ASUS Transformer Book 10.1 inch T100CHI-C1-BK and T100CHI-B1-BK Review

10.1″ ASUS Transformer Book T100CHI via Amazon

ASUS Transformer Book T100CHI-C1-BK Tablet Laptop



ASUS Transformer Book T100CHI-C1-BK is a 10.1 inch super slim 2-in-1 tablet and laptop with four modes of attached, detached, flipped and tented with its 10.1 inch WUXGA multi-touch IPS display- You need to think of it more of a powerful tablet with a keyboard dock that enables it to be used as a notebook, otherwise the low end Intel Atom processor and the amount of memory may seem somewhat weak to you for a laptop.

Asus Transformer Book has the quad core Intel BayTrail-T Z3775 processor (2MB cache and roughly 1300 Passmark benchmark points as of today) at 1.46GHz speed and a burst speed of 2.39GHz as required by more demanding tasks and faster web browsing, 2GB DDR3 memory, 64GB all flash eMMC storage and 1TB Cloud based Microsoft One Drive free for 12 months plus unlimited Asus WebStorage for all your important documents and multimedia files wherever you have internet access on Asus secured network and Windows 8.1 operating system. T100CHI-B1-BK model has the 32GB eMMC storage and appears to be the only difference between the two but the extra price to get 32GB is little and well worth it. We really think you or anyone should get the 64GB -C1-BK model, you won’t regret it.

10.1 inch ASUS TruVivid IPS LCD touch display with Corning Concore Glass with great viewing angles up to 178 degree viewing angles and 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution, 400 cd/m2 brightness,16:10 aspect ratio offers superior image quality and beautiful colours. Intel HD graphics is OK for some gaming but not the latest 3D titles and everything else other than complex multimedia editing is fine and with dual SonicMaster stereo speakers sound quality is impressive for such a compact and slim tablet with a keyboard machine. It is a cheaper and still quite a functional alternative to Microsoft Surface 3 with support for ASUS Active Stylus Pen of 256 pressure levels. It has a 2MP resolution front facing and 5MP rear webcam for taking both still photos and chatting live on Skype as it also includes an integrated array microphone to help improve voice quality.

Luxurious feeling black and aluminium unibody profile Transformer Book T100CHI weighs 2.4 pounds (1.3 lbs without the keyboard) and has the measurements of 10.01 x 6.90 x 0.30 inches (0.50 inch thin with keyboard closed). Battery life is up to 10-11 hours on average from its 30Wr lithium polymer battery and this will depend on what you do and will decrease by time like any battery. Keyboard is almost full size despite not having a 10-key numeric pad which you can’t expect on a 10 inch tablet anyway. For connectivity you will find the dual-band Miracast enabled 802.11abgn wireless for quick net surfing, Bluetooth 4.0 + HS, 1 x USB 2.0 port, 1 x USB 3.0 port, a micro-HDMI port, a microSDXC Card Reader, a headphone/microphone combo audio jack but no optical drive.

ASUS Transformer Book T100CHI-B1-BK

Conclusion: Asus Transformer Book has quite an innovative design with a removable keyboard dock with a track pad for laptop functionality and quiet operation with a fan-less design- works with 18 watts of power and 0~240 VAC at 50/60 Hz. You are getting a stylish looking tablet and laptop in one in aluminium unibody that offers you decent performance for basic daily tasks, which means this is not a powerhouse for advanced gaming or multimedia editing by any means and would be considered in low to mid range as a laptop for productivity for those that are out and about a lot. It is nice to have the flexibility to remove or re-attach the keyboard dock and IPS panel certainly comes in handy and it has an accurate and responsive touch function on its display.

By daily things we don’t mean just web browsing but also working on Word and Excel editing documents or sorting out your numeric data on spreadsheets, listening to music, streaming videos and pretty much anything other than complex and demanding stuff and you can do all this away from power outlets for up to easy 10-11 hours. Windows 8.1 is OK and you can soon have the new release Windows 10 as you are entitled to a free upgrade and it is nice to have the fully functional Windows on a tablet no matter what version it is. Overall it seems to be quite good value for money as you won’t be paying for tablet and laptop separately, worth it for compact design- slim and lightweight, durability, battery life, screen and sound quality among other things and the power and performance is enough for an average office or home user.  12 month Microsoft Office 365 Personal subscription is included in the package and you get the 1 year standard limited parts and labor warranty by Asus.

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