Asus Transformer Book T100

symbolic

I see Komplett have them in stock

EUR349 for 32GB

http://www.komplett.ie/komplett/product/zkb-02tab/80013348/asus-transformer-book-t100/details.aspx

Telchak

symbolic wrote: »

I see Komplett have them in stock

EUR349 for 32GB

http://www.komplett.ie/komplett/product/zkb-02tab/80013348/asus-transformer-book-t100/details.aspx

That's pretty good considering they're retailing for £349 in the UK. This is much closer to the kind of European price you'd expect.

Royale with Cheese

Do these tabs all run proper windows 8.1? I've an Asus Transformer TF300 with Android on it, nice hardware but it's extremely laggy. I love Android on my phone but it's woeful for tablets. At least for that tablet anyway. Have always been interested in switching to Windows but the price point of tablets running proper Windows 8 put me off, and Windows RT looked pointless.

PaulieC

Yes, this tab in particular runs W8.1 full version. It has the Atom Bay Trail processor which is apparently a huge improvement on its predecessor.
There are a few 8-inch tabs starting to make their debuts at the moment too - Dell Venue Pro 8, Lenovo Miix2 and Toshiba Encore, all with full W8.1 and Bay trail processor.

Royale with Cheese

Think I'll check it out for that price. Pretty much never use my Android tab anymore. When's it's just a larger version of your phone that's 10 times slower there's not much point. I'd love to just get a version of Windows up and running on it but I can't even do that.

PaulieC

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

Think I'll check it out for that price. Pretty much never use my Android tab anymore. When's it's just a larger version of your phone that's 10 times slower there's not much point. I'd love to just get a version of Windows up and running on it but I can't even do that.

the Dell is cheaper at 299, review here - http://winsupersite.com/mobile-devices/dell-venue-8-pro-review

symbolic

PaulieC wrote: »

the Dell is cheaper at 299, review here - http://winsupersite.com/mobile-devices/dell-venue-8-pro-review

Just to note that the Dell venue 8 doesn't have hdmi out, just in case ya need it.

Royale with Cheese

Part (actually quite a lot) of the attraction here is that it will be running a full OS. I don't think an 8" screen would be suitable for that. Would definitely prefer the 10.1".

symbolic

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

Part (actually quite a lot) of the attraction here is that it will be running a full OS. I don't think an 8" screen would be suitable for that. Would definitely prefer the 10.1".

True. So many options are great. I love the 8 inch form factor though, but went for the T100 anyway to try it out. Don't have a tablet at the moment and was thinking of grabbing an Android one. Will be nice with this to able to fire up eclipse or visual studio and mess about with some code etc and process some photos through lightroom. Interesting time ahead! Ha

PaulieC

symbolic wrote: »

True. So many options are great. I love the 8 inch form factor though, but went for the T100 anyway to try it out. Don't have a tablet at the moment and was thinking of grabbing an Android one. Will be nice with this to able to fire up eclipse or visual studio and mess about with some code etc and process some photos through lightroom. Interesting time ahead! Ha

VS and Lightroom at the same time on a 2GB Atom machine would surely be stretching things a bit, no ? I'd be very interested to see how you get on with it

Dan_Solo

symbolic wrote: »

I see Komplett have them in stock

EUR349 for 32GB

http://www.komplett.ie/komplett/product/zkb-02tab/80013348/asus-transformer-book-t100/details.aspx

That's a great conversion rate alright compared to the usual rip off markup. The 64Gb would be nice to see too though.

Overheal

Got these is stock starting at $350. Not thrilling by any means, aside from the fact that its a really rather good value for what's essentially a touchscreen netbook with a free copy of Office 2013 Home in the box.

I will have to unbox one at some point this week if its not done by the weekend and have a go of it. Again though, charging via MicroUSB is a dealbreaker for me. But for most people this will be a great holidays option

symbolic

PaulieC wrote: »

VS and Lightroom at the same time on a 2GB Atom machine would surely be stretching things a bit, no ? I'd be very interested to see how you get on with it

Maybe not at the same time :-)

But I reckon Visual Studio would run on its own. So I could write a Web app and deploy it. If that's the case, it sounds great compared to the ipad I used to travel with.

And if lightroom can run ok, I could connect my camera and upload processed pictures to a blog/Flickr.

