Back in June of 2012 Asus unveiled the Transformer Book, a (at the time) unique Ivy Bridge Ultrabook convertible with dockable keyboard. The Transformer Book created quite a bit of excitement and interest as a device that could function as both a tablet and a powerful Ultrabook laptop. We knew we’d have to wait until the launch of Windows 8 before the unit came to market. But when that date, October 2012, came and passed, we started to worry about the Transformer Book. Now, 9 months after its original announcement, we’re wondering if the mythical Ultrabook convertible will ever make it to market.
It’s a shame that Asus wasn’t able to get the Trasnformer Book out the door early-on. While the unit was at once one of the only Ultrabooks convertibles announced with a detachable keyboard, there’s now a bevy of such devices, like the ThinkPad Helix and Fujitsu Stylistic Q702.
Still, given the quality of Asus Ultrabooks that we’ve seen in the past, we’re still quite excited to see what the Transformer Book is all about.
Asus has been touting the unit since all the way back in June of 2012. They’ve re-marketed it at several events through 2012 and 2013. They’ve even put up several official pages and microsites across their website. And despite all of the official info, there’s no indication about where you can actually buy the product. I’m sure many have had Fry moments regarding the Transformer Book.
The latest that we’ve been able to track down is listings of the Transformer Book from two resellers.
The first is MacMall which has the TX300CA-DH71T model (Core i7 3517U, 4 GB RAM, and 500 GB HDD + 128 GB SSD) for $1480. Currently the site says that if you call to order, you’ll get it “when it arrives” at the store.
More interesting is the listing we found from ShopBLT which even has some dates for us. They’ve got the same TX300CA-DH71T model listed for $1454 and have the unit listed as ‘on order’ with estimates of the first shipments arriving at one of their warehouses next month.
It’s unclear how accurate ShopBLT’s dates are, but we can only hope that the Transformer Book hits the market soon. If Asus waits much longer, they’ll be going up against next-gen Haswell Ultrabooks! Maybe they’ve even resolved to wait for Haswell at this point?
There was actually some information coming from Asus 2 weeks ago although not necessarily exact availability date.
But looking at updated specs doesn’t look interesting at all:
– Starting at $1399 MSRP
– 1900 grams (with dock?)
– 350 nits screen (what happened to 600 nits?)
What can i say
This is absolute madness
Wake up Asus………
Has asus ever fixed their fan problems when resuming from sleep? I had 4 zenbook primes (3 of them had the problem) and 1 g73-sw3de with the problem. Essentially when resuming from sleep the fan cycles between max rpm and coasting down to near stop then back to max again. Rebooting fixes the problem but instant on resume is kinda the point of ultrabooks so it defeats the purpose to have it sounding like a jet plane after a resume.
I’d like to get a taichi or the fabled transformer book if it ever comes out but won’t touch asus again until they fix this issue.
Wow, does Asus still have bad build quality and after sale support? I wonder how Acer is doing in trying to leave the bargain category. Their 11″ S7 “looks” nice but I haven’t seen many reviews or user discussions about them.
Well last fall I decided to get an ultrabook, and the ux31a was the obvious choice. I ended up going through 4 of them before deciding to go a different route. I ended up with a vizio ct14-a0 to hold me over until windows 8 touch machines hit the market. The vizio has been flawless and if not for its lack of touch and only having a 1600×900 display i wouldn’t be looking to upgrade.
What was the problem with the ux31a? Well different problems, the first one had really bad screen bleed, as did the second. The third one had a perfect screen but I noticed the fan on resume issue which made it pretty much useless to me as I needed a quiet system… so I went for one more. The first three all had the z-data ssd drive but the 4th one had the sandisk drive which is up to 10 times slower… its screen also started out fine but got progressively worse bleed every time the lid was opened.
My guess on the ux31a is they switched to an IPS display which was a little thicker than the TN in the e series. but they didn’t change the lid hardware… so it pinches.
They used 2 suppliers on their SSD, even post on the box which one is in the machine… but then they put that box in a shipping box with do not tamper tape so stores won’t open it. There were people in the forums buying computer after computer and taking them back until they got the adata drive. Using multiple suppliers is no big deal but using parts with such different performance characteristics is.
The fan on resume issue seems to be across the board on asus models since I had it on a gaming notebook and an ultrabook. Im not thrilled about trying another asus but they are making such interesting desgins.
This guy has one and has made several videos in the last week – says he got it from a German dealer.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubupgasP1cI&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Great spot Carsten!
WTF!? They sold ONE so far? How does this make any sense?
This is quite a usual phenomenon from ASUS.
They promise, but can’t deliver.
They are creative. but in real life, the creativity is not practical. Sorry to all Asus Fans, no offend here. This is just my two cents opinion.
There’s actually a lot more information about current owners in this thread:
http://www.transformerforums.com/forum/transformer-windows-8/23005-asus-transformer-book-13.html
Starts at post 122.
I found a pretty solid review for the Transformer Book over here: http://www.ultrabookreview.com/2589-asus-transformer-book-tx300-review-hybrid/. Worth a look in my opinion