The ASUS Transformer Book T100 looks, before it’s available in most countries, to be a hit. Reviews have been good and the interest and buying levels appear to be high. Here on UMPCPortal it’s the #1 most viewed product in the database. On the huge Europe-wide price comparison engine Geizhals, it’s the #1 (we assume most-viewed product) in the tablet and notebook category. The really significant statistic is that it’s the number 5 bestseller in the laptop category at Amazon.com where customers have given it 4 out of 5 stars.
Over in Europe we’re seeing a couple of new models in the line-up which will interest those looking to store all their music and videos because they have a 500GB drive in addition to the 32 or 64GB main storage. The model DK007H adds the drive to the 64GB storage and the DK005H does the same to the 32GB model. 32GB + 500GB will cost the same as the 64GB model. The same price hike, 50 Euro, applies to the 64GB+500GB model. The hard drive is in the docking keyboard. (No, there’s no hint of a keyboard with additional battery!)
Back to the reviews we see that people are getting in to a few more detailed tests now. Gaming videos are appearing too. Kyle Muel has at least 12, [update 26! now] videos up. Crysis, Starcraft 2, Diablo 3 and Counterstrike are amongst them. FIFA 14 runs surprisingly well. MobileGeeks also have an ASUS T100 gaming video up.
One of my favorite articles about the ASUS T100 in the last few weeks has to be this one from Liliputing where Brad uses the ASUS T100 as a desktop for a day. “…you get a surprisingly capable workstation.” I’m using the Acer W510 with an external keyboard screen and mouse right now and although it’s fine for blogging, it’s got limits. The ASUS Transformer Book shows just how much of an improvement Baytrail is over Clovertrail. It’s a truly dynamic hardware and software combination which shows us the future of PCs.
Our database page has been updated with reviews and other links.
Yup! The T100 Transformer Book has great potential. A professor I know at my place of work (a university) had to buy an Asus Android tablet but he has known the limitations of the iOS, Windows RT and Android devices but had no good choices then with full Windows 8 tablets. He says the T100 has the same hardware as his Android one.
I’d be very tempted to buy the T100 had there been a keyboard with battery in it–the Acer W510 has really spoiled me :)
Thanks Chippy.
I suspect there will be a couple of hits this shopping season when it comes to Windows 8 baytrail tablets. Hopefully Asus has resolved any quality control issues with the T100 keyboard dock. At the moment though I’m leaning towards Dell Venue Pro 11 and want to see a full review. Also interested in what Lenovo has to announce with this new convertible design they keep hinting at.
Too bad it sucks as a Linux ultraportable notebook. I bet you can’t even boot Windows 8 x86-64 on this for giggles without the same unstable hack that was used to get Ubuntu x86-64 to boot. At least in terms of Bay Trail devices and Linux goes, this is more an issue with Asus’ crappy UEFI firmware hardcoded to look for only 32-bit boot loaders which may possibly be fixed with an update.
Oh well, I’m looking forward to the 4+ GB of RAM Bay Trail T/M 10 inchers early next year. Maybe those won’t have the ugly shiny lid the Asus T100 has.
You’re assuming of course that when the 64bit drivers come out for Windows 8 that Asus just won’t update the UEFI FW to 64bit too…
Though, that is a possibility but if they release another Bay Trail model with 64bit UEFI then it may be possible just to port the FW to fix the T100…
Nice that you don’t read before replying:
“which may possibly be fixed with an update.”
Hello
What hack are you talking about? so it’s possible to boot x64 OS?
Make a complaint at asus Support! I’ll do that too.
The more do this, the more likely it will be that something happens…
Do you have links to the Kyle Muel gaming videos?
Sorry. Link should have been in the article.
http://www.youtube.com/user/th3drow/videos
For the current US model, there is no interface for a HDD/SSD. The balance weight is a 7 oz iron plate, removable:
http://youtu.be/6kZp8F_-4i8