HavocXphere
Honorary Master
Bought a Asus Transformer T100HAN recently - mostly for travel purposes. Some people expressed interest in it so thought I'd write a brief review. ( @Nefertiti )
Likes
- Cheap - paid like 3k for it though that probably isn't market rate
- Windows 10 based
- Charges via micro USB like a phone. Meaning no power brick and can charge it off a 20,000mah power bank. I rate that combo should be good for 24h of light use.
- Big battery (8,000 mah similar to an ipad air 2)
- MicroSD slot & USB Type C port
- CPU punches above its weight in this price-class (Z8500 cherry trail)
- Runs Steam & a decent set of games (Most strategy games seem fine e.g. AoE3. Source based games should be fine too but haven't tried)
- Has full sized powered (!!!) USB port in keyboard, which is unusual for a tablet setup
- Light, small, no fans
- Hinge mechanism seems solid enough
Ambivalent
- Screen. Its a decent screen but not HD (1280x800)
- Keyboard is noticably lower build quality (feels decent enough but decidedly plastic-y feel). Given pricing keyboard is essentially a freebie though so acceptable
- Its small. I'm used to typing on a 12.5" ultrabook which is already a small-ish keyboard. This is even smaller.
- Some bloatware. Nothing too crazy
- Has balance issues. The screen part is like 2x as heavy as the keyboard part so it feel like it'll tip over. Hasn't done so but the feeling is there.
- 2GB RAM. The tech snob in me rebels against this but thus far hasn't been an issue.
- Not convinced it'll reliably detect when the lid is closed & it should go to sleep so will do full shutdown
Dislikes
- Very fussy about charging source & defaults to 500mW charging if it doesn't like it
- MicroSD slot has card compatibility issues. Doesn't seem to like writing onto the 2x 128gb cards I bought. Plays movies off it fine so not a complete loss.
- I don't understand how to manage screen rotation without the obvious android-y slide down menu thing
- Keyboard connects via bluetooth. Sounds like airplane mode kills the connection so will have to be a naughty airplane passenger on that front & keep BT on.
Overall - very happy with the purchase. Was a bit of a gamble to be honest - some reviews of it are less than glowing. But worked out 100% for me:
Being Windows 10 & having a laptop form factor goes a long way in making it feel like a baby laptop rather than a tablet (which it is realistically). The fact that it can run Steam games will make killing time during travel much easier (Civ games ftw) esp since modern planes have USB charging ports.
Likes
- Cheap - paid like 3k for it though that probably isn't market rate
- Windows 10 based
- Charges via micro USB like a phone. Meaning no power brick and can charge it off a 20,000mah power bank. I rate that combo should be good for 24h of light use.
- Big battery (8,000 mah similar to an ipad air 2)
- MicroSD slot & USB Type C port
- CPU punches above its weight in this price-class (Z8500 cherry trail)
- Runs Steam & a decent set of games (Most strategy games seem fine e.g. AoE3. Source based games should be fine too but haven't tried)
- Has full sized powered (!!!) USB port in keyboard, which is unusual for a tablet setup
- Light, small, no fans
- Hinge mechanism seems solid enough
Ambivalent
- Screen. Its a decent screen but not HD (1280x800)
- Keyboard is noticably lower build quality (feels decent enough but decidedly plastic-y feel). Given pricing keyboard is essentially a freebie though so acceptable
- Its small. I'm used to typing on a 12.5" ultrabook which is already a small-ish keyboard. This is even smaller.
- Some bloatware. Nothing too crazy
- Has balance issues. The screen part is like 2x as heavy as the keyboard part so it feel like it'll tip over. Hasn't done so but the feeling is there.
- 2GB RAM. The tech snob in me rebels against this but thus far hasn't been an issue.
- Not convinced it'll reliably detect when the lid is closed & it should go to sleep so will do full shutdown
Dislikes
- Very fussy about charging source & defaults to 500mW charging if it doesn't like it
- MicroSD slot has card compatibility issues. Doesn't seem to like writing onto the 2x 128gb cards I bought. Plays movies off it fine so not a complete loss.
- I don't understand how to manage screen rotation without the obvious android-y slide down menu thing
- Keyboard connects via bluetooth. Sounds like airplane mode kills the connection so will have to be a naughty airplane passenger on that front & keep BT on.
Overall - very happy with the purchase. Was a bit of a gamble to be honest - some reviews of it are less than glowing. But worked out 100% for me:
Being Windows 10 & having a laptop form factor goes a long way in making it feel like a baby laptop rather than a tablet (which it is realistically). The fact that it can run Steam games will make killing time during travel much easier (Civ games ftw) esp since modern planes have USB charging ports.