Split decision: Asus Transformer Book T300 Chi convertible Convergence. Wretched word. But one particularly liked by hardware wallahs trying to convince us that instead of buying a laptop and a tablet, we should buy something that is a laptop and a tablet. Asus is king of the convergers. Asus Chi T300 Transformer Book Doing the splits: Asus Transformer Book T300 Chi To be fair, …
I've been using the original T100 for about 18 months now. It doesn't quite cut it as a main machine (10" screen, only 32GB storage) but it is small and light enough to go everywhere and gets used more than my desktop by a long way. I used to use the full-sized USB port on it quite a bit but I can't actually remember the last time I did. Like the reviewer, all my stuff is on a server and in the cloud. It really does make a decent large tablet AND laptop but, due to the size, gets used by like the original Netbooks. Email, internet, the odd edit to a Word or Excel document etc.
I might have to take a trip to PC World and have a look at this and the Chi 100 as that 32GB of storage is now down to 1.4GB free and there is nothing on there I could remove.
" a microUSB card slot" - a what?
I was tempted until I noticed that it's a Bluetooth keyboard dock now. I think this is a mistake. Having the extra battery life from the dock was one of the Transformer range's big bonus points - dropping that and adding an extra power-drain in the form of a wireless connection seems a bit like shooting yourself in the foot.
I bought the T100 when I was in Canada last year and it's been fantastic. It's the only machine I have that runs Windows, so it's handy when playing the odd simple game on Steam. Also, to me, it makes Windows 8 sensible and easy to use - but then again any machine with a touchscreen makes Windows 8 good.
However, it only has 32GB of storage although I have put a 32GB Micro SD card in to it for more storage. And it's locked to WIndows, so I can't put Linux on it (and even though some people have, the results have been poor).
Still, comes with Microsoft Word and it's more than handy when editing a spreadsheet that's full of macros and funny crap that LibreOffice tends to break. The T300 may well be the next purchase to replace it!
"You implied that MS Office might be more useful than LibreOffice. That's heresy around here, even though it's also true."
It is true in the specific scenario I stated. I use LibreOffice in an office where Office is king. The problem is the spreadsheets I update my overtime on uses macros and formula's etc that LO breaks. Cue lots of angry people in accounting.
The minute LO stops doing that, and other annoying things, Office can go to hell.
There actually isn't any law regarding chargers at all. There was a voluntary agreement regarding "hand-held data enabled mobile phones" which expired in 2012. In 2014 the European parliament approved a draft law which would apply more broadly, but which is not yet in force and is still waiting for the EC to decide which devices it would actually apply to (the original proposal referred to all radio devices and would have included radios and TVs, among other things, which is fairly obviously stupid).
That said, I completely agree this is a pretty stupid decision on Asus' part. Going from having a single charger for the whole tablet/keyboard combo to having two different chargers, one of them proprietary, really is a bizarre choice.
I got the docking KB which adds battery life, a full sized USB and SD card reader/writer. The KB is not bluetoothed to the tablet. So if Asus redid it I think THAT was a mistake.
I have been VERY happy with mine.. 32 gigs of onboard storage, another 32 in the microSD (which with prices coming down on 64 gig microSD's I might up it and my phone)
Indeed, as soon as I read about the keyboard not extending the tablet's internal battery, and requiring its own separate charger, I lost interest in this particular device.
Until then, I was reading this and receptive to the idea… my next step was to see if I could dig up some detailed specs to see if Linux will run well on this thing.
The original Transformer was quite innovative, and the fact that Microsoft would later come up with the Surface using the same basic ideas only goes to show that Asus were on to something. This however, is not much different to buying any old cheap tablet and a suitable keyboard case.
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