asus-transformer-book-t100

I still remember the excitement when I first read about Asus Transformer Book T100 few weeks ago. Asus Transformer Book T100 is an entry level tablet/laptop hybrid with Windows 8.1 (full Windows, not RT), Intel Atom Z3740 quad-core Bay Trail processor, 10.1 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel IPS multi-touch display, 2GB of RAM, a 1.2MP front-facing camera, a micro USB port, micro HDMI port, micro SD card slot, headset jack, a few buttons, and 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0. On top of all, the price is set on $349 (US price) for 32GB model.

Sounds exciting?

Today I went to Officeworks because they put in their website that they already have stock available here in Australia. When I arrived there, I looked around and could not find any demo unit. So I asked the story guy. He insisted there is no such model available. Then I convinced him that it’s a new product, and their website specifically tells that this particular store already have stock. Still trying to convince me that’s probably a return stock or something (which is not possible to return a new product as soon as they have it), he reluctantly checked in his computer and was surprised to find out that the stock is actually there.

So he went to the storage room to get one unit. And I asked him if he’s going to put a demo unit anyway, so I can play around with it. He agreed. That one unit became demo unit and I got the opportunity to become the first customer who actually unboxed it, they tried it for the first time.

The unit of Asus Transformer Book T100 consists of two units: the screen and the keyboard dock. The screen is well built, feels solid on my hand, slightly larger than iPad, but I feel slightly lighter. I checked the weight later and found out indeed the screen (tablet) unit is lighter than iPad 4. The keyboard dock weigh about as much as the screen, and the screen is easily dockable to the keyboard using the usual docking mechanism of transformer models.

I was also impressed with the keyboard dock quality. It feels solid. The keys are a bit smaller than full-sized keyboard, but still comfortable enough to type. When both pieces are docked together, the unit becomes a bit heavy, about the weight of 11″ Macbook Air, I guess.

Surprisingly, the unit arrives with zero power on its battery, so we had to plugged in the charger to make it worked. The first setup process took quite a bit of time since it kept asking us for Microsoft account (which they can’t provide for a demo unit). After a long time setup, the unit is finally available for testing.

First, I like that Microsoft FINALLY returns the Start button to their desktop screen. Yes I know moving the mouse pointer to the bottom left of the screen will do the same thing, but I kinda like it this way.

Navigating the start screen is reasonably easy. Screen responsiveness is ok and the processor feels snappy enough to handle simple multitasking.

Asus Transformer Book T100 comes with Microsoft Office 2013 Home & Student edition. Somehow the store guy refused to allow me to install the included Microsoft Office because he truly believed that the included Office is Office 365 one-year subscription, not a full-license Office product. I tried to convinced him that this laptop does include full-license of Microsoft Office. He didn’t believe me, and trying to convince me there is no way Microsoft would allow that, Office must be purchased in the form of yearly subscription now, he said. Obviously I know better than him for a product I’ve been waiting excitedly for few weeks, but I didn’t want to argue any further and decided to do some testing without Microsoft Office.

I browsed around some default application like Maps and News. It went reasonably smooth, in my opinion. Until I found that the Windows “start button” on the screen unit randomly did not respond. When it happened, I have to dock the screen and the Window button on the keyboard usually worked. Not good. Not good at all !

Next, I opened a text editor and tried typing. As I mentioned earlier, the keyboard was a bit small but I think I can still adjust to that. What I couldn’t adjust is the size of the right shift key. It’s so small I keep pressing some other keys. Within less-than-a-minute typing test, this annoyed me enough to stop typing.

I opened Windows Explorer to check the free space. The unit I tested was brand new from box. The total capacity should be 64GB. Only Windows 8.1 installed there. Microsoft Office is not even installed yet. And all I have is 49GB free space. I imagine buyers of the 32GB model will have even less space left after they installed Microsoft Office.

Another surprise came when I told the store guy that I have done with my testing and he can do whatever he needs to do to set it up properly as demo unit (with that usual security cable). The first thing he did was unplugging the charger, assuming that the unit will stay on for few minutes as I have spent at least 30 minutes playing with it, in charging condition. But no, what happened was… the unit immediately went off. No shut down process. Just like when a desktop computer is suddenly got unplugged. So the battery did not charge? All the more reason for me to get alerted from buying this product.

In the end I decided not to buy this product. At least not now. I need to wait for a while to find out whether the problems that I found today are actually hardware issues or software issues. If they’re software-related, when is it going to be fixed? I will re-consider of buying once all the issues are resolved.

 

Edit (15 Nov 2013): After reading other reviews, I realized that the Windows logo on the tablet unit is indeed NOT a start button. There’s a hardware button below the volume buttons dedicated for “start button”. In my first testing, I had few times when I thought the Windows logo worked as start button, I must have pressed the “real” start button by accident.