A lot of you have asked about the differences between the Lenovo Miix 2 10 and the ASUS Transformer Book T100 so I’ve been onto Intel Germany and they’ve helped us out with a T100 for us to test with. All your questions will be answered soon!
Today I had the chance to unbox the T100 and line it up against the Miix 2 10 for an external comparison. The video and photos-set are available below.
Obviously the screen is one of the main differences between the two devices. They have the same diagonal sizing, there are big differences in resolution, aspect ratio, brightness and viewing angles. The attachment between the keyboard and screen is also an area you’ll need to think about. Think of the Lenovo Miix 2 10 as a tablet with magnetically attached keyboard cradle and the T100 as a laptop with removable screen.
Internally they are almost exactly the same which isn’t a surprise given that Intel has probably been responsible for most of the board design and component sourcing in order to get the Connected Standby / Instant Go compatibility working.
I’ll be working with the two devices over the next few days and putting together a detailed article for you but feel free to start the discussion below. Which one do you prefer, and why?
Full gallery available here. (30 images)
Any news of these Bay Trail T tablets being updated to have 4 GB of RAM?
You Windows-only guys are so stuck in the past. Microsoft builds in an incredible scaling engine for 8.1 & you don’t use it because of old habits. Set your desktop scaling to 125% and everything will be significantly easier to use. The OS Itself scales wonderfully and looks completely native, even unaware hi-PPI 3rd party programs at that level will still look decent (they start to look bad at 150%). Try it on your 8″ tablet it as well and watch how it magically becomes much easier to use with touch.
It reminds me of when I read all those Thinkpad 8 comments from people who think that because the resolution is so high that they won’t be able to “click on” desktop items. It’s just ignorance, they don’t even consider scaling the desktop because they never have in the past. Same kind of people who defrag, run error check, rip CD’s, etc. unfortunately it’s a big part of the reason I hangout in Google/Apple groups now because when coming around Windows communities it’s like taking a time warp to the past.
That’s what UMPC users on this site have been doing for years now and with Windows 8.1, DPI scaling still isn’t a good solution. I still have 3rd party apps that don’t scale well on 8.1. Some text scale differently or not at all. UI elements look weird. It’s generally not a good experience.
I agree with Alan. Scaling works well for apps that actually take notice of the settings. Put something like Cyberlink PowerDirector in a high PPI desktop and it’s unusable whatever you set in Windows. Steam is another example. The other issue comes when you use multiple screens. Windows 8.1 has a nice multi-screen scaling setup but it doesn’t work well when the PPI of the device screen is much much higher than the external screen. There are still issues here.
That’s not MS’s fault, the Windows desktop itself is completely hiPPI aware.
The 3rd party programs that don’t comply are because the Windows platform is so steeped in legacy. The Mac used to have this problem as well until they created a store & forced guidelines for developers to use if they wanted to be featured in the store. Hopefully MS will eventually create a proper store for the desktop as well since Metro is not the desktop-replacement success they wanted it to be.
This problem isn’t going to go away, in fact it’s only going to get worse as within the next few years nearly all devices are going to be hiPPI.
Does the Lenovo lean back as far as the T100 can go back?
No. The T100 has a far better range of viewing angles. The Miix 2 10 is fixed. For tall people, not so good, despite the good viewing angles. It just feels wrong to be looking at the screen at anything other than 90 degrees.
I really want to know about what you are thinking between these devices battery lifes?
Is t100’s bigger battery capacity really a matter?
By the way thanks for the reviews.
I really wonder about the difference in brightness. I own a T100 and used a calibrator to check the screen, brightness is around 200cd/m2 (max for the model is around 220cd/m2) but this is not the biggest problem. The T100 has a green hue out of the box. I am trying to eliminate it but so far, the screen is not that great despite being an IPS. What about the Lenovo ?
Interesting ludiamav said about green tint because my Asus TF101 eee Transformer (Android) had a very strong green hue until the last system update, then it’s a bit better. I used to use a colour adjustment app to adjust it (but the app no longer works after the update) or else everyone’s face looks like a ghost in photos! I can’t believe Asus would release something that is so skewed. And if they do it again w/ T100, that means these people must be colour blind working at Asus! (And TF101 is also IPS too). So it is an Asus thing because all my other tablets (Windows, Android and iPad, I own about 8 in total now).
I also noticed that both Miix 2 8″ and 10″ have less battery capacity compared to other competitors in the same league. And since there is no extra battery in the dock, it can be an important enough factor for some people.
does the 10h battery rating on Miix 10 includes the keyboard dock? tnx