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Sep 04

ASUS refreshes the original Transformer Book with Haswell, but it’s still heavy

We had two major gripes when we reviewed ASUS’ original Transformer Book. One, it cost a lofty $1,500, even with a last-generation Ivy Bridge processor. Two, it was on the heavy side — though to be fair, a 13-inch dockable tablet is unwieldy by definition. Well, ASUS went back to the drawing board and addressed at least one of our complaints. The refreshed Transformer Book, the T300, ships with a Haswell processor, which promises not just faster performance, but longer battery life (eight hours, to be exact). It also steps up to a max of 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, up from a 128GB SSD and 4GB of memory last time around.

Unfortunately, at 1.1kg (2.43 pounds) for the tablet and 800g (1.76 pounds) for the dock, it still feels weighty in the hand regardless of whether you’re using it in tablet mode or as a proper clamshell laptop. Otherwise, the key specs are the same — namely, a 13.3-inch IPS display with 1080p resolution and a mix of micro- and full-sized ports on the tablet and dock. No word yet on pricing or availability, but for now we’ve got hands-on photos below.%Gallery-slideshow79408%

Filed under: Laptops, Tablets, ASUS

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May 19

ASUS Transformer Book review: meet ASUS’ first detachable Ultrabook

Posted in: Today's Chili

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For a while, it looked like ASUS’ Transformer Book would turn out to be vaporware: after debuting to much fanfare a year ago, it encountered numerous delays, and even missed the crucial holiday shopping season. Now it’s finally here, priced at $1,499 with a Core i7 processor, a 13.3-inch (1080p) screen and a detachable keyboard dock housing both a spare battery and a 500GB hard drive. The problem is the timing: Intel is about to launch its new Haswell chips, and here’s the Transformer Book, arriving on the scene with a lofty price and a year-old CPU.

It’d be easy enough to tell you just wait for a refresh, which is how we’ve been ending all of our PC reviews in the weeks leading up to this year’s Computex. But it’s still worth investigating whether the Transformer Book (aka the TX300) is a compelling idea. Though we’ve seen many tablet hybrids (the Surface Pro, etc.), they’ve mostly had smaller 11-inch screens. So what happens when you take that form factor and stretch it to accommodate a bigger screen — and a more spacious keyboard? And how does it compare to all those convertible options out there, like the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 or the Dell XPS 12? Let’s have a look.

Gallery: ASUS Transformer Book review