And the fact that I can connect external drives is a big plus for me. Hated having to pick the movies I wanted to watch on ipad before I left. Now I can just grab them off my external drive whilst on the move.

And I can also sit back in tablet mode and browse the Web and watch movies/use netflix with great battery life.

I'm interested to see how I get on with too. I hope it's the solution to my situation, I'll post here anyway with updates.

Dan_Solo

Overheal wrote: »

Again though, charging via MicroUSB is a dealbreaker for me.

Why's that? Is it much slower than a dedicated charging port? They're fairly standard now for phones.

Overheal

the obscene wear and tear. The entire $350 unit is at the mercy of a 50 cent component.

symbolic

Overheal wrote: »

the obscene wear and tear. The entire $350 unit is at the mercy of a 50 cent component.

The micro USB port?

AntiVirus

Overheal wrote: »

the obscene wear and tear. The entire $350 unit is at the mercy of a 50 cent component.

Thats just nonsense

Uncle_moe

the dell XPS 10 is currently reduced to €329, would that make it a better buy than the Transformer Book?

http://www.dell.com/ie/p/XPS-10-tablet/pd

Telchak

Telchak wrote: »

These are starting to get into the hands of reviewers now. Hopefully they'll pop up in Ireland, or at least the UK.

I've been watching these machines and it's really good for the price. However it's a bit too small as a main laptop. 10" inch screen is too small imo. If you are doing any sustained typing it will do your head in. Or something like Excel is pretty much unusable on such a small screen for example.

This is a great travelling / holiday device as it's light, has good battery life and the tablet part is great for just browsing, movies/video and you can type emails when you need. Some basic gaming is possible too.

If you already have a decent tablet of some sort and a laptop it's a bit of a luxury. For that reason it's a nice-to-have type thing for me but one that I wouldn't use much.

if you're getting one the 64gb version would be the one to go for as the 32gb version with windows on it would leave very little space to install anything and programs running off an sd card through the expansion port would be very slow. I don't see the komplett version offering ms office package as being included, unlike on Amazon. A 13 inch version of this would be more usable in real-world.

here's an extensive review of the T100

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7428/asus-transformer-book-t100-review

Uncle_moe

Uncle_moe wrote: »

the dell XPS 10 is currently reduced to €329, would that make it a better buy than the Transformer Book?

http://www.dell.com/ie/p/XPS-10-tablet/pd

no. the t100 is a lot more powerful in terms of processing power. the xps 10 only runs windows rt also, which is not full windows 8.

Uncle_moe

ok thanks.

I don't know the first thing about processors.

My Dell is nearly 5 yeas old, the battery and screen have recently packed it in and I'm desperate to get a new laptop as I need one for work and college.
Going to check out some tonight in town but still like the look of the transformer book at that price.

Overheal

symbolic wrote: »

The micro USB port?

AntiVirus wrote: »

Thats just nonsense

It's true! Do you know how many devices I've seen returned because they wont charge?? And you go do the visual inspection and most of the time, that tongue inside the port is bent, frayed, or completely missing. That tongue carries all the USB contacts. Its too much to risk.

The cables go bad themselves too mind but I've got a $180 headset that is at the mercy of such a port and its already chewed out a cable or two, fortunately not the plug yet, and I have another $300 pair of NC Bose earbuds that is beholden to mUSB.

If you're going to get something like that more power to you but I just am not trusting any more mUSB stuff. You'd be surprised at how much hardware gets recycled because those ports break.

Firefox11

Uncle_moe wrote: »

the dell XPS 10 is currently reduced to €329, would that make it a better buy than the Transformer Book?

http://www.dell.com/ie/p/XPS-10-tablet/pd

Which is a Windows RT Device...No Thanks.

Me im holding out for the Dell Venue 8 Pro which is supposed to be available from next week. (already out in the US) It's getting good reviews and I have tinkered around with one.

bidiots

Overheal wrote: »

It's true! Do you know how many devices I've seen returned because they wont charge?? And you go do the visual inspection and most of the time, that tongue inside the port is bent, frayed, or completely missing. That tongue carries all the USB contacts. Its too much to risk.

The cables go bad themselves too mind but I've got a $180 headset that is at the mercy of such a port and its already chewed out a cable or two, fortunately not the plug yet, and I have another $300 pair of NC Bose earbuds that is beholden to mUSB.

