Computeractive – 6 January 2016

Reviews
LAPTOPTABLET ❘ £200 from PC World www.snipca.com/19080
Asus Transformer BookT100HA
It’s a hybrid, but neither one thing nor theother
Transformer was, as some of you may
know, the second studio album by
Velvet Underground singer Lou Reed
(co-produced by David Bowie). Th is
affordable laptop is hardly a walk on
the wild side, but it does come in white,
pink, blue or a fl attering grey. Th e name
refers to the way it converts from
notebook to tablet by detaching its
magnetically connected keyboard.
So will the T100HA give you a perfect
day? (That’s our fi nal Lou Reed
reference – promise.)
The keyboard
connects via Bluetooth,
so won’t work if you
turn off Bluetooth to
save battery
We should point out at the start that
very few of the low-value Windows 10
portable laptops have fully convinced
us. But being able to unclip the
touchscreen and use it by itself is
undeniably useful. Chest-level YouTubewatching
is hard on the arms with a
conventional laptop, but if you love to
watch things on TV, holding the
T100HA at that height is quite practical:
without the keyboard, it’s only slightly
heavier than an iPad.
Th e display is decent, though not
Retina-sharp, with good brightness,
high contrast and acceptable colour.
Th ere’s a camera on the back and a
webcam on the front, so you can
take pictures and videos. Forget about
doing so at night, though, because
photos get hopelessly grainy in low light.
Getting the keyboard on and off is
simple, and Windows 10’s Tablet mode
means software works as intended in
both formats. As well as small magnetic
horns that bend from the hinge to clip
the two halves together, there is an
electrical docking connector.
Th is combination keeps everything
fi rmly attached, but the interface only
transfers data from the keyboard’s
USB 2.0 port, into which you might
plug a mouse; the keyboard itself
connects via Bluetooth, so won’t work
if you turn off Bluetooth to save battery
or for use during fl ights. Talking of
battery life, the keyboard unit uses very
little power, but if you forget to charge
it along with the tablet it’ll eventually
run out. Th e tablet lasted us 11 hours, or
nine using Wi-Fi.
Where the keyboard really fails is,
simply, in not being a good keyboard.
While the screen section has a metal
back, the keyboard is plastic, and the
slippery, rattly keys and unresponsive
trackpad certainly aren’t very much
fun. Although the stiff hinge lets you
adjust the relative angle of the screen
and keyboard as you would with a
laptop, the heavier tablet section
tends to make the whole thing tip
backwards.
Performance is also a mixed story. Th e
Intel Atom processor is a fairly new
model that promises to cope both with
Windows 10 and even a bit of gaming,
though not the most demanding 3D
action. In our benchmark tests, it wasn’t
far off the capability of Apple’s A8 chip,
as used in the iPad Air 2, for most
purposes. In practice, though, it seems to
be held back by the T100HA’s fl ash
storage, which is generously large, at
64GB, but so slow it could almost be a
mechanical hard drive. It’s like putting a
wagon wheel on a Porsche. So there are
stutters and pauses where an iPad would
be smooth.
Ultimately these fl aws were all too
much. Although it’s an achievement for
Asus to offer a machine such as this for
such a low price, we wouldn’t advise you
to ignore the drawbacks.
SPECIFICATIONS
1.44GHz Intel Atom Z8500 quad-core processor
• 2GB memory • 64GB flash storage • 10.1in
1280x800-pixel screen • 2-megapixel webcam
• 5-megapixel rear camera • 802.11n Wi-Fi • USB
2.0 port • USB Type-C port • Windows 10 Home
• 20x265x175mm (HxWxD) • 1.04kg • One-year
warranty www.snipca.com/19081
VERDICT: Many people say that it’s
impossible to produce a desirable
Windows 10 hybrid for £200. Th is
doesn‘t prove them wrong
★★★☆☆
ALTERNATIVE: Toshiba
Satellite C40-C £200 It
doesn’t come apart, but if the
tablet aspect isn’t essential,
this larger laptop is a
better buy
20
6 – 19 January 2016