ASUS' Transformer Book T100: Atom Z3740 Inside, Available October 18th at $349
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 11, 2013 8:16 PM EST
Earlier today, ASUS CEO Jerry Shen teased their first Bay Trail tablet: the T100. Today at ASUS' IDF press conference we got some more details on the tablet. The official name is the Transformer Book T100 and it's a 10.1-inch Windows 8.1 tablet. The IPS display features a 1366x768 resolution. Normally I'd complain about that, but the T100 starts at $349 for a 32GB model.
Internally, ASUS settled on the Atom Z3740, a quad-core Bay Trail SKU clocked lower than the one we previewed earlier today. The max non-turbo frequency on the Z3740 is 1.33GHz, with a max turbo of 1.86GHz. Since this isn't a D-SKU, ASUS settled on a dual-channel (2x64-bit) LPDDR3 memory interface.
Much like the Bay Trail FFRD we tested, the T100 is equipped with 2GB of LPDDR3. NAND storage options include 32GB or 64GB eMMC. There's also a single microSD card reader.
Other IO includes a micro USB port for charging (and/or external USB devices), a micro HDMI output and a headphone/mic jack. There's keyboard dock included (!!) that adds a USB 3.0 port. ASUS claims they used the Thinkpad and MacBook keyboards as the benchmarks to evaluate the T100 against.
The T100 ships with an integrated 31Wh battery. ASUS promises up to 11 hours of battery life thanks to the Bay Trail silicon inside. The tablet measures 10.4" x 6.7" x 0.41" (0.93" thick with the dock) and weighs 550g/1.2 lbs (2.4 lbs with the dock).
On the software side, in addition to Windows 8.1 you get a pre-installed copy of Office 2013.
The T100 is extremely interesting as it's truly a reimagining of the netbooks of 5 years ago. It's thinner, lighter and much faster.
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sherlockwing - Wednesday, September 11, 2013 - link
For $349 with Keyboard+Win8.1+Office 2013 the thing is not too bad. Although I'd pay extra for a 1080p version($399?)One thing though, How much space will be left on the 32GB after installing Win8.1+Office 2013?
sherlockwing - Wednesday, September 11, 2013 - link
Just did some calculation, 32GB is only 29.8 GiB, Win8 & Office 2013 takes 23GiB on my computer. So you are looking at about 6 GiB or less of useable storage after deducting the recovery partition on the 32GB model.euskalzabe - Wednesday, September 11, 2013 - link
Get a 64GB MicroSd for $50 and it's still unbeatable value at $400 totalpeterfares - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
It would be MUCH better to get the 64GB model for $50 more and buy a 32GB SD for $20 if you really need more storage. You can't install things to the SD slot and Windows Updates alone will probably fill your drive up before the end of the year.CarlosLx - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
Not sure what "calculations" you did, but on my 32GB Surface RT, with a bunch of apps gobbling up several gigabytes (Halo:Spartan Assault alone uses up more than 1GB) I have a bit over 8GB free.Visual - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
Well, I guess it is time you learned Windows RT is not Windows 8.Sivar - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
If you're going to post a snarky comment like that, you should at least provide data showing that Windows RT uses significantly less space than Windows 8.TheinsanegamerN - Saturday, November 9, 2013 - link
Windows RT does not have any of the x86 code from windows 8. thus, the reason it does not use nearly as much space. it is effectively windows 8 phone with a couple bells and whistles.dragonsqrrl - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
The install size for 64-bit Windows is significantly larger than the 32-bit version. There's likely more than 6GB available, although it probably still won't be very much.Jaybus - Friday, September 13, 2013 - link
z3740 is a 64-bit chip, however Win 8.1 with Connected Standby is still 32-bit only at this point, so I would assume that Asus is shipping them with 32-bit Win 8.1. This means it's Windows folder will be a good bit smaller than the Windows folder of a 64-bit laptop or PC. Still, 64-bit Connected Standby will likely be added in the near future, so it would be wise to get a 64 GB model if planning to upgrade whenever MS gets their act together.