ASUS Transformer Book T100 Review: Redefining the Entry-Level Windows Notebook
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 18, 2013 12:00 AM ESTDisplay
The T100 features a 10.1-inch 1366 x 768 IPS display, which makes for awesome viewing angles and an experience that will put most entry level notebooks to shame. Compared to what we’re used to seeing from Windows notebooks, ASUS did a tremendous job with the panel selection given the price of the T100.
Brightness, black levels and contrast are all reasonable but nothing extraordinary. Max brightness in particular is limited to only 228 nits. That’s more than bright enough for indoor use, but outdoors or in direct sunlight you may wish for a brighter panel. Black levels are quite good, which helps deliver great contrast ratio. As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, the gap between display panel and cover glass is large enough that reflections can be an issue - a problem that is worsened by the fact that the panel can’t get super bright.
Whether or not any of this is a problem to you really depends on perspective. If we’re limiting our comparison to traditional entry level PC notebooks then ASUS has really redefined what it means to be a $349 PC. If you broaden the comparison to Android tablets and even Chromebooks, the comparison grows more difficult.
Color accuracy isn’t great on the T100. Once again, compared to what you’d traditionally get from a Wintel PC at this price point it’s amazing. Compared to the Chromebook 11 we recently reviewed at $279 however, the T100 needs some work.
It’s definitely not a bad display, it just doesn’t live up to the expectations of some other low cost devices we’ve seen lately (e.g. 2013 Nexus 7, Chromebook 11). The charts below show you the stark difference between what we're expecting to display and what the T100 actually displays:
There's a green hue to all of the white/grays, and the other colors are just off. Users definitely benefit from the viewing angles of IPS but the T100 needs calibration.
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tential - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
Or they could have released it at $360, and taken that extra 10 dollars to add the top of the line baytrail and 4GB of ram.....It's just ugh......
takeship - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
I'm curious to what extent the last few dollars corner cutting $350 price tag was influenced by their experience with the Vivo models last year. That hybrid AFAIK was $400 with the last gen Atom, and sold quite poor.gadjade - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
Was not impressed with the battery life and keyboard. I might wait for the Dell Venue 11 Pro or maybe I would add more to my budget and go for the Lenovo YOGA 11 2.sri_tech - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
How is battery life is bad when it lasts nearly the same as ipad mini and better than nexus 10 and other galaxy tabs?Remember, the battery test was done with keyboard attached which is not the case for other tablets.
Dayo - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
I agree, plus the keyboard in this case does not have any additional battery in it like the Acer W510 keyboard that adds another 9 hrs of battery life, but heavy. This device as tested yielded 11 hrs. That is very good battery life.jasonelmore - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
ignore these people. They never buy much, just talk a lot.Dayo - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
11 hours of battery life is not impressive? I take it the Lenovo Yoga 11.2 last for 2 daysmonstercameron - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
what about a comparison with the a6-1450 temash?sherlockwing - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
AMD didn't given Anandtech a platform with a6-1450 on it. So they couldn't test it.Antiflash - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
I had the T100 preordered but canceled to wait for the new Venue 8 and venue 11. I do not know which will be better but hopefully they will review them here to decide