If you're going to get something like that more power to you but I just am not trusting any more mUSB stuff. You'd be surprised at how much hardware gets recycled because those ports break.

Same could be said for, power supply of various older laptops that used the common power supply though

Overheal

bidiots wrote: »

Same could be said for, power supply of various older laptops that used the common power supply though

Sure enough could. The more reliable options exist now though, like magnetic chargers available on the likes of the Surface, or, the 30-pin type chargers which resist normal wear and tear much better.

Uncle_moe

Was in PC world last night, not too thrilled with the laptop selection considering my budget but I loved the build of the Microsoft Surface.
Based on that I've narrowed my choices to Microsoft Surface 2 or Asus Transformer Book T100 and I'm wondering what you guys think?
Not a huge price difference considering the surface ships with office preloaded.

Also any other tablet/laptop hybrids for the €500 mark would be handy.

PaulieC

Uncle_moe wrote: »

Was in PC world last night, not too thrilled with the laptop selection considering my budget but I loved the build of the Microsoft Surface.
Based on that I've narrowed my choices to Microsoft Surface 2 or Asus Transformer Book T100 and I'm wondering what you guys think?
Not a huge price difference considering the surface ships with office preloaded.

Also any other tablet/laptop hybrids for the €500 mark would be handy.

Just be aware that the Surface2 runs Windows RT, which is a stripped down version of Windows 8.1. It means that you will not be able to run traditional Win32 software (with the exception of Office), so no Photoshop or whatever.

AntiVirus

Overheal wrote: »

You'd be surprised at how much hardware gets recycled because those ports break.

This is the only important part of your post and the answer to that is a very tiny fraction get returned due to the micro USB port breaking.

Of they where failing as much as you are making out, the hundreds of millions of mobile phones being sold every year would not be made with them. In fact the reason why there is such as thing as a micro USB port is that it is more robust than a USB port.

Uncle_moe

PaulieC wrote: »

Just be aware that the Surface2 runs Windows RT, which is a stripped down version of Windows 8.1. It means that you will not be able to run traditional Win32 software (with the exception of Office), so no Photoshop or whatever.

If I wasn't bothered too much about that is it worth going for the Surface 2?

Also attracted by the price point of the original surface which is only €329

Overheal

Moe both the T100 and the Surface RT should ship with Office. The units I have seen in for the T100 include a full license key for Home and Student 2013 in the box. The RT and other Windows RT devices will have Outlook 2013 also, if you need to use Outlook.

Photoshop apps are available on the windows store, but correctly Windows RT only supports the operation of Runtime/Tile Apps. That includes things like Photoshop Express and Facebook, Cut the Rope, Skype, etc. but not Adobe AutoCAD, iTunes, Chrome, Firefox, etc. - at least until more apps become available. Over the next couple of years I expect you'll see full powered App Suites emerge but that will take time and development that can't be done in the 1-2 years that the API has really been of interest to developers.

Depends what you really think you'll be doing on it. If it's going to be your tablet/netbook for farting on the couch then an RT is fine, but if you need to carry it to do something substantially different than office documents (take online tests using a secured 3rd party browser,

AntiVirus wrote: »

This is the only important part of your post and the answer to that is a very tiny fraction get returned due to the micro USB port breaking.

Of they where failing as much as you are making out, the hundreds of millions of mobile phones being sold every year would not be made with them. In fact the reason why there is such as thing as a micro USB port is that it is more robust than a USB port.

No, the reason that its so commonplace is its Open Standard, it's cheap to manufacture, and its a reasonably small form factor. Small enough to charge and sync even small devices like BT Earpieces, and reduces bulk on items like phones and tablets. That's why Apple dropped the 30-pin for the Lightning: the size. Had very little to do with the functionality. The Lightning has less of that - go google how the Lightning to HDMI adapter really works. Form over function. Its only benefit is being small and reversible.

Don't get me wrong there are benefits to the mUSB but I don't want one on my tablet. I'm iffy enough about using it to charge on the devices I do have. On a tablet you're encouraged to jam a gender changer into your mUSB port to use it as a host for Thumb Drives, Hard Drives, Mice, Keyboards, etc. And that crap is just dangling off there, beholden to gravity while it slowly tears the life out of that tiny little techno-vagina.

I'd certainly call Micro USB versatile, but I would struggle to call it robust.