be a big deal about the poor calibration of the screen. On most tablets this is a valid concern, however on x86 Windows tablets, although it may be worth mentioning, it's a complete non-issue for anybody that cares: The display can be calibrated manually :).pSupaNova - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
The target consumers of this computer would have a hard time getting films to play on this thing let alone calibrate the screen.Android/IOS Tablets have nothing to fear from this device.
Drumsticks - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
What? The average person isn't going to care about or even notice calibration, and if you're implying performance problems, you're just wrong.AsusJake - Sunday, October 16, 2016 - link
man 3 year old and 5 year old kids calibrate these damn devices, any teenager or adult can too........what target users are we missing ? old people? who take their devices to dealers for shit like that ....dude I'm 3 years ahead of this discussion ..and want to say ...I hope you haven't eat too many crayons since then, and hope by now you can calibrate a damn touch screenLaststop311 - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
If you are broke and your laptop just broke and u rly need something now and can't wait and save money i guess this is a good choice. I'm kinda in love with the yoga pro 2 13". 8GB ram core i5 256GB SSD on sale for 1100.sherlockwing - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
Lenovo cut corner on that thing too, it somehow don't have 5Ghz Wifi for a $1100 laptop :(