I've been eyeing the transformer book for a couple of months due to my Sony dying on me. I'm really a tablet user at heart been using touch devices for over 5 years. When I found out the release was finally here I jumped the gun and ordered mine at 1500 from amazon.com. Next morning found out it dropped by 500 and that I could get it from my local Microcenter so I canceled my order and got one from microcenter.Initial thoughts after using the device for the last few days were man this thing is perfect for me.
The screen is beautiful 1080p is perfect for a 13.3 inch screen. There is a bit of bleeding but its at a small corner on the bottom left side
Keyboard is great full spaced keys back lit and very fluid.
The dock itself is very good. I've tried the Samsung ativ700 for a while and it was impossible to get the dock connected which was very frustrating on a daily basis. The 500gb hd kicks in on connection and back lit keyboard comes on to on connection and on wake up. (Which is sometimes annoying when you are trying to keep it off for battery life)
The speakers on the dock are very good and loud enough for me since I'm not in a high school noisy hall most of the day.
The battery life is great however I haven't done a test to drain it from full to dead in one sitting.
The only grip I have Is with win8
After opening the box, it looks like Asus has once again done an excellent job with the included accessories: carrying case, cleaning cloth and power adapter. I had read somewhere that it also came with a usb to ethernet adapter but I couldn't find one and personally, don't see the need for one since the keyboard dock has one built in.
The finish of the tablet is very nice as well as the dock. The brushed aluminum makes the product feel premium.
After powering on the tablet, I was a little disappointed with the amount of light bleeding from the bottom of the screen but once the computer booted up, it was not noticeable. I'm sure I will have more to say once I start watching movies on this thing. The tablet is very large (13 inch display but the bezel is quite thick which adds to the overall size) and the display is nice and crisp with very good contrast and colors.
I am in the process of installing all the updates right now but so far, the tablet seems very zippy even in power saving mode. On first impression, I am pretty satisfied with this purchase after having tried numerous others like the Samsung ATIV Pro, Asus Taichi and Microsoft surface. So far, this one seems to have it all!
To be continued.
Note: I initially thought that there was only one speaker but in fact, my unit was defective and I am getting a replacement. I'm glad that Asus chose to use stereo speakers.
5/23 update: I was able to use it quite a bit more to Watch movies and let me tell you, the screen is quite amazing. The theatre mode that makes the colors warmer is a little too much but much better than the competition. It is also refreshing to be able to Watch a movie with such a big screen compared to 10 inch tablets.
I had no problems watching 720p resolution mkv movies in low power mode but had to switch to performance to Watch 1080p movies. Not sure how long the battery would have lasted since I did not Watch the full movie but I suspect it would do fine especially if I had the tablet hooked up to the dock.
I really like this combo and wish it had come out earlier but oh well. I will update this review once I get the replacement for the defective speaker.
6/9 update: After using this unit for more than 2 weeks, I am still happy to report that it is an awesome product that I am still enjoying. I have noticed a few things however: the trackpad is too sensitive at times (acts as double clicking when you're not) but I guess this can be disabled. Also, I found out that on the table itself, there are indeed 2 speakers but only on the RIGHT side which makes only sense if you're holding the tablet in portait mode. This is balanced by the fact that there are 2 additional speakers on the dock on the right and left sides. I wish the processor was the newest Haswell but this will do for now!
Buy ASUS Transformer Book TX300CA-DH71 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (Silver Aluminum) Now
I've spent a few days now with my Transformer Book, and I must say I am very happy. The only real "problem" that I have with the machine is that the camera is pretty terrible at capturing video (at least the front facing one). The framerate looks like it's 5 FPS. This is only the case when capturing video to local files Skype seems to be fine.Other than that, this thing is great.
I'm an IT tech, and I've been looking for a way to learn Windows 8 on a touchscreen device that would let me get the most out of Win 8, plus have enough storage and connectivity to do things like backup customers' hard drives internally temporarily. I had high hopes for the Surface Pro, but when I learned that 128 GB was the max for storage, I was turned off.
The keyboard is great-far better than the Sony that I am leaving. I find it to be one of the best laptop keyboards that I've used. The backlight is very nice to have.
The screen is also pretty great 1 issue that I have with Asus is that it does have quite a bit of light leak, even when Windows is running basically some black or dark screens will have white spots in it. Also, if you have less than great eyes, a 1080 (full HD) screen may be too high-resolution for you.
Connectivity I wish there was a USB port on the tablet itself. If you want USB, you have to be docked to the keyboard.
The touchpad seems to work fine for what I need, including multi-touch support.
The docking mechanism does pretty much require 2 hands to use, but I find it very sturdy. I don't find the laptop to be too "top heavy" as others have said.
I am impressed with the native Windows 8 apps for Mail, Contacts, and Calendar I can use them for my link to MS Exchange when in tablet mode (they're more touch friendly than Outlook 2013) without having to open Outlook but they don't support tasks, so a third party app or Outlook is needed.
I find it to be pretty fast for what I need. Cold boots are insanely fast at about 6 seconds. Light gaming is ok.
Build quality is great with one exception there's a spot on the bottom by the hinge where the metal ripples up. It's like the metal covering of the base is just a tad wider than the spot was for it. A screw placed there by Asus would have fixed it.
Battery life is decent from what I've seen I just discovered how "notebook mode" works maybe it will help with battery life. I really haven't had a chance to see how it really does for a full day.
The speakers SOUND ok, but pretty much seem more mono than stereo.
Fan noise isn't usually noticeable you can feel the heat come out the back. A side benefit is that it's pretty cool on your lap since the processor is in the tablet.
Overall, I really like this laptop. It has a premium, solid feel to it. I am excited that it's one of the first powerful machines with Windows 8 that takes advantage of what Microsoft was thinking. Windows 8 has a pretty big learning curve, but I've spent some time with it now and think it's pretty decent.I currently live in Japan and was fortunate to recieve my laptop about 2 months ago so I've had a little bit to play around with it. So far, I love it, the tablet feature is nice but i'll admit it is actually just a little too big to hold it around. Overall I love it though Windows 8 is a little weird, still trying to get used to it. It's also a bit on the heavy side, but overall I'm loving it!
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Waited a long time for it. Could not wait any longer, got mine straight from Taiwan while visiting. Very good replacement for the outdated laptop. Everything you can ask for in a unit, tablet, ultrabook, ssd, capacitive touch screen, light, long lasting battery/performance, i7, usb3, extra storage, micro SD, magnetic power cord... the list go on and on... very happy with the purchase:)Save 9% Off
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