Windows 8 was released with the promise of Metro UI, that will simplify the user’s life by making available a tablet friendly operating system. Since then we have seen outstanding gadgets like the flagship Microsoft product Surface, but they are absolutely not popular in India. Reason being – The Price!
Resource hungry users & Business users are not deviated by higher price point but for the largest market of home and small business users, the price is deciding factor most of the time.
Windows 8 devices can be best enjoyed with touchscreen, and even more with a detachable keyboard. But a touchscreen laptop itself starts from the price range of Rs. 38000 to Rs.40000 with super low specs you can get.
So what gadget savvy users expected from a Windows 8 Tablet or Laptop (Not Windows 8 RT), is ‘2-in-1 Detachable Factor’, ‘A Great Touchscreen’, ‘Decent Specs’ good enough to multitask, and of course ‘An Attractive Price Point.’ – This is the review of Asus Transformer Book T100TA, which we believe sports everything that you need!
Asus Transformer Book T100TA Review
Core Specifications
Apart from everything I have mentioned already, this tablet/laptop brings the all new Intel Processor chipset called the Baytrail.
Baytrail is upgrade over an Atom processor, that you might have used in netbook, which was a cute gadget but craved to death when it comes to multitasking. This new processor in Transformer Book T100TA sports Quad Core Intel® Bay Trail-Z3740 Clocked at 1.86Ghz.
On-board 2GB memory sounds little less, but considering this is quad-core tablet, it wont be a big issue for daily work or entertainment needs.
10.1 inch IPS HD touchscreen is very impressive for daily use, though it does not look as vibrant as best-in-class expensive laptops or tablets. Performance
I am considering this laptop that is much powerful than a netbook, and somewhat less powerful than a mainstream laptop that sports current generation Intel’s ‘Pentium or Core series’ & ‘AMD APU’ Quad Core processors.
And you should definitely sacrifice that much, if you want to get a tablet and a laptop in a same device that you can use for pretty much everything.
This hybrid laptop can run popular resource hungry ‘Crysis’ game at playable frame rates (22-24 FPS) when in low settings. Meaning you can run many other fancy under powered arcade games and older generation games on this laptop without a problem. No, this is not recommended laptop for gamers at all, but yes you can play casual games if you want to.
Asus Transformer Book T100 can be termed as an evolved version of Netbook, because it truly has improved impressively in media performance. Not just that it can play 1080P content flawlessly, it can now be able to encode MP3 files, Render HD videos & Compress files at increased speeds. Again, this machine is not meant for video rendering if you are a professional, but a casual tweaks and editing is highly possible on this Asus machine.
Browsing with multiple tabs on this laptop even when you are running an audio/video file runs quite smoothly without getting any hitches or hangs.
Overall, this is a great Windows 8 laptop-tablet hybrid from Asus from performance perspective, that is very suitable for students, professionals, home users who are looking for casual uses like word processing, entertainment & browsing. Connectivity & Ports
A standard set of connectivity option like Bluetooth 4.0, Wi Fi b/g/n are available on Asus Transformer Book T100. There is a USB 3.0, HDMI port, micro-USB & Audio-in/Headphone-out jack.
Battery & Storage
This This Windows 8 laptop hybrid features 2 Cell 31 WHr Polymer Battery, that promises 8+ hours of backup on standard usage. With Wi Fi off, We managed to increase the total backup to up to 10 Hours, and it was least when we accessed Wi Fi and media all together. Long story short, battery life rocks!
One thing I do like to mention that, Asus’s Android Transformer versions sports an additional battery with keyboard dock, which is not the case with Transformer T100TA, though tablet itself is well capable.
This laptop/tablet comes with just 32GB eMMC flash memory, which might be a big, big downside for many out there, but as this one is a hybrid, the negative point of low storage comes built-in. The only solution for this is using an additional external storage like flash drives or hard drives.
Physical Appearance
Transformer Book T100TA tablet has a decent look, though it definitely not the best looking 10-inch device out there. The total laptop combo weighs almost 1 KG, where tablet part is 0.55 KG & keyboard dock is 0.52 KG.
1.3MP camera is located at top, which is a standard position for the tablet.
The keyboard is chicklet type, convenient for typing but if you are coming from a desktop right away, the keyboard might feel little cramped. We have tested many ten inch netbooks before, and for us, this keyboard was quite normal experience.Asus Transformer Book T100TA Price
This tablet and laptop hybrid from Asus is priced at Rs.34000 in India, and you can search local dealers for a little discuont.
Our Verdict
I hope this in-depth review of Asus Transformer Book T100TA covers everything you were curious about. From our perspective – Its a great buy at sub 35K price point. You can get something like Lenovo Essential G505s if you are looking for a gaming laptop or a performance upgrade at the same point. But it wont be as portable, as small and a tablet-laptop hybrid.
Asus Transformer Book T100 bring out the true beauty of full Windows 8.1 as both a powerful tablet or little underpowered laptop. Not to mention its that quad core Intel BayTrail platforms makes it a true winner – giving it high battery backup, brings high performance DDR3 memory on board and faster connectivity options.
And again, you should prefer this hybrid, because its a great Windows 8 tablet + laptop for its price!