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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trane - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
Great review, but I am not sure if the approach is correct. This is clearly targeted at people with small budgets, people who have $300-$400 to spend on a single computing device. This is a truly amazing value for money. Honestly, the targeted crowd aren't concerned that Delta-E is not under 6 as much as getting Windows and Office and a 8+ hour battery life for just $350!Yes, the Dell Venue Pro 11 promises to be much better, but it is also more expensive. I'm looking forward to Asus making a similarly high-end Bay Trail Windows 8.1 tablet. There's no going back to Android/iOS once I got acclimatised to Metro.
yauchildchew - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
can upgrade ram?? diy.sri_tech - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
I am disappointed that in the Anand's review for first time.He always bringing up chromebook 11 which has shitty performance even when browsing and terrible battery life.
I still don't understand what is great about iOS and android for tablets other than missing apps.
Windows 8 is better in every way for tablets than iOS and android.
erikiksaz - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
I currently use a surface pro, used to have a nexus 10, and gf has an ipad.Benefits of iOS/android tablets:
1) Hit the power button, and they're on, ready to go in an instant because they were idling. Not so on laptops, it'll take at least a couple (more like few to several) seconds for the system to wake, reconnect to the network.
2) Smoothness. Unless you run IE (which is ipad-smooth, but unfortunately IE kinda sucks), chrome does not move nearly as smooth as it does on iOS and to a lesser degree android.
3) Until haswell and it's lesser forms were released, battery life. Now it's not so much of an issue.
4) Missing apps may not be a dealbreaker for you, but the lack of popular tablet games is a huge deal breaker for those who use their devices only for the consumption of media.
5) Text and menu scaling is broken on Windows. 8.1 still doesn't fix chrome's teeny weeny little menus. I've got relatively smaller hands, so if I'm having problems, your average 6ft6in Caucasian male with sausage fingers will definitely not be happy targeting buttons that are 3-4mm across.
jasonelmore - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
seriously, what non Apple iOS app cant be replaced by the millions of apps on x86 windows? sorry you cant use the app argument. the whole reason apple made apps was to get around the fact that they weren't x86steven75 - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
Is that a serious questions? Pretty much every touch-based tablet app...Windows is still by FAR a mouse & keyboard OS first. I don't use my tablet sitting at a table. In fact I often use it ways that not even a normal laptop is comfortable such as laying down.
shibs - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
Hit power button and you are ready to go in Win tablets too.. unless you have shutdown, which is the same case for android/iOs..steven75 - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
If I sleep a windows laptop it will run down the battery in 24 hours whereas any true tablet will stay in that state for weeks.wsw1982 - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
Are your sure? Even my 15" power horse thinkpad W520 could standby for a week....hybrid2d4x4 - Saturday, October 19, 2013 - link
uh.. what? My sandy bridge Acer 3830TG can sleep (S3, not hibernate) for over 3 weeks. An Asus TF300 android tablet I had could only sleep for 5-7 days, and it had the equivalent of "connected standby" disabled (same as the laptop).