ASUS already added new members to its Transformer family back at Computex, and now at IDF 2013, the company's added yet another, called the Transformer Book T100. It's got a 10.1 inch 1366 x 768 IPS display, 31Wh battery, quad-core Bay Trail-T Atom CPU and runs Windows 8.1. There are 32 ($349) and 64GB ($399) storage options augmented by one free year of ASUS's WebStorage service and a micro-SD reader, plus 2GB of RAM to keep things running smoothly. Connectivity includes micro-USB, micro-HDMI, and a single USB 3.0 port in the detachable dock. The T100 arrives in stores on October 18.
Company CEO Johnny Shih, calls the T100 a transformation of the ASUS's venerable EeePC line. You see, with the EeePC, compromises were made to hit its $399 price point. Naturally, the T100 makes no such compromises, according to Shih, and in fact, he calls it a "game changer for mobile devices designed to achieve ultimate mobility." Do we agree with his glowing assessment? Read on for our hands-on impressions.
For the price, the T100 has some very solid hardware. While the whole chassis is constructed of plastic, the tablet portion has a glossy, metallic paint finish with vaguely visible concentric circles emanating from the centrally-located chrome ASUS logo that hearkens the firms Zenbook lid designs. Meanwhile, the dock is finished in a soft touch paint, textured to feel like finished metal. Both halves of the T100 are solidly built, with zero flex in the keyboard deck or the tablet itself. We rather liked the soft finish of the dock, but the tablet portion, as you might expect gathered fingerprints as easily as did the glossy screen.
During our brief time with the device, we found that the T100's key buttons have a surprising amount of travel, and we imagine they'll work well for plowing through emails. Given the lackluster performance of many Windows machine trackpads, we were also surprised to find that the T100's pad was glitch free -- two finger scrolling and regular mouse navigation went off without a hitch. Audio output from the stereo speakers was predictably tinny, but could be cranked up to a fairly high volume. Overall, we were impressed by this newest Transformer, as it delivers some solid hardware at a very reasonable price.
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