Asus Transformer Book T100 review: Bringing the netbook back, almost

Asus is no stranger to small and cheap computing. Just six years ago it introduced the world to the very first netbook. That Linux-powered Asus Eee PC ran an Intel Celeron at just 700MHz, and it was touted by some as the future of computing.

It has been a long six years since, and much has changed. While Asus was thinking that smaller computing was the recipe for future success, the company didn’t take it far enough. Netbooks were displaced by the one-two punch of Ultrabooks and tablets, and today most of us spend much more time on tablets (and on our phones) than we do on anything resembling a traditional PC.

However, Asus hasn’t given up on the netbook concept. Together with Intel and Microsoft, Asus thinks the Transformer Book T100 is just the thing to usher the netbook into this new era. And as it turns out, Asus almost got it right.

• Jason Inofuentes

• Jason Inofuentes

• Jason Inofuentes

• Jason Inofuentes

Design, layout, and build

If you bought a netbook from Asus in the late-2000s, you’ll feel somewhat at home with the T100’s design trade-offs. The glossy plastic and thickness of the display-slash-tablet make it feel ripped off the back of a cheap netbook. Buttons for power, volume, and Start surround the top left corner of the device, which works well when used as a tablet. Slot it into the dock, and the buttons become magnets for your fingers whenever you go to adjust the display position. Each button is very squishy with little tactile response, lending to errant presses. Centered just below the screen is a white Start logo, which looks for all the world like a great place for a capacitive Start soft-key—which it isn’t, sadly.

• Jason Inofuentes

• Jason Inofuentes

• Jason Inofuentes

The keyboard is updated over the Eee PC days. The chiclet-keys have very good tactile response and nice depth. Where they are lacking is in overall size and precision. Each key is smaller than a microSIM and closely spaced, making typing a chore. Keypresses rarely miss, but too often they result in duplication of characters.

The touchpad is awful—it’s too small, and marking off distinct left and right-click areas only exacerbates the space issue. There’s almost no room for gestures, and clicks rarely register the first time.

The touchscreen becomes the T100’s saving grace. The panel is responsive and rarely misses an input. Windows 8.1’s many edge gestures require a fair amount of precision from the panel, and the T100 delivers. However, buggy drivers seem to be the touchscreen’s downfall. After pulling the tablet off the keyboard dock, the onscreen keyboard sometimes failed to register inputs. Function was only restored after rebooting the unit, and though it happened several times during this review, it wasn’t consistently reproducible.

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Specs at a glance: Asus Transformer Book T100

Screen
1366×768 at 10.1″ (155 ppi)

OS
Windows 8.1 32-bit

CPU
1.33GHz Intel Atom Z3470 (Turbo up to 2.6GHz)

RAM
2GB DDR3

GPU
Intel HD Graphics 4000 (integrated)

HDD
32 or 64GB integrated NAND

Networking
Dual-band 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0

Ports
1x USB 3.0, 1x microUSB (charge only), 1x microHDMI, microSD card reader, headphones

Size
Tablet: 10.4 × 6.7 × 0.41/0.92″ (264.2 × 170.2 × 10.4/23.4 mm) Tablet+dock: 10.4 × 6.7 × 0.92″ (264.2 × 170.2 × 23.4 mm)

Weight
Tablet: 1.2 lbs (0.54 kg) Tablet+dock: 2.4 lbs (1.08 kg)

Battery
31Whr Li-polymer

Warranty
1 year

Price
32GB: $349.99 64GB: $399.99

Other perks
1.2MP Webcam, keyboard dock

The touchscreen’s biggest failing comes in desktop mode. At the device’s normal resolution and scaling, it is hard to be precise with your touches under Microsoft’s legacy UI. Scaling the interface up helps, but this results in distortions within certain apps and a general decrease in picture quality. Such fixes don’t really do much for the underlying problem.

If the keyboard and touchpad were precise and registered every touch properly, then this wouldn’t be an issue—but they aren’t, they don’t, and it is. Window 8.1 hasn’t brought us far enough down the modern path that we can totally shun the desktop. There will still be occasions where an action will drop you back in the world that Gates built, but that’s a world where a good keyboard and mouse are your only hope.

Feature-wise, the T100 isn’t overflowing. The Wi-Fi capability is adequate but unremarkable; no 802.11ac is on the books here, but you do get 5GHz on 802.11n. A lonely USB 3.0 port resides on the dock and is the only option for USB accessories. A microUSB port on the tablet portion charges the device, and a microHDMI port gets you display expansion. A microSD slot gives you expandable storage and a 1.2MP front camera handles video chat. The 31Whr battery is comparable to the iPad Air’s pack, offering a comparable battery life of just under 10 hours. That the keyboard dock lacks an additional battery is likely a matter of cost, though a future accessory could have big appeal.

• Jason Inofuentes

• Jason Inofuentes

• Jason Inofuentes

• Jason Inofuentes

The package is anything but thin or light, which reemphasizes the compromises necessary to bring a convertible form factor down to this price point. The tablet itself is a bit thick, though its soft curves make it a good fit in the hand. The slick plastic makes it unpleasant to touch though, and it’s more prone to slipping through fingers. The broad bezels are fine on a tablet but a bit less so on a notebook. The dock has a single large hinge, which feels solid and offers a good range. When you close the notebook, the hinge gives the device an industrial appearance, though it’s undermined by the cheap plastics used in construction.

• Jason Inofuentes

• Jason Inofuentes

The hinge is also the culprit behind one of the T100’s oddest quirks. On the bottom of every notebook I’ve known there are small rubber feet near the corners. The rubber offers some measure of slip prevention and protects the bottom panel from scratches—or, as the case may be, protects the surface it sits on. The T100 has the same four rubber feet one expects, but they are only ever all in use when the display is attached and closed. Open it up, and that over-sized hinge becomes the rear support, lifting the whole back of the assembly higher than the rubber feet. Two small ridges arising from the hinge provide a modicum of protection, I suppose, but I was less concerned with the hinge’s aesthetic fidelity than I was with the small scratches the ridges left on my dining room table.

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Display and software

The display on the T100 is…fine. The 1366×768 panel has decent viewing angles, though contrast does drop off considerably when viewed from the side. Brightness is lacking, which hampers mobility. The glossy front glass and weak backlight make using the T100 in direct sunlight almost impossible. Colors are bright without being over saturated, but something in the software seems to be triggering a shift in color temperature depending on which app is active. The effect is most pronounced when switching between Notepad on the desktop and any other mostly white app in the modern (née “Metro”) UI. In the desktop the colors are cool and a bit blue. In the modern UI everything becomes much warmer, though not unpleasant, and probably not inaccurate. But the effect is jarring; this serves as another data point in my mounting list of reasons why I wish Microsoft would go all-in on their modern interface.

While this display won’t impress next to the iPad Air or Surface 2, it is a much more refined panel than you’ll find on most notebooks in this price range. Asus’ willingness to invest here is appreciated, even if the pixel count remains low.

Storage comes in the form of either 32 or 64GB of embedded NAND. One of the challenges of expandable storage in either Android or iOS is that neither OS is terribly interested in offering users potent file-system access. Microsoft hasn’t ever shied away from offering file-system access, though only from the desktop. The result is that you can easily use MicroSD for carting large files without filling up your onboard storage.

On the software side, Asus has done a good job providing a relatively lean build of Windows 8.1 for their entry-level product. With the 32GB model, the 8GB recovery partition is actually on separate storage and doesn’t use any of the 32GB of primary NAND. This leaves roughly 10GB of the 32GB free for the user. That’s not much on a Windows PC, so the 64GB model becomes the minimum (though even it has roughly 30GB free at start-up). It’s also worth noting that opting for an x86 SoC at this price point ensures that this is Windows 8.1 proper, and not the more hamstrung Windows RT.

The space is occupied by a combination of both Microsoft and Asus applications. Asus has included some simple update software, access to their WebStorage service with 1TB of complimentary space, and the Home and Student edition of Microsoft Office. The cloud storage and Office inclusions are big value-adds since, unlike Windows RT, the full version of Windows 8 ordinarily doesn’t come with any version of Office.

The modern UI portion of Windows 8.1 remains something of a wasteland when it comes to third party software. There are plenty of apps, but not as many I’d like to use on a regular basis. Thankfully, I suppose, desktop mode fills that void, offering the full library of third party Windows software.