Edward Swift - Hands On: ASUS Transformer Book T100

Computers these days come in a variety of different shapes and size. Whether it’s a smartwatch, a smartphone, a tablet, laptop or desktop. The number of hybrid devices is also increasing – those devices that can be a touchscreen tablet as well as a small laptop. The ASUS Transformer Book T100 is one of those hybrid devices, combining the size and simplicity of a tablet, with the power of a Windows netbook.

Overall it looks like a nice device. It looks and feels like a mini laptop, and is good if you’re wanting to get a bit of work done on the bus, train or plane without carry around a full-sized laptop. The other advantage is that it is touch screen and the keyboard detaches, allowing you to use it as a tablet and leave the laptop in your bag or even leave it on your desk or at home.

But because of the way it is attached to the keyboard, the screen hinge is very loose. Just by picking it up by the keyboard and moving it around, the screen does wobble a good few centimetres. A design flaw that hopefully will be improved in future devices.

The keyboard does have its advantages though – it offers the user a mouse trackpad as well as a USB port to plug in an external hard drive or flash drive. However attaching the keyboard does double the weight of the device to just over 1kg.

The battery power was good – the tech specs say it lasts about 11 hours and I certainly didn’t have to worry about running out of battery during the day. It also has a powerful processor for such a small device, running a Quad core Intel Atom processor in this 10.4 inch device.

Speaking of the screen, at 10.1 inches it is a relatively small display compared to other tablets I’ve worked with. But if you’re looking for small and compact but not too small, this could be a good alternative to buying a 7 inch tablet. It would be nicer if the display had stretched right to the edge, but perhaps I’m just nit-picking.

However I think this device’s real drawcard is that it is running Windows 8.1, allowing you to use the laptop to its full potential, sync apps across multiple Windows devices and be unrestricted as to which apps you can download and run unlike Windows RT. It also comes pre-loaded with Microsoft Office Home and Student – not something a lot of other tablets on the market can boast.

The built in camera was OK at 1.2 megapixels, but it wasn’t the greatest. As I’ve said before, a tablet (or in this case tablet-cum-netbook) doesn’t need a great camera as you’re generally not using it to take photos of the vista. But I did have a few issues using this camera for a Google Hangout, and it seems I’m not the only one after doing a bit of searching. There are workarounds but it probably requires a driver update to fix the issue.

Overall it’s an average netbook and it is at an average price for the market, retailing at around $700 for the 64GB model. If you’re looking for something that’s compact but has the full functionality of a PC and the simplicity of a tablet, then this could be a device for you.

ASUS Transformer Book T100

Processor: Quad core Intel® Atom™ processor

Operating System: Windows 8.1 with MS Office Home & Student 2013

Main Memory: 2GB

Storage: 32G/64G eMMC with ASUS WebStorage

Display: 10.1" HD (1366*768) IPS with multi-touch

Graphics: Intel HD Graphics

Camera: 1.2Mp camera

Battery: 31Whr (11 hrs)

Dimensions: Tablet: 263 x 171 x 10.5 mm 

Dock: 263 x 171 x13mm 

Weight Tablet: 550g

Dock: 520g