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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nerd1 - Wednesday, September 11, 2013 - link
Price is SO incredible. I'd pay $599 for 1080p version with active digitizer.euskalzabe - Wednesday, September 11, 2013 - link
If you ask me, the Surface 2 now HAS to ship with Bay Trail. The value proposition of this T100 is absolutely unbeatable for the price. If Surface 2 ships with ARM, it's DOA, period. I've said it for the past year, it should be:Surface Pro 2 - haswell
Surface 2 - baytrail
Surface mini - T4
nerd1 - Wednesday, September 11, 2013 - link
RT is pretty much dead now - MS should release surface 2 with bay trail, 1080p, digitizer and I'd pay $599.euskalzabe - Wednesday, September 11, 2013 - link
Surface 2 at 1080p + type cover, if you count the value proposition of this T100, I wouldn't pay more than 500. Heck, it should come at $400 unless they are looking to repeat GEN1 Surface's debacle.sorten - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
A Surface tablet for only $50 more than an ASUS tablet? I assume you've never owned an ASUS product.euskalzabe - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Why, I actually do, a VivoTab RT and it's pretty great. Good build quality and same performance as a Surface RT. I've used Surfaces before and they don't seem that much better. Also, the market seems to agree with me, otherwise people would have actually bought Surface RT en masse and not cause a 1 billion $ write-off.euskalzabe - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Besides, Surface RT now costs $350, the exact same amount as this T100.rburnham - Friday, October 11, 2013 - link
A Surface version similar to this Asus tablet (with the Atom quad core CPU) would be amazing, especially if they can make the Surface a bit thinner than they are now.chizow - Wednesday, September 11, 2013 - link
Definitely interested in this as a low-end Surface replacement, Microsoft should take note. Certainly more interesting than any Windows RT based tablet given the current state of RT.ssiu - Wednesday, September 11, 2013 - link
How much slower is Z3740 compared to Z3770? Would it be closer to ~10% (non-turbo frequency) or ~30% (turbot frequency)? 10% is not bad; 30% is bad